Return-Path: owner-judge at synchro.com Received: from srvr7.engin.umich.edu (root at srvr7.engin.umich.edu [141.212.2.69]) by srvr5.engin.umich.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA00655 for ; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:19:06 -0400 (EDT) Received: from judgmentday.rs.itd.umich.edu (0 at judgmentday.rs.itd.umich.edu [141.211.83.37]) by srvr7.engin.umich.edu (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id JAA20279 for ; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:19:05 -0400 (EDT) Received: by judgmentday.rs.itd.umich.edu (8.8.5/2.2) with X.500 id JAA11365; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:19:04 -0400 (EDT) Received: from uu6.psi.com by judgmentday.rs.itd.umich.edu (8.8.5/2.2) with SMTP id JAA11359; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:19:03 -0400 (EDT) Received: by uu6.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP; id AA14741 for spencer at umich.edu; Tue, 17 Jun 97 09:19:01 -0400 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by synchro.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA04793 for judge-digest-outgoing; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 08:43:05 -0400 Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 08:43:05 -0400 Message-Id: <199706171243.IAA04793 at synchro.com> From: owner-judge-digest at synchro.com To: judge-digest at synchro.com Subject: judge-digest V1 #1456 Reply-To: judge at synchro.com Errors-To: owner-judge-digest at synchro.com Precedence: bulk judge-digest Tuesday, 17 June 1997 Volume 01 : Number 1456 ============================================================================ J u d g e N e t - t h e b e e r j u d g e d i g e s t ============================================================================ Moderator: Chuck Cox Archivist: Spencer Thomas Publisher: SynchroSystems Submissions: judge at synchro.com Subscriptions: judge-request at synchro.com Archive: http://realbeer.com/spencer/judge BJCP info: geninfo at bjcp.synchro.com ============================================================================ contents: BJCP Style "Certification" Re: judge-digest V1#1454 BJCP Style Guidelines ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Houseman, David L" Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 08:34:20 -0400 Subject: BJCP Style "Certification" The BJCP could take another approach to PR in order to get our good name in front of the public. It seems to me that we have an opportunity to do for brewing in the US what CAMRA has done in the UK. Only here in the US (or North America) it's not to save a dieing tradition, but perhaps to help keep a new one on track. Suppose we developed something akin to the "good housekeeping seal of approval" (or "approved by the American Dental Association" or a number of other such "stamps of approval") for the correct us of style names. I just when to a brewpub last night and ordered their IPA. It was little more than colored grapefruit juice. They either didn't know what an IPA was or didn't care. Certainly a very loose interpretation. The BJCP could take it upon ourselves to educate the brewpub, micro-, and the born-again-mega beer consumer on what various styles are. We do that by branding a certification that an advertized style is in fact in line with the style guidelines. We don't assert whether the beer is "good" or "bad;" just that it is within the parameters for a style if a recognized style is used in the description of the beer. It would take us some $$ to advertize this but it could be done with minimal dollars and the participation of clubs and members around the country. Table tents could be designed for distribution to those bars, brewpubs, or micros that chose to be certified by the BJCP (for a fee of course). This sort of campaign has to be both Push and Pull. I would wager some micros and brewpubs will want to use the branding because they are stylistic sensitive. The pull would come from the public who read articles (news/features are cheaper than advertizing) submitted by BJCP members to their local papers in conjunction with beer events. This sort of promotion is quite in line with the BJCP's stated purpose of promoting real beer and tasting and evaluation skills, by going outside of the confines of the membership. By establishing a recognized expertise in beer styles beyond the judges, there will be a draw to use the BJCP style guide in competitions. We need to create awareness in the brewing public at large. As Bob said, this shouldn't start (even if we could) until the style committee has refined the existing style guide. Then publishing it in forms that the most easily accessible formats possible so that web users can obtain them would be quite helpful (do we have links to the styles to major search engines?). It's not whether one set of style guides are "better" than the other, but one of marketing. Remember Betamax..... I leave this an open proposal to the BJCP and it's membership. Dave Houseman ------------------------------ From: Dion Hollenbeck Date: 16 Jun 1997 07:56:56 -0700 Subject: Re: judge-digest V1#1454 >> Houseman, David L writes: HDL> I suggest that the BJCP needs to find out from all the club HDL> competitions what they use and why; go to the customer and find HDL> out what they want, rather than simply assert that ours is better HDL> than theirs. Let's listen to what competition organizers want. As I have said before, we use the AHA guidelines, not because they are good, but because they are the most widely available to everyone regardless of whether they have web access or not. In a 230 entry competition, this meant that I had to mail out style guidelines to 6 people. All the rest got them from Zymurgy. When and if the BJCP makes their guidelines as widely available (and I consider publication in BT sufficient) then we would use the BJCP guidelines as our club firmly believes that the whole competition program should be in the hands of the BJCP. But until that day we will use the AHA guidelines because it saves us a lot of money in postage. We also use the AHA entry forms or the equivalent, also because I can refer people to Zymurgy for the forms, so therefore a lot of people do not even have to get a packet from me to be able to enter. dion Organizer America's Finest City Homebrew Competition March 8, 1997 Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity, Sponsor http://www.vigra.com/~hollen/AFCHBC.html - --- Dion Hollenbeck (619)597-7080x164 Email: hollen at vigra.com http://www.vigra.com/~hollen Sr. Software Engineer - Vigra Div. of Visicom Labs San Diego, California ------------------------------ From: Steve Casselman Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 09:27:54 -0700 Subject: BJCP Style Guidelines Hi I'm Steve Casselman, I've been homebrewing about 15 years and just went pro (Hollywood Blonde -- One sip and you'll be a fan for life:). In my real life I'm a computer entrepreneur. I invented and hold patents in what is called "Configurable Computing" -- see http://www.sciam.com -- and have a full page add in the June issue. My users rewrite their algorithms in a hardware description language and compile these into bit streams that we then convert into static arrays. We also provide the drivers and software subroutines for our users. I have also recently been elected as chairman of the BJCP style guide subcommittee. I'd like everyone to know that the subcommittee will produce the finest quality work and present that work in many different formats. I will push to have the style guideline done before the end of the year. Our mission is to produce a guideline that reflects the needs of the homebrewer seeking to enter competitions sanctioned by the BJCP. When the guideline has been completed we will then advertise everywhere we need to through writing articles about the qualities and proper use of the style guidelines. - -- Steve Casselman, President Virtual Computer Corporation http://www.vcc.com PS any questions please email me sc at vcc.com ------------------------------ End of judge-digest V1 #1456 **************************** Send subscription cancellations & changes to judge-request at synchro.com. Messages sent to the wrong address will be ignored.