BJCP Archived Items

Old news and miscellaneous items that are no longer current enough to appear on the main website.

Please check the home page and the What's New page for significant news items.

March, 2006

The BJCP Examination Committee has been working for the past year to institute changes in the examination format with the goals of:

• reducing the writing load placed on examinees
• eliciting responses to examination questions by examinees that require less subjective judgment on the part of graders
• maintaining or improving upon the current levels of score reliability, validity, and scoring standards as is currently observed in the BJCP examination

This work is ongoing, and the outcomes will be implemented in several stages.

The first phase of that work is now complete, and the BJCP Examination Committee is ready to roll out a set of questions that will modify and extend the current first examination question (BJCP/Boiling). Those questions have been carefully written and field tested, and the Judging Procedures Manual has been edited to address the content relating to these new questions.

The new set of questions address the purpose and levels of the BJCP ranking system, judging procedures, and ethics. Between now and June 2006, examination coordinators will decide, in consultation with those scheduled to take the examination, whether the current first question or the new set of questions will be utilized on a particular examination, and all examinees at the examination will receive the chosen format. The remaining nine questions will remain as they have in the past (essay questions focusing on technical and stylistic aspects of beers).

Beginning June 1st, 2006, all examinations will include the new set of questions.

February, 2006

January, 2006

New Sanctioned Competition Program

Years of confusion have finally been ended, as the AHA and BJCP competition registration programs are now one. The merger of the two programs as the AHA/BJCP Sanctioned Competition Program (SCP) is part of our ongoing effort to improve and streamline competitions for both organizers and judges.

One significant item of note is that all the score sheets (beer, mead, and cider) have been revised, reformatted, and improved. Most of the documents (competition instructions, etc.) have also been updated.

All in all, you should find the new competition registration program easier to use and more helpful. Of course, we're always interested in your feedback to keep improving it. Let the Competition Director know about it at comp_director [at] bjcp.org.

Description of the SCP         New Competition Center

Three Cheers For Our New Grand Master IIIs

Kudos to David Houseman and Gordon Strong, who have each recently become the first to achieve the unprecedented rank of Grand Master III. (Personally, I think we should refer to them as Grand Master Tripels.)

If you look at the requirements in terms of experience points, judging, exam grading, and service to the program, it's kind of mind-boggling, so let's just take note of the fact that we owe these guys a lot (at least a beer the next time you see them).

December, 2005

Susan Ruud Named Exam Administrator

Yesterday the BJCP Board of Directors approved the appointment of Susan Ruud as the new BJCP Exam Administrator. Please welcome Susan to the new job and thank her in advance for the mostly invisible, behind-the-scenes work she will be doing to help process the results of all the BJCP exams.

We also want to thank Todd Snyder, whom Susan replaces, for the great job he has done as Exam Administrator, ever since the job was created.

If you're keeping score, the BJCP Exam team now consists of:

• BJCP Exam Director East - Tom Cannon
• BJCP Exam Director West - Steve Piatz
• BJCP Exam Administrator - Susan Ruud
• Associate Exam Director - Chuck Bernard
• Associate Exam Director - Pete Garofalo
• Associate Exam Director - Gordon Strong
• Associate Exam Director - Dave Houseman
• Associate Exam Director - Peter Zien

New Homebrewing Software (Macintosh)

A new homebrewing software application, BeerAlchemy, has just been made available for the Mac OS. The reason we mention it here is that it uses (with BJCP permission) our style guidelines to help the user formulate recipes.

Webmaster's Note: As a longtime Mac user, I must say I'm very impressed with BeerAlchemy. It's a comprehensive application (like ProMash for Windows PCs) and takes full advantage of the Mac. After trying the demo for less than 15 minutes, I bought a copy for my personal use, and I can't give it higher praise than that. It has a few rough edges, as you would expect from version 1.0 of anything, but I expect those to disappear in the next version, and even now it's better than anything else I've ever used.

New Exam Director and Associate Director (East)

After TEN YEARS of outstanding service to the program, Scott Bickham has asked to take a well-deserved break. Scott will be replaced as Eastern Exam Director by Tom Cannon, a Grand Master judge in Fairfax, Virginia. Tom has been Associate Exam Director, and that will be filled by Chuck Bernard, a National judge in Medina, Ohio. These are two very highly respected judges who have also done a great deal for the BJCP, and will now be doing even more.

Please take the opportunity, whenever you can, to buy Scott a beer and thank him for his hard (and exceptional) work all these years.

More Grand Masters

Scott Birdwell has achieved Grand Master status. Congratulations to Scott, who has been a BJCP stalwart since the beginning, and continues to be a great asset to the community. John Watson, former BJCP West regional rep, and Peter Zien have also achieved Grand Master status. Peter Garofalo, current Northeast regional rep, has achieved the Grand Master II level. Also, Ron Bach, South rep, is now at Grand Master II level.

Competiton Registration Policy

Once in a while, a competition organizer fails to submit the competition report on time. Normally, that's not a big problem, except to the judges who expected to receive their experience point credit in a timely manner.

Occasionally, the competition report is not filed at all. As I write this, there are 41 competitions officially listed as "delinquent." You can see the list here: http://66.93.20.107/Reports/delinq.html

Sometimes the local judges can press the organizer to get the report in eventually, but sometimes they can't.

In an attempt to deal with this problem, the BJCP is starting a new policy. When a competition submits a registration request, it will be reviewed by the Competition Director. If the competition is an annual event, as many are, and if the previous year's report was not filed, registration may be withheld. In that way, we are placing pressure on the organizer. We recognize that the current organizer may not be the same person who failed to send in last year's report, so discretion will be used.

In the case of repeated failures to file a report, registration will be denied. This is expected to achieve the desired result, since judges will be reluctant to participate in a competition when they know they will not receive credit for it.

November, 2005

BJCP Member Forums Launched

We now have our own discussion forums for members. Not a substitute for the website or Judgenet, these forums will provide a means of focusing discussions on specific topics, and also serve as a means of looking up past discussions on any topic of interest. Go to the BJCP home page for a link to the forums, and also a link you can use to subscribe to an RSS feed to be notified when the forums are updated.

October, 2005

Competition Registrations to be Merged

The group investigating merging the AHA and BJCP competition programs has hammered out the basic details of the program. The basics of the plan have met with favor among the AHA Governing Committee, but there is still some work to do before the details can be announced. We thought it would be worthwhile to show our members that they can look forward to a less confusing situation in a few months. No more wondering about the differences between "AHA Sanctioning" and "BJCP Registration" of competitions. We'll have a full report here as soon as possible.
UPDATE: The Board approved this move in principle on October 28, 2005.

Twin Cities Member Receives BJCP Grant

The BJCP has awarded a $500 grant to G.L. Exire LaTour to produce a book of recipes from members of his homebrew clubs, organized in chapters corresponding to BJCP style categories.

September, 2005

Records Check Link Changed

The link used to check your BJCP record has been modified, due to some internal website reorganization. If you have bookmarked the old link, it will no longer work, so please go to www.bjcp.org/records.html and use the new link.

August, 2005

XML file revised

Paul Sorenson, one of our Australian members, has improved the original XML file of our style guidelines, and used it to create a remarkable web page that shows some statistics in a new and very useful way. Check it out.

Experience Point Schedule Revised

The BJCP experience point schedule has been modified and updated, with quite a few enhancements. These new rules are in effect now, and can be seen in the competition rules page and the Member's Guide.

Continuing Education Program Announced

The long-awaited CEP has at last been rolled out, and it was worth the wait. CEP Director Kris England, and Assistant Directors Kevin Pratt and Ted Hausotter, have created a program from scratch with quite a lot of meat on its bones. But don't look for a quick description here; please check it out yourself at the CEP Center.

Russ Wigglesworth Named Honorary Grand Master

The latest Board action to be announced is that Russ Wigglesworth, our longtime BJCP Program Administrator, has been honored for his TEN YEARS in that position by being named the first BJCP Honorary Grand Master. While the program has had a few (very few) Honorary Master judges, going back to before we became independent, this is a new rank, just created to recognize a unique individual. Please buy Russ a beer if you can.

July, 2005

Grants Policy Updated

The board recently made a minor update to the two year old BJCP grants policy, but it's likely that many members are still unaware of this program. You might want to check out the president's comments here, or read the full policy here. A word to the wise ....

BJCP Awarded Tax-exempt Status by IRS

As the culmination of a long effort by BJCP Treasurer, Al Boyce, we have been notified by the Internal Revenue Service that our tax-exempt status has been granted, retroactive to January 1, 2001. Following the last change of Treasurers, it was discovered that this status had never been requested, although everyone thought the former Treasurer had done so long ago. Consequently, this represents a significant achievement, and places the organization on firm ground from a tax standpoint.

[For those wondering about the status of the criminal investigation into our embezzled funds, we still have nothing to report. I understand that Officer Barbrady is on the case, and he continues to advise patience.]

Tom Cannon Achieves Grand Master Status

Tom Cannon, longtime member of BURP, has reached Grand Master I status. Congratulations to Tom on a notable achievement.

June, 2005

Slides from AHA Presentation

The slides used in Ron Bach's presentation at the AHA conference in Baltimore are now on our website. This is a 1 MB file in PDF that you can download.

BJCP Board Officers Elected

Ron Bach (President), Mike Hall (Vice President), and Al Boyce (Treasurer) will be the BJCP officers for the coming year.

May, 2005

BJCP Celebrates 20th Anniversary

The first BJCP exam was held on May 31, 1985 in Estes Park, Colorado.

New Web Page for Board Actions

A summary of significant recent actions by the elected BJCP Board is available HERE.

New BJCP Grand Master Service Requirement Rules

A completely revised set of rules for achieving a GMSR has been passed by the Board. Click HERE to review the new set.

New BJCP Regional Reps Named

Gordon Strong has been elected BJCP Regional Representative for the Mid-Atlantic Region, and Joe Formanek and Dave Sapsis have been appointed Regional Representatives for the Midwest and West Regions, respectively. Our sincere thanks to outgoing Reps Phil Sides, Chuck Skypeck, and John Watson for serving in these offices.

The new Reps will take office June 1st, after which there will be an election to determine the BJCP Officers (President, Vice President, and Treasurer) for the coming year.

April, 2005

Horrible Scoresheet Examples

A competition entrant recently reported receiving two unbelievably bad scoresheets from a competition. We agree that they are totally unacceptable, and we support the entrant's request for a full refund of the entry fee.

In our view, it is absolutely inexcusable for a competition organizer to allow scoresheets like these. In this case, one of them was "completed" by a non-member of the BJCP, but the second was perpetrated by a judge with several years of experience.

Organizers: please don't allow this sort of thing to happen again.

RSS Feed Added

To accommodate members who like to know immediately whenever something of interest happens, we have added an RSS feed to this page. Use the XML icon above to subscribe, if you wish. If you don't know how to do that, or you wonder what RSS means, don't worry about it. Just check this page from time to time and you'll be more up to date than most people.

March, 2005

Revised Style Guidelines Posted

New editions of the 2004 Style Guidelines have been posted in the Styles section of the website. There are no significant changes, but a number of typos, transpositions, and omissions were corrected. Many thanks to all the eagle-eyed members who pointed out the errors.

Mid-Atlantic Representative Voting Begins

Members of the Mid-Atlantic region will elect a new regional representative to the BJCP Board of Directors this year. If that includes you, please go to this page to read the candidate statements and cast your vote.

Midwest Representative Poll Begins

Although no candidates in this region were officially registered in accordance with the bylaws by the deadline, several expressed interest after the fact. The Board is looking for member feedback (sort of a vote of confidence) before making an appointment. If this is your region, please go to this page to read the candidate statements and cast your "vote."

South Representative Declared Elected

No other candidates came forward in this region, so Ron Bach ran unopposed and is declared reelected.

West Representative To Be Appointed

No candidates in this region were officially registered in accordance with the bylaws by the deadline, so this office will also be filled by appointment, as required by the bylaws. The appointee will be announced after May 1, 2005.

CEP Nearing Completion

As we reported a couple of months ago, the Continuing Education program is being worked on vigorously by Kris England, Ted Hausotter, and Kevin Pratt. The Board is considering various proposals put forward by this team, and the new program is expected to be put into effect soon. If al goes according to plan, we should be able to announce the program, with full details, by the end of April.

Competition Reporting System Updated

Many improvements to the online competition organizer's reporting system are now available. Thanks, Jamil.

More New Embroidered BJCP Wear Available

In addition to the CafePress items that have been available for some time, we now offer the opportunity to purchase a new line of embroidered BJCP logo shirts and caps. Please see the Sales page for more information.

February, 2005

Gregg Smith Achieves Grand Master

Gregg Smith, the well-known Idaho Falls beer writer and historian, is the latest member to achieve Grand Master judge status. Congratulations on behalf of the BJCP to Gregg, who has contributed a great deal to to the program over the years.

January, 2005

PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2004

As President of the BJCP for the past seven months, I am pleased to report substantial progress in many areas, and significant activity is underway in other areas. There is much to report.

The first action of the Board was to approve the delayed advancements of three members to Grand Master I. I would like to welcome Steve Piatz, Ed Westemeier, and myself to the exalted rank of Grand Master. I wish Steve and Ed well and cheer on those who aspire to this level. Gordon Strong became the third Grand Master II effective July 2, 2004. This is an extremely hard feat to accomplish and Gordon is congratulated on making GMII and all the great service he has provided to the BJCP.

The next order of business of the Board and the new officers in the beginning of June, 2004 was to implement significant changes to how the BJCP finances were handled. Many new controls were implemented, including three people having access to the bank account, requiring two signatures on any check over $500, requiring a quarterly financial report to the board, and mandating an annual financial report being posted for membership as required by the By-Laws, which has not been done in three years. Additionally, bonding has been taken out insuring the integrity of BJCP funds. A strong and well worked out budget for the last half of 2004 was passed in early July and the Board has passed a fiscally sound BJCP budget for 2005. There is currently a surplus in the operating budget for 2005.

Additionally, upon assuming the duties of Treasurer, Al Boyce, in an inquiry to the IRS, learned that the BJCP never filed for 501c tax exempt status and never paid any income tax. This situation is being vigorously pursued with the IRS to rectify and correct the tax exempt status of the BJCP.

Some of the progress made by the new board includes approving the new 2004 Style Guidelines which became fully effective on January 1, 2005. An Exam Review committee was initiated to update questions under the existing exam and to study making changes to the current exam format. The committee got off to a slow start but is now making substantial progress with a May 1, 2005 goal for completion. Currently chairing the Exam Committee is Ed Wolf, a PhD and faculty member at Virginia Tech and an expert in development of large scale tests and evaluation of education programs.

In November, the Board approved implementation of a Continuing Education Program (CEP). The new Director, Kris England, a PhD candidate in Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota, and two assistant Directors, Ted Hausotter from Baker, Oregon and Kevin Pratt from Sacramento, California, have been selected to get the program up and running. The first order of business is to implement CEP Sessions by third parties, which should be in place within 90 days. They will then begin working on developing a tasting kit, developing a beer vocabulary for judging, and implementing a Products Education Program. They have their work cut out for them but I expect great things from Kris and his team. Anyone interested in participating on these committees contact the CEP Director.

Along the line of merchandise, several things have taken place. Shirts, mugs and hats with the BJCP logo have been made available through Cafeshop.com. Both Recognized and Certified Judge Cloisonné lapel pins are available for purchase by judges, with special club group discounts available. These pins will be provided free to new judges starting in 2005. Additionally, within the next week, embroidered polos and long-sleeved shirts and hats with a selection of colors should be available for purchase.

For 2005, some of the goals include clarification and revision of Grand Master Service Requirements including posting them for all to access, recognize participation on past committees with proper credit being awarded (this has been neglected for several years), establishment of committees to study and put together a BJCP Mead and Cider Certification, and once the Exam Committee has concluded its work, establish a Study Guide Revision Committee.

On the down side, there is a criminal investigation underway concerning BJCP funds. In order not to jeopardize the investigation, it has been requested by law enforcement that certain information not be discussed or revealed at this time. Much energy and time has been expended on this matter over the past seven months.

Ron Bach
President, BJCP

BJCP FINANCIAL REPORT FOR 2004

(For the period July 1-December 31, 2004)

• 01/01/02-12/31/02 - Income: $14,082.00 - Expenses: $4,443.03
• 01/01/03-12/31/03 - Income: $18,459.00 - Expenses: $1,583./08
• 01/01/04-06/30/04 - Income: $ 7,179.11 - Expenses: $4,571.82
• Total estimated Balance as of June, 30, 2004: $65,030.70.

The following is the BJCP Financial Report for the Period July 1-December 31, 2004 as prepared by the BJCP Treasurer, Al Boyce:

BJCP Annual Financial Report
December 31, 2004

Submitted by Al Boyce, Treasurer

New National and Above Judges for 2004

New Grand Master II Judge

Gordon Strong, IT Director, has been named the third Grand Master II judge. This is a very significant and difficult accomplishment. Due to an administrative error, we are noting now that Gordon's date of rank is actually July, 2004.

New BJCP Pins Available

The BJCP pins for Recognized and Certified BJCP ranks are finally once again available for purchase. The November item below gives more detail, but you can order one of the new pins through the secure PayPal website by clicking HERE. Obviously, you can only order pins up to your own rank, so a Recognized judge can only order a Recognized pin. There are also discounts for multiple and club orders.
Starting immediately, these pins will be provided free to new BJCP judges. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints at this time, we are not able to provided these pins free to all current Recognized and Certified judges.

Continuing Education Director Named

The Board has named Kris England as the new BJCP Director of Continuing Education. Kris, a National judge, is a Pharmacology Ph.D Candidate at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
He will be assisted by two Assistant Directors: Kevin Pratt, a National judge from Sacramento, CA, and Ted Hausotter, a Master judge from Baker, OR.

This team will be challenged to get the new Continuing Education Program up and running in the near future. There was a tremendous response for these positions of many extremely well qualified BJCP Judges. All those not selected will be requested in coming months to serve on one or more of the three committees which will be formed in about 60 to 70 days, which include Education Products, Beer Vocabulary and the Tasting Kit Committee. BJCP Members interested in serving on these committees may apply to the new Director.

December, 2004

On December 10, 2004, The Board of Directors, by unanimous vote, terminated the membership of Bill Slack, past president and treasurer.

November, 2004

New BJCP Pins Will Be Available

The BJCP pins for National and higher ranks have always been awarded at no cost to judges soon after they are earned. But some longtime BJCP members may remember that in the early days of the program there were also pins for Recognized and Certified judges. These were a simpler design, although still quite striking, and were made available for purchase at a nominal cost.

HCCP Competition Software Released

Alan Folsom's Homebrew Competition Coordination Program (HCCP) has completed its extensive beta testing. Version 1.0 is now available. Go to www.folsoms.net/hccp for more information and a chance to download it.

Continuing Education Program Established

Search is on for the new Director of CEP and two assistant Directors

The BJCP Board has approved a Continuing Education Program (CEP). The CEP will be a new directorate of the BJCP. This directorate is on the same level as the other BJCP Directorates such as the Exam Directors, Director of Information Technology, Competition Director and the Communications Director.

The purpose of the Continuing Education Program is to provide, recognize and encourage worthwhile continuing education opportunities for the BJCP member. Participation by BJCP members in appropriate CEP opportunities will allow them to further their knowledge and enhance their judging skills, to an extent beyond the strict scope of the Beer Judge Certification Examination and in a fashion more responsive to the availability of information and the interests of the membership.

The program will establish new education opportunities and programs such as Continuing Education Program sessions organized by third parties, development of CEP products and programs available directly from the BJCP, development of a Beer Vocabulary reference, and development of a Sensory Tasting Kit.

A Director for Continuing Education and two Assistant Directors initially will be appointed in accordance with the By-Laws to get the program underway. The Director is responsible to the President of the BJCP and will provide an annual report each year covering the past calendar year.

Committees will be established when needed in accordance with the BJCP By-Laws with the chairman appointed by the President and committee members appointed by the Chairman of the committee.

A background in training and education is a plus and special consideration will be given to members of the CEP Committee as well as National and above judges. Deadline for submission is midnight on November 29, 2004. Those who are interested in being part of this new program may submit your brewing resume to Ron Bach, President of the BJCP at president [at] bjcp.org. In lieu of a brewing resume, a detailed description of your brewing background, judging experience, training and education background will be accepted.

October, 2004

New Merchandise Available

In response to many requests, the BJCP has arranged for a line of official BJCP logo merchandise that will be available for judges to purchase online.

• polo shirts at $16.99
• caps at $15.99
• steins at $13.99
• baseball jerseys at $16.99

These items are for BJCP judges only. They are being made available at cost, and the BJCP does not receive any money from their purchase.

To buy one of these items, click HERE (a new browser window will open).

Members are asked to provide feedback on the quality and appeal of these items. You can send comments to your regional representative on the board (see the Officers page for contact info).

President's Corner Activated

We have a new page on the site, the President's Corner, where the BJCP President can communicate directly to the membership. Check it out to get the perspective from the top.

September, 2004

New HTML Style Guidelines

If you have already checked out the 2004 Style Guidelines, we encourage you to use the revised (2004-A) version. A significant number of typographical errors were corrected in the Web version, and those corrections will be made to all other versions as soon as possible.

We also want to thank Chris Cook for taking our first draft version and turning it into good, clean XML and HTML for us. Chris' HTML files are the ones we are using on our website now, and he has also graciously allowed us to make his XML files available for download. If any software developers in the organization are interested in doing something creative with the XML or other versions, please let us know so we can give you our formal approval.

July, 2004

Competition Software

Al Folsom, a judge and software engineer, has developed a competition software package that he is making available to any competition that wants to use it. This is based on Barry DeLapp's well used Beer Competition Organizer software but updated to more modern technology and lots of new features. HCCP will import lists from the BJCP and also create the organizer report.

Please check the HCCP web page and try it out.

June, 2004

New Style Guidelines Effective Date

Frequently Asked Questions about the new guidelines

When will the new guidelines become effective?

The new guidelines are effective as of July 1, 2004. The previous guidelines (the 1999 version as amended) will also continue to be effective through December 31, 2004. During this six-month transition period, competition organizers will be free to choose which set of guidelines to use.

Which guidelines should I use as a brewer who enters competitions?

You should decide based on the wishes of the organizer of the competitions you enter most frequently. The differences in style descriptions are small for most categories, so you should encounter no real difficulty.

Which guidelines should I study when preparing for the BJCP Exam?

Questions related to the changes in the new guidelines will not appear on the exam until after January 1, 2005. Exam takers will not be responsible for the new style guidelines on the exam prior to that date, but references on the exam to the new style guidelines by exam takers prior to that date will be taken into account by the exam graders.

What exactly happens on January 1, 2005?

On that date, the new style guidelines will become the only official BJCP style guidelines. The previous guidelines will be moved to the archive area of our website, and will still be available for reference. Organizers of competitions held after that date will be expected to use the new guidelines to obtain BJCP sanctioning.

New Style Guidelines

Five years in the making, the long overdue update to the BJCP Style Guidelines is complete. Offcially unveiled at the AHA National Conference in Las Vegas this month, you can find the new guidelines here on our website. As time goes by, we'll be adding additional formats, but the full document is now available as a PDF file. Please note that it's 46 pages long when printed, with about a 400K file size.

At some point in the near future, we will announce an effective date for the new guidelines. To make things easier on brewers entering competitions, we expect competitions will use the current guidelines in the interim period.

BJCP President's Letter to the Membership

As the new President of the BJCP I am looking forward to representing and serving all the members. There are two new Board Representatives who took office on June 1, Peter Garofalo and Al Boyce. They are welcome additions to the Board and already taking on critical responsibilities; Peter Garofalo is the new Vice President and Al Boyce has taking the reins of Treasurer. I am looking forward to working with our new Representatives and having an extremely productive year.

During the past year the BJCP has picked up momentum and in the last few months we have made headway in implementing new computer technology, which, is now allowing a much fasting input of competition results. The backlog has been essentially eliminated. I do ask judges, especially new judges to review their records for points, which may be missing. Also, there has been significant progress in dividing up the responsibilities of the Program Administrator held for so many years by Russ Wigglesworth. The turnover is nearing completion and I anticipate it will be completed around July 1 of this year. After many years of service Russ well be getting a lot more personal time. Thanks for all your many years of service, Russ.

Additionally, the Style Guidelines Committee is wrapping up its work and the results will be unveiled at the NHC in Los Vegas in a few days. The Committee labored for over a year and a quarter on the new Guidelines, which will better serve the judging community.

This new year brings new challenges to the Board. Some of the ongoing initiatives to be resolved are approval of design and sale of BJCP Pins for Recognized and Certified Judges, implementation of a Continuing Education Program and a thorough review of the Exam Process through a BJCP Exam Committee which I have already established and which will chaired by Dave Sapsis.

If there is one thing I learned over the past two years on the Board, it is that you cannot please everyone. My pledge to you is to run this organization with integrity and strive to maintain the highest standards and to be responsive to the needs of the members.

You are all encouraged to use your Regional Representatives. They have been elected to represent you and help you with any problems or questions you may have.

Again, I look forward to serving you and making the BJCP more member friendly.

Ron Bach
President, BJCP

BJCP Officers

The election within the Board of Directors is complete, and our three statutory officers have been elected as follows:

Three More New Grand Master Judges

Steve Piatz (current Western Exam Director), Ron Bach (current South Representative), and Ed Westemeier (current Communication Director) have been named the newest Grand Master judges. It's purely coincidental that they are all active volunteers in the BJCP, although it does seem like a good thing to have experienced people involved in running the program.

Website Moves Again

Due to the massive outage suffered by the HomeBrew Digest servers, the BJCP website is at least temporarily being hosted by the Beer, Beer & More Beer server. We're extremely grateful.

BJCP Board of Directors Changes

Peter Garofalo and Al Boyce officially joined the board on June 1, replacing Bill Slack and Rex Halfpenny, respectively. The seven elected board members will now vote among themselves to fill our three statutory offices, President, Vice President, and Treasurer. The results of that vote are expected by the middle of June.

May, 2004

Northeast Region Election

Peter Garofalo has been elected BJCP Regional Representative for the Northeast region, defeating Jay Hersh. Peter has been extremely active for many years in the program, and will take his seat on the BJCP Board of Directors effective June 1, 2004.

This was our first experiment with a completely electronic election. We made the election notice here on the website (our official means of communication with members), and with postings in Judgenet and Homebrew Digest. We also sent two individual emails to members in the region, although we ran into some difficulty on that score. Please help us in the future by making sure your email address in our database is current, and that mail from "bjcp.org" is on your spam "whitelist" if you have one.

The online voting part went very smoothly. With our new web-based voting system designed by Jamil Zainasheff, we were able to verify membership, collect the votes, preclude duplicate voting, and tabulate the results, while preserving voter anonymity. It worked so well, that all our elections from now on will be handled the same way.

We haven't had many contested elections in the last few years, and that's a bad thing, in the website editor's opinion. We have so many very highly qualified people in the BJCP that it would serve the members well if we could get at least two candidates for every elected position. That way, we could pick "the best of the best" every time we vote. This election serves as a good example, since both the winner and his opponent were Grand Master judges, active in the program for a very long time.

Here's something to think about: Next year, the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, South, and West regions will each have their representatives up for election. Candidate statements are due to be submitted by February, so that leaves less than 8 months to think about it. If you, or someone you know, would make a good representative on the board of directors for your region, why not start planning now to throw your hat in the ring? Check the BJCP Bylaws here on the website for more details.

April, 2004

Website Moved

Most people won't notice, but the BJCP website is now hosted on the HomeBrew Digest servers. Thanks to to Pat Babcock for volunteering this great support, and thanks to Bill Slack for providing the server space for many years. We hope to expand the website and provide new possibilities in our new home. Please be patient as we settle in to our new quarters and get our act together.

Draft Style Guidelines Ready for Comment

The BJCP Style Committee has completed its preliminary review and update of the 1999 Style Guidelines. These draft guidelines are now posted for public review and comment. All BJCP judges and interested individuals are welcomed to participate in the review. The Style Committee will monitor the discussion and incorporate good suggestions. We intend to have an open comment period for at least one month, with the final guidelines being rolled out at the AHA National Homebrew Conference in Las Vegas, June 17-19.

The guidelines can be viewed and commented upon in a web-based forum system HERE. They have been extensively revised, reorganized, and contain new style parameters and commercial examples. Eight new sub-categories have been added. Comments are welcome on the individual guidelines and on the overall organization. Identification of errors, omissions and misinterpretations are especially welcome.

Note that these guidelines have not yet been approved for use by the BJCP. The 1999 guidelines remain in effect for BJCP- and AHA-sanctioned competitions.

Gordon Strong
BJCP Grand Master Judge
Chairman, BJCP Style Committee

March, 2004

Exam Administrator

Todd Snyder has been approved and installed as the new (and first!) BJCP Exam Administrator. This is one of the new positions created last November to support the overworked Exam Directors.

Todd has been active in judging in upstate NY, and has consistently shown talent and interest in the BJCP. He is well suited to help us move toward a more "paperless" system.

Master Judge Criteria Unchanged

Regardless of what you may have read or heard, there will be no promotions at this time based on anything but the rules found in our Member's Guide.

The issue of whether an alternate path to Master should be created, and (if so) what form it should take, is still under discussion, (a premature decision referred to on JudgeNet has already been formally rescinded by the board). Please watch both JudgeNet and this page for further information, although you are always welcome to contact your regional representative directly to express your opinions.

February, 2004

Board of Directors Changes

Phil Sides, Jr. was appointed to fill the vacant position of Mid-Atlantic Representative. The position was vacated by David Houseman last November, so he could devote his time to the position of Competition Director.

Al Boyce was elected, unopposed, to the North Representative position, replacing the retiring Rex Halfpenny.

You can find background information on these two new members here.

Michael L. Hall was also re-elected, unopposed, to the Mountain/Northwest Representative position. He is also president of the board.

The Northeast region is the only one that will have a contested election this year. Members in that region will have a choice between Peter Garofalo and Jay Hersh. Election results will be posted here when known.

November 2003

Updated Demographics

Here is an updated tally to show the results of the recent realignment of BJCP regions.

November 2003

Updated staff positions

The new slate of BJCP appointed staff positions for the coming year:

Exam Director (East)

Scott Bickham

Exam Director (West)

Peter Garofalo

Exam Administrator

(To be filled)

Competition Director

David Houseman

Competition Administrator

(To be filled)

Director of Information Technology

Gordon Strong

Communication Director

Ed Westemeier

and, in a position that will be phased out ASAP,

Program Administrator

Russ Wigglesworth

Mike Hall's comments:
There are many returning officers in this list, a new but familiar face, and some opportunities for new blood. We especially thank the outgoing officers, Scott Birdwell as Competition Director and Russ Wigglesworth as Program Administrator, for their meritorious service during the past years. The BJCP will miss their useful contributions to our core mission of judging beer.

In particular, Russ has been the man behind the administration of the BJCP for a long time (eight plus years) and he will be hard to replace. This past summer, Russ was awarded the AHA Board of Advisors Recognition Award -- his acceptance speech is below on this page. Let's all lift a glass for Russ!

This announcement will spur some questions in our loyal beer judges, and I offer the following explanations:

According to our bylaws (sec 3.4), new staff positions are to be appointed annually on 7/31. Due to some changes this year (for instance, I was elected president on 7/30), we are a little later than that, but we will aim for that deadline every year from now on.

David Houseman will be vacating his seat on the Board of Directors to take the Competition Director position. Per our bylaws (sec. 3.13), I will be appointing, subject to Board approval, a new Representative to the Board from the Mid-Atlantic Region (DC, DE, MD, NJ, OH, PA, VA, WV). If you live in this region, are a member of the BJCP, and are interested in serving in this capacity please contact me directly at mike.hall [at] pobox.com.

Two newly created positions are yet unfilled. These are positions that were created to phase out the Program Administrator position. The new Competition Administrator will report to the Competition Director, and the new Exam Administrator will report to the two Exam Directors. BJCP members interested in serving in these positions should contact either the Competition Director or the Exam Directors, as appropriate.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our returning appointed officers (Ed Westemeier, Gordon Strong, Peter Garofalo, Scott Bickham, and, with a new position, David Houseman) who devote a great deal of their time to keeping the wheels of the BJCP turning.

Slainte Mhath,
-Mike

September- October 2003

New Board Resolutions

The Board approved the following items:

• BJCP communications with judge members and competitions will be increasingly moved toward electronic means, with a goal of all communications being done electronically. Judges will be made aware of changes (one last hardcopy) before they take place.
• The responsibilities of the Program Administrator will be divided between several people.
• Multiple people will be allowed to access the BJCP databases so that the responsibilities of the Program Administrator may be divided easily.
• We will create the board-appointed positions of Competition Administrator and Exam Administrator, to report to the Competition Director and both Exam Directors respectively.
• The position of Program Administrator will be eliminated, and the current responsibilities of the Program Administrator will be divided between the Competition Director (to be delegated to the Competition Administrator), the Exam Directors (to be delegated to the Exam Administrator), the Communications Director, and the IT Director.
• The initial breakdown of responsibilities, subject to change according to the agreement of the positions involved, will be as follows.

  Competition Director (delegated to Competition Administrator as desired)

  Retroactive Points, Competition Registration, Experience Point Recording, AHA Billing

  Exam Directors (delegated to Exam Administrator as desired)

  Exam Closeout, Promotions, Pin Mailing, Pin Inventory

  Communication Director

  Annual Mailing, Election Mailing

  IT Director

  Access to database by other appointed positions as needed, Automatic logging, if possible, of who executed a database change.

Regional Realignment

The seven regions have been redefined by the Board. Their intent was to maintain seven regions, with contiguous geographical grouping as much as possible, while equalizing the judge populations. In this way, each of the seven elected board members will represent roughly the same number of active judges.
Due to the nature of the necessary realignment, some region names have been changed, and states and provinces have been moved, in some cases, to different regions. This also necessitated a change to the bylaws. There will be no changes to the current makeup of the board, who will continue to serve the terms to which they were elected or appointed.

The newly defined regional structure can be seen by examining the Officers page, which also contains a link to a map.

July 2003

New Board of Directors positions

By a vote of the seven regional representatives, the BOD officers for the next year will be:
President — Michael L. Hall
Vice President — Ron Bach
Treasurer — Bill Slack

July 2003

Example exam scoresheets

We recently noticed that there is a set of scoresheets in our archives that serves as a remarkable example of what we are looking for. These were completed during an actual exam, not that long ago, by a person who later became an important part of our organization. They have been sanitized to remove identifying information, but they show precisely what we hope to see in all scoresheets.

What makes these remarkable is that not only are they filled out extremely well, but in every one of the four cases, the scores agreed exactly with the consensus scores of the experienced exam proctors.

You can find these sterling examples here.

July 2003

Member's Guide

An update to the BJCP Members' Guide is now available here on the website. We anticipate another major update to this document later this year, proving once again that your highly paid representatives are indeed hard at work.

July 2003

Officer Changes

The Board of Advisors has accepted the resignation as President of Northeast Regional Representative Bill Slack, owing to the pressure of his other commitments. Bill was warmly thanked for his service by the other reps, and has graciously agreed to remain on the board through his current elected term, through next June.

While elections within the board have not yet been held, we anticipate an announcement regarding the new lineup shortly.

The Board also announced the appointment of John S. Watson to the board as Western Regional Representative, replacing Norman Dickenson. Norman has also given long service to the board, and will also be missed in this role.

June 2003

Russ Wigglesworth Honored

Our own, longtime BJCP Program Administrator, (did I say long, long time?) Russ Wigglesworth, received the AHA Board of Advisors Recognition Award at the recent AHA National Convention in Chicago.

Russ' Acceptance Speech

My Fellow Brewers and Beer Judges,

It is indeed unfortunate that I am unable to join you in person. Please forgive my absence and accept that my other jobs in Public Health and Public Education require my presence at home. My humble thanks to whomever is reading these words to you on my behalf.

I am truly honored to receive this award. To be recognized by the AHA Board of Advisors is no small matter. For those of you who have been around long enough to remember, it is especially significant that I should be honored by the AHA for my work on behalf of the BJCP. There was a time when our relationship was not so amicable. And perhaps that is the true reward for my contribution as the BJCP's Program Administrator, the fact that both organizations have continued to work together to advance the general public's education of beer, to promote better beer among brewers, and to provide enlightened and consistent evaluation of beer through homebrew and commercial competitions.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all of the efforts of the dedicated volunteers who serve and have served the BJCP and who have helped it to grow into the successful program that it is today. It is a tribute to all of their efforts that the BJCP continues to certify almost 300 new beer judges every year. They have made some significant upgrades to the BJCP in recent years and you can be sure that there are more to come.

I would like to acknowledge the AHA staff and to say that they too have evolved over the years and that I have had the opportunity to work with some very fine people as a result of our collaboration. I have always been amazed at how many of them were able to treat their job as their hobby and thereby maintain a very positive disposition with the membership. Keep up the good work.

I would like to acknowledge Pat Baker, whose energy and vision were at the heart of the BJCP at its inception and without whom we probably would not have the program that we have today.

I'd also like to acknowledge the folks at Anchor Brewing Company who have been supportive beyond belief of homebrewers, homebrew competitions, and the fellowship of brewing overall. They have inspired me no end and have always made me feel welcome.

One last comment: Charlie, I know you have taken a lot of guff and criticism from the old guard over the past two and a half decades, but don't you forget for one minute that each and every one of us has secretly wished, at one time or another, that we had your job. "Thanks" for helping to get this whole thing started.

Thank you again for this honor. I hope that I am able to continue to contribute to the beer and brewing community in the future.

With my warmest regards,

Russ Wigglesworth

Website spider's note: The list of past winners includes the following names, some of whom have also been luminaries in the BJCP:

June 2003

Changes to By-Laws

The administrative changes to the by-laws proposed in March are now final and are incorporated HERE.

May 2003

Links

Added a new link for the Dutch beer judge guild. Check out our reciprocal links page HERE.

March 2003

Grants Policy

The Board has adopted a new policy statement covering requests for financial support. For details on the new policy, please click HERE.

March 2003

Changes to By-Laws

The Board wants to make some relatively minor changes to our By-Laws. These changes will be subject to a final vote at the end of the prescribed 60 day period, which will be May 14, 2003. For details on the proposed changes, please click HERE.

Note that this is a PDF document. If you don't have the free Acrobat Reader software to view it, please click HERE to download a free copy.
If you wish to comment on these changes, please contact your regional director, whose email address can be found on the Officers page.

February 2003

BJCP IT Director

Gordon Strong was appointed the first Director of Information Technology for the BJCP. Gordon, a Grand Master judge and the designer/implementer of the new judge record database, will be responsible for the operation, maintenance and enhancement of that database and any other IT-related duties that the Board may assign to him.

January 2003

BJCP Program Administrator

In a major milestone for the BJCP, Russ Wigglesworth, our Program Administrator, has announced his intention to retire from the post by the end of June.

Russ has served in this role for the last eight years, and has been a major factor in the BJCP's success since 1990. This is the guy who singlehandedly handles every competition registration, every exam record, every point earned by every judge, and much, much more. In the last year alone, he arranged, with the prodigious programming talents of Gordon Strong, to put copies of all judges' records online for instant access.

The Board is diligently searching for a replacement for Russ, and at the same time considering ways to further simplify and automate the enormous amount of record keeping we do. If you have suggestions, or would like to volunteer your services, please contact your regional representative (see the Officers page).

Please join us in paying tribute to Russ as he begins to get a life again, and make it a point to thank him in person if you ever run into him. Be sure to buy him a beer, too!

January, 2003

Member-contributed Files

We have a new PDF version of the Study Guide, and a new PDA version of the Style Guidelines, both contributed by members. Please see the LINKS page.

December, 2002

Eastern Exam Director

On the first of January Dan Hall will relinquish the position of Eastern Exam Director and will be replaced by Scott Bickham who has previously run the exam grading program.

Let's all give Dan a rousing thanks for the really wonderful job he did in this role. Dan's attention to detail and his marvelous ability to work with people, even at a considerable distance, has not only upheld the high standards of the exam program, but even improved it. Be sure to buy him a beer when you see him.

July, 2002

BJCP Shirts Sold Out

If you didn't get one of the BJCP shirts when they were available, you'll have to wait until the next batch is produced. If you have any suggestions for what kind of shirt you'd like, please let your regional rep know.

Annual Report

If you haven't received your annual report in the mail yet, here's a copy of the cover material.

Fun With Numbers

Have you ever wondered where you fit in the BJCP structure?
As of this month, here are some statistics to show who we are a little more clearly. We'll try to keep adding to this section as time permits. (Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.)

Greatest number of active judges

November, 2002

Exam Feedback

A nice letter from a recent exam taker:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all involved in the vast amount of time and effort taken to judge the BJCP Exam taken in Portland, OR in July.
A special thanks to both Jay Adams and Rob Miller who did a very thorough job of grading my exam. I feel your good critique and constructive comments regarding portions of the exam that need further study and attention were spot on.
A couple of comments from other people that took the exam at the same time were somewhat critical of some of the feedback they received. I took the side of the BJCP explaining that the reason for some of the criticism is to help people in weak areas, and to maintain the high standards that have been set by the BJCP this completeness of grading must be sustained.
I have a couple of suggestions for the future. (1) It would be helpful to have a copy of the 10 questions outlined in the exam returned with the exam grading results. After 3 months have gone by, I cannot remember many of the questions, so it is hard to relate to some of the critiques. (2) I'm an old fart and have arthritis in my fingers, which makes it difficult to write legibly, so I print at a slow pace. This hindered completeness in some of the answers due to the restriction of time allowed. Being able to use a word processor would have helped a lot.
Again, thanks for all the good effort and time you spent on grading my exam.

November, 2002

BJCP Logo

Thanks to Robby Woodard and Alan Hord of the Cascade Brewers Guild for the newly spruced up BJCP logos here on the website.

October, 2002

Grand Master Level II

Unbelievable as it seems, both Scott Bickham and David Houseman have achieved the BJCP rank of Grand Master Level II. In case you forgot, that means that they have earned all the points and performed all the service requirements of the Grand Master level, and they have done it TWICE. Congratulations to two of our hardest working judges and most valuable members.

September, 2002

New Grand Master Judge

The Board of Directors is happy to announce the promotion of Gordon Strong to the rank of Grand Master Judge. Gordon has distinguished himself as a homebrewer, judge, exam grader, lead exam grader and recently as an Associate Exam Director. More than this, he has donated an enormous amount of his time and substantial technical talents to build a new version of the database which allows members to access their judge records online and also permits more flexibility and stability in maintaining the database. All this in addition to accumulating over 100 experience points. We are all grateful to Gordon for his outstanding service and his depth of experience. A very well deserved promotion.

September, 2002

Competition De-Sanctioning

The BJCP has decided to no longer sanction the NE Fall Homebrew Competition held in December in Deerfield MA due to chronic inability to deliver organizer reports, awards and this year, even score sheets. This is an AHA competition and Paul Gatza has informed us that they have also de-sanctioned this event. Therefore, we advise the judges in the Northeast Region, or anyone else who may contemplate judging at this competition, that BJCP points will no longer be awarded for judging, stewarding or organizing this event. If you judged or stewarded at this competition last December, please contact Bill Slack and he will try to get your points recorded for last December. Naturally, we greatly regret having to take this step.

August, 2002

New Mountain/Northwest Rep

The Board of Directors has approved the appointment of Michael L. Hall to the position of Regional Representative for the Mountain/Northwest Region. Mike takes over from Alan Moen who is retiring after long and significant service to the BJCP.
Mike is an experienced homebrewer and judge from New Mexico. He has long been active in the field and has an excellent national reputation in the homebrewing and judging arenas. We are very lucky to have him serve on the board. Our deep thanks to Alan and warmest welcome to Mike.

June, 2002

A very exciting development!

On Monday, June 24th, the entire BJCP database went "live" and we will all be able to check our own records whenever we want. The plan is to keep the online database updated on a monthly basis.

The annual mailing of record printouts will appear in your mailbox during the month of July (assuming we have your current mailing address on file). That mailing will include your unique password. You will then be able to login to the BJCP website, using your member number and password, and see your own judging record.

If you absolutely HAVE to see your record before you receive your password, you can e-mail Gordon Strong. If you can convince him that you really are who you claim to be, he will send you your password.

Changes will always be made in the traditional way, and you won't be able to actually modify your record online. However, you will certainly be able to check on your experience points and other details. You might even determine that your points haven't appeared after an unreasonable length of time since you last judged a sanctioned competition, and that it may be a good idea to gently nudge the competition organizer to get the report sent in!

By the way, this monumental task has been the result of literally years of work on the part of Gordon Strong and Russ Wigglesworth. They have done an incredible job, and you will be amazed at the quality of the new database.

BJCP/AHA Cooperation

Attendees at the recent AHA national convention in Irving, Texas saw the new spirit of cooperation between the BJCP and AHA in action.
The heads of both organizations participated in a beer judging demonstration that wowed the crowd. With no prior coordination, these two individuals, who had never judged together before, judged three beers in front of the group. They came up with identical scores on two of them, and differed by only one point on the third.

The point that was made is that beer judging isn't as difficult or mysterious as many people seem to think. A good palate, knowledge of the brewing process and style guidelines, and some experience are all you need to be an excellent beer judge. Preliminary indications are that quite a few of those in attendance will be preparing to take the exam after seeing the process in action. If you didn't have the chance to attend, why not consider volunteering as a steward at the next nearby competition? You'll see exactly the same process in action.

Online BJCP Database

Board Changes

BJCP President Bill Slack announced this year's changes to the Board of Directors:

Ron Bach, a distinguised Master Judge from Florida, takes office as Regional Representative for the Gulf Coast Region, succceeding Steve Moore.

Bill Slack will continue as Northeast Representative.

Alan Moen is stepping down as Mountain/Northwest Representative, but will remain until a replacement is found.

Our sincere thanks to both Steve Moore and Alan Moen, who did a terrific job as regional representatives on the board.

Have you noticed the number of state and county fairs that have added sanctioned homebrew competitions? Pretty impressive work on the part of the local clubs, we think.

May, 2002

We often mention how hard our volunteers work for our members, but it's always nice to see their hard work recognized. Here's a great note we received recently that should make Exam Directors Dan Hall and Pete Garofalo and all the exam graders feel good:

I'm a certified judge in Omaha who retook the exam in December. I realy didn't do much better this time than I did five years ago, but this time the exam feedback was excellent. I really have a good idea of why I got the score I did and what I need to improve on. I don't know who's responsible for improving the exam feedback, but I extend my congratulations and gratitude to him or her. Thanks.

February, 2002

We have added a version of the BJCP Style Guidelines suitable for using on a handheld PDA (Palm OS). We're aware that there are other versions available on the Web, but we plan to maintain one "official" version in a generally available format.

January, 2002

This year, elections will be held for the position of BJCP Regional Representative in the Mountain/Northwest, Gulf Coast and Northeast Regions. Candidates must submit a statement supporting their candidacy along with the name, BJCP judge number and signature of five BJCP judges in good standing in their region. Send this letter to the program administrator at

This is due by 15 February. Candidates should also include a statement of 500 words or less to be distributed with the ballots. If you have questions or anticipate difficulties in getting the necessary paperwork in on time, contact the Program Administrator at program_admin [at] bjcp.org. Candidates must have reliable internet and telephone capabilities and the time and skill to work with others who are remotely located. These are volunteer positions but some expenses may be reimbursed.

Cooperation is generally a good thing, and we now have a cooperative program where our website and the AHA website will both list all the competitions we're aware of, regardless of where the competition was registered. For more detail, see our schedule page.

December, 2001

Dave Sapsis, currently the BJCP Western Exam Director, and Pete Garofalo, currently an Associate Exam Director, will exchange positions effective 1 January 2002. They have both worked expertly and tirelessly at these positions. Dave has other items to pursue and has asked to stand down after several years in the job. Pete has shown himself to be the leading candidate to take over from him. I think we are very lucky to secure and retain the services of these expert and hard working individuals and I thank them for their past and future contributions to the BJCP.

Bill Slack
President and Representative for the Northeast Region
Board of Directors
Beer Judge Certification Program, Inc.

October, 2001

The Board of Directors has approved the awarding of experience points to BJCP judges who judge in commercially sponsored beer competitions, provided that:

• the competition is registered with the BJCP in the usual manner

• the contest is fair (blind tasting) and

• the category definitions and evaluation procedures are reasonably consistent with the BJCP rules

This way we can allow the commercial organizers some leeway in organizing their events while still rewarding BJCP judges for exercising their basic judging skills. We feel that this increased contact between the BJCP and the commercial brewing community will be beneficial to both.

For BJCP judges, this means additional opportunities to earn judging points.

For commercial brewers, this means more knowledgeable evaluations of beers entered in competitions.

For the BJCP, this means renewed opportunity to expand our scope and contribute to the education of the general public about what good beer is all about.

If you know of a commercial beer competition that could use some BJCP expertise in their event please refer them to our website page http://www.bjcp.org/comps.html for info/instructions on registering a competition with us.

Peter Garofalo was promoted to the rank of Grand Master Judge. Peter has been an active and honored homebrewer in the New York and New England areas for a number of years. He has been active in organizing competitions as well as judging extensively. He has especially distinguished himself on the national scene as an exam grader, lead grader and Associate Exam Director where he is highly regarded by others in the exam grading program for his skill and dedication. He is well deserving of our congratulations and gratitude for his substantial accomplishments and contributions to the field.

September, 2001

Here's another nice letter we just received. Having graded quite a few exams myself, I know how much work is involved, so let's give our dedicated exam graders a hand and a big pat on the back:

• Last night I received my BJCP package as a new member who recently passed the BJCP exam. I spent a good portion of the evening going through the package and reviewing the comments on my exam. I think that it is human nature that we tend to complain more than we compliment, so I suspect that you do not receive sufficient accolades for your efforts. Therefore, I wanted to send you a note just to thank you for putting so much of your time into the program and providing such thorough and helpful comments.
  I had fully expected to receive a grade and nothing further, but thanks to the comments on my exam, I now know where my weak points are and where to direct my further study (and believe me, I will never stop studying beer!). Although most of my friends do not understand my passion for beer, I am very proud of my passing the exam.
  Last night, I took down a picture hanging in my house so that I could use the frame to immediately display my BJCP certificate which now hangs proudly in my office beside my university degrees. That crappy picture in my house will have to wait until I have time to go buy a new frame -- the BJCP certificate is more important! Once again, thank you for your efforts.

  Sincerely,
  Don Tse

Norman Dickenson was promoted to the position of Grand Master Judge. He is an award winning home brewer, competition organizer and member of the Sonoma Beerocrats. Norman served on the interim BJCP Board of Directors in 1995 until during the separation of the BJCP from its original sponsors. He has been active in the exam grading program serving several years a grader, lead grader and Associate Director. He was elected to the BJCP Board of Directors as the Western Regional Director and continues in that capacity today. He has distinguished himself with his skills and service to the program and he is well deserving of our congratulations and thanks.

August, 2001

April, 2001

Minor update to the exam guide.

The Board of Directors decided that the current set of BJCP Style Guidelines has been in use long enough that previous versions no longer need to be made available. They have been removed from the website.

March, 2001