Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 23:21:06 -0500
Message-Id: <199602190421.XAA01306 at synchro.com>
To: judge-recipients at synchro.com (JudgeNet Recipients)
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Subject: JudgeNet Digest #1216 (Feb 18, 1996)

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JudgeNet Digest #1216                              Sun 18 Feb 1996

                               JudgeNet
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Contents:

  Scoresheets, good and bad                (Scott Bickham)
  Re:Degree.. and From Norm...             (Dennis Davison)

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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 14:42:02 -0500 (EST)
From: Scott Bickham <bickham at dave.nrl.navy.mil>
Subject: Scoresheets, good and bad

Though the BJCP is not in the business of judge education, I would
support some kind of feedback for judges in the program.  Bill Giffen
was on the right track when he reviewed some of the scoresheets from his
last competition, but this procedure should be more common.  By the
way Bill, Norman Dickenson is not on the board of the BJCP, though he
did serve on the interim board for a few months last Spring.  Where
do you get your information?

Anyway, back to the subject of my posting. Before me I have the score
sheets that were filled out by the proctor or co-proctor of some
recent BJCP exams.  The first judge is National, and I frankly am
appalled by the lack of information.  The second judge is a Master
who has set a good standard for the level of feedback one should
convey to the brewer.

Judge A (National): Dry Stout

Bouquet/Aroma(6/10): Low-med. roasty
Appearance(5/6): Black, clear, head ok
Flavor(11/19): High roasty, med. malt, low black malt, no bitterness
Body(4/5): thin-med. body
Drinkability (6/10): Clean, needs more bitterness
Total Score: 33 (should actually be 32)

Judge B (Master): Brown Porter

Bouquet/Aroma(7/10): roast-almost coffeelike.  No hop aroma or
	fruitiness - very pleasant chocolate malt as well
Appearance (4/6): medium bubbled modest head, light beige which laces
	nicely.  Very dark brown, low conditioning, very slight
	haze.  More head with a creamier texture is preferred - modest
	retention.
Flavor (11/19): roast-chocolate malt character, sweet from malt but
	nicely balanced by hop flavor and some lingering hop bitterness
	in the finish.  Strong coffee notes.
Appearance (3/5): body is slightly on the thin side - ok, but more
	dextrins would improve score
Drinkability (6/10): creamier and more head plus fixing the haze would
	help score.  The coffee notes push it out of the mainstream of
	the style but add interest.

There is obviously much more information given to the brewer by the
latter scoresheet, while the first one is nearly useless.  We will be
giving a judge seminar for BURP this summer to help potential judges
study for the BJCP exam and to improve the judges that are already in the
program.  I notice that TRASH is doing a similar workshop in conjunction
with their annual competition, but I would like to see many more of
these.  Of course, this is something you can learn on your own.
When filling out scoresheets, avoid using vague words such as "nice"
and "good", and relative words such as "low" "medium" and "high" unless
you are making a comparison.  For example, low hop aroma means very
different things depending on whether the beer is a American Pale Ale
or a Munich Dunkel.  It would be a flaw in the APA, but is acceptable
in the Dunkel if the hops are noble.  Also, instead of writing "nice
color" or "nice head", add a few adjective to describe the color
(straw, light golden, golden, bronze, deep golden, copper, amber,
light brown, chestnut, brown, brown with reddish hues, dark brown, etc.)
and other aspects of the appearance.

Cheers,
	Scott Bickham

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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 20:59:02 -0600
From: ddavison at execpc.com (Dennis Davison)
Subject: Re:Degree.. and From Norm...

John Callen Writes:
>We're beer judges, so of course we've focused on the judging side of the
>matter, but that's not the real problem. The problem is the prize structure.
>
>I think the best and fairest approach is to award prizes as many times as
>they're earned.

So very true, but organizers would then have to overorder ribbons to make
certain they have enough to give out to everyone. Why not have three BoS's?
One Ale, One Lager, One Mixed/Specialty?

The problem comes with awards ceremonies after the competition. Wine
competitions judge wines in a totally different manor. Names are released of
the winners and the awards are mailed a month or so later. Also, Wines
judges give multiple awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. So in one wine class the
judges quite frequently give out possibly 1 - first, 2 or 3 seconds and
maybe the same number of thirds. This can be related to beer fairly easily.
Any beer that scores over 42 gets a first, 36-41 get's a second, and 30-35
gets a third. Now for BoS, all you place into it are the 1st place beers.
You might only have 10 beers to decide upon then. (These are my opinions and
not those of the BJCP).

Bill Giffin Writes:

>I thought I should share Norman Dickenson's thoughts with you all.

Way to go Bill. Great Job. Who taught you about the 'Net'?


Dennis Davison                                       ddavison at execpc.com

                           BJCC Midwest Region
                         Chairperson of the BJCP


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