Received: from srvr20.engin.umich.edu (root at srvr20.engin.umich.edu [141.213.75.22]) by srvr5.engin.umich.edu (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id BAA00823 for ; Wed, 22 Aug 2001 01:06:58 -0400 (EDT) Received: from synchro.com (cccox.ne.mediaone.net [24.147.232.105]) by srvr20.engin.umich.edu (8.9.3/8.9.1) with SMTP id BAA22154 for ; Wed, 22 Aug 2001 01:06:56 -0400 (EDT) From: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" To: "Digest Recipients" Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" Subject: Digest for the period 8/21/01 - 8/22/01 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 01:04:15 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Next_Part_SYNC10013A81C4" X-Hops: 1 Status: RO --Next_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fw: Anne Arundel Co. Fair Homebrew Competition (Jim Wagner) BJCP Experience Points for Judging Commercial Beers (David Houseman) Northern New England Regional Homebrew Competition, September 15th (Thomas O'Connor) Heretical Suggestion (Dion Hollenbeck) --Next_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4" --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Return-Path: Received: from barry.mail.mindspring.net ([207.69.200.25]) by synchro.com with SMTP (Mailtraq/1.1.5.1167) id SYNC9733A6700 for judge at synchro.com; Mon, 20 Aug 2001 21:34:01 -0400 Received: from oemcomputer (pool-63.49.112.214.bltm.grid.net [63.49.112.214]) by barry.mail.mindspring.net (8.9.3/8.8.5) with SMTP id VAA24887 for ; Mon, 20 Aug 2001 21:33:54 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <008401c129e1$94c678e0$d670313f at oemcomputer> From: "Jim Wagner" Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" Errors-To: judge-owner at synchro.com Sender: judge at synchro.com To: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest Subject: Fw: Anne Arundel Co. Fair Homebrew Competition Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 21:35:36 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 X-Hops: 3 X-POST-MessageClass: 10; Mailing List Message ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Wagner To: judge at synchro.com Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 8:14 PM Subject: Anne Arundel Co. Fair Homebrew Competition The Anne Arundel County(Maryland) Fair will host it's 3rd annual(1st BJCP sanctioned) Homebrew Competition at the A.A.Co. Fairgrounds in Crownsville, Maryland. The judging will be on Wednesday, September 12th starting at 9:30am....I know it's a weekday, but it's too late to change it this year to a weekend, so if you are able, PLEASE COME! Lunch will be served to all judges and the fair will also give a small gratuity to each judge in attendance. Please call Chairman Joe Brotherton 410-721-1514 if you need directions to the fairgrounds or contact Jim Wagner 410-515-3222 duclawbrewer at mindspring.com if you have any other questions. --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Return-Path: Received: from hawk.mail.pas.earthlink.net ([207.217.120.22]) by synchro.com with SMTP (Mailtraq/1.1.5.1167) id SYNC9843A73F8 for judge at synchro.com; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 08:32:32 -0400 Received: from trhousemdlrem (user-2iniken.dialup.mindspring.com [165.121.81.215]) by hawk.mail.pas.earthlink.net (EL-8_9_3_3/8.9.3) with SMTP id FAA08075 for ; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 05:32:20 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <002201c12a3c$88dd66a0$d75179a5 at trhousemdlrem> Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" From: "David Houseman" Errors-To: judge-owner at synchro.com Sender: judge at synchro.com To: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest Subject: BJCP Experience Points for Judging Commercial Beers Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 08:26:40 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 X-Hops: 3 X-POST-MessageClass: 10; Mailing List Message I can't recall seeing the message below on JudgeNet. Perhaps it made it prior to the lightning strike and I missed it, but if not, I'm reposting in order to get feedback from judges: A several weekends ago Scott Bickham and I were among the judges judging a commercial competition at State College, PA. Actually a very nice little event with some wonderful beer. The question again came up about BJCP judges receiving judging credits for judging such events. Since I've had the opportunity to judge some of these, of course I'm biased. But other BJCP judges do participate and I was asked as the regional rep to bring this to the BJCP board for discussion. The BJCP board is discussing the issue but thought that perhaps this should be placed before the members for their feedback and opinions. Should the BJCP just limit recognition for judging only to homebrew events? Or set some minimal standards for commercial events as well? Frankly some of the commercial judging events are much better run than many of the homebrew events. Some do require feedback to the entrant; some do not. One possibility as I see it would be for the BJCP to publish a list of criteria, which might include the use of the BJCP Style Guidelines (or something substantially similar equivalent) as objective judging criteria, that a commercial competition must adhere to in order to have BJCP members who judge receive experience point credit. Having judged some commercial events the only style compromises I've seen are the inclusion of styles that reflected what was being brewed commercially, like Lite Rye or Caribbean Lager (40% cane sugar). But then we did the same by including the styles being brewed by homebrewers and eliminating those which really aren't popular. Not all the commercial competitions are sponsored by the commercial enterprises. A number of the smaller ones are in fact done with the proceeds going to charity. There is a range of commercial competitions from the GABF, WBC and the GBBF to small state fairs and regional or state competitions. The quality of the tasters in the GABF is outstanding. Any BJCP judge who judges there has the opportunity to learn from the best brewers/tasters of places like A-B and Coors. These guys don't pull their punches and don't compromise. While some of us may not care for their marketing, their technical people are excellent. A high percentage of the judges at the GABF are in fact BJCP judges. While they are there in their capacity as brewers or writers or owners, many are in fact BJCP judges. Should they not receive experience point credit for their judging experiences. Every judging experience can be nothing but beneficial. There aren't many of us that haven't judged a competition or three that the local club or organization hasn't placed some strange style on that particular competition's style guidelines. The Strange and Scary Homebrew Competition is an example. The Schukyll Dark style used at some local Philly competitions. These certainly weren't from any BJCP or AHA guidelines! Yet we judge them. I judged one competition that excluded styles! Just divided the beers by the color they appeared to be in their bottles and tasted for "best" beers. That was a homebrew competition for which the judges received judging credit! The BJCP has the opportunity to ignore the commercial competitions or help to make some of them better. I think the facts support our embracing commercial competition participation by BJCP judges, not discouraging participation. The only competition I've seen that the judging was just on drinkability was a homebrew competition for which the BJCP awarded experience points. The GABF absolutely has style guidelines to which the beers are entered and judged with just the same effort that we do in homebrew competition. We train judges to use their evaluation skills and some events may use BJCP style guidelines and judging forms will others may differ. Nonetheless, skilled judges should be able to adjust and adapt. I'm not suggesting that we sanction or register commercial competitions, but if a commercial competition is held to some (as yet to be defined) standard, then participating BJCP judges would be eligible to received judging experience points for their efforts. . The benefit to us it that it spreads the good word about our skills and experience and gets recognition for the BJCP. So what is the opinion of the BJCP membership? Pros? Cons? Dave Houseman MidAtlantic Representative --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Return-Path: Received: from dolomite.mint.net ([216.227.128.33]) by synchro.com with SMTP (Mailtraq/1.1.5.1167) id SYNC9873A78CA for judge at synchro.com; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:27:55 -0400 Received: from nehealth.org (gw-nehealth-3.mint.net [216.227.189.180] (may be forged)) by dolomite.mint.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id LAA11602 for ; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:27:43 -0400 Received: from NEHDOM1-Message_Server by nehealth.org with Novell_GroupWise; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:22:57 -0400 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 5.5.3.1 Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:22:55 -0400 From: "Thomas O'Connor" Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" Errors-To: judge-owner at synchro.com Sender: judge at synchro.com To: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest Subject: Northern New England Regional Homebrew Competition, September 15th Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline X-Hops: 3 X-POST-MessageClass: 10; Mailing List Message Hi, all, "Tis again my pleasure to announce the 11th Annual NNERHC being held in = Rockport, Maine on Sat., Sept. 15th. This competition is the 4th in the = New England Homebrewer of the Year circuit. The usual 26 BJCP categories are being judged in beer, cider, and mead, = plus a category 27, which is an open category for 1st time entrants, = especially novices, and for beers of uncertain style or brewed with basic = technique. Entry fee is $5 per entry. 3 bottles for beer are requested, and 2 each = for cider and mead (unless 750 ml wine bottles are used, than one will = do). Fewer bottles will not disqualify an entry, but may leave the = entrant one short for the BOS table if it wins 1st place. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons will be awarded, as well as ribbons for = 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place BOS. A BOS trophy will be awarded, as well as = engraved beer glasses for every 1st place winner. There are no limits on the number of entries for each subcategory. If you = have more than one, please be sure to specify which is which on the bottle = labels. For entry forms, please see the New England Homebrewer of the Year website = at http://mail.symuli.com/NEHBOTY and you can link to the BJCP website = from there to get category nunbers/letters. Entry deadline is generously set at Wednesday Sept. 12th. Entries may be mailed/UPS'd to me at 15 Wildwood Lane, Rockport, ME 04856, = or dropped off at drop off locations: =20 The Purple Foot Downeast, 116 Maine St., Waldoboro, ME (207) 832-6286, The Hop Shop, Gray, ME (207) 657-5550, Stout Billy's Homebrew, 115 Mirona Rd., Portsmouth, NH (1-800-392-4792). BJCP Judges are dearly needed for judging this fine competition! Early = autumn in Maine is absolutely beautiful, and well-worth the trip. = Accomodations and directions are available upon request. For further info, contact Thomas J. O'Connor, III, M.D. at toconnor at nehealt= h.org or phone (207) 236-3527. --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Return-Path: Received: from vala.pair.com ([209.68.1.127]) by synchro.com with SMTP (Mailtraq/1.1.5.1167) id SYNC9983A7FD8 for judge at synchro.com; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:00:50 -0400 Received: (qmail 22961 invoked by uid 59292); 22 Aug 2001 02:00:36 -0000 Received: from localhost (sendmail-bs at 127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 22 Aug 2001 02:00:36 -0000 Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:00:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Dion Hollenbeck Errors-To: judge-owner at synchro.com Sender: judge at synchro.com X-Sender: Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" To: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest Subject: Heretical Suggestion Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Hops: 3 X-POST-MessageClass: 10; Mailing List Message I am currently preparing to take the BJCP exam once again and in so doing, it has prompted me to think about what we are having to memorize. I know that this will probably provoke some strong opinions, but why should we have to memorize the particulars of the style guidelines when every time we judge they are available to us in their full form? Would not our efforts be better spent on learning things which are 1) not available to us at each competition and 2) would better serve the brewer in giving him better feedback? Of what use is the memorization when the only time we will have to call up this information from memory is for the exam? Please do not misunderstand me, I am a proud BJCP member and thoroughly support education of brewers and judges in support of furthering our passion of beer appreciation. I just have always had a problem with examinations which comprise of giving back memorized facts that in use in the real world will always be available in some sort of reference material. What should be learned is the underlying principles of using those facts and putting them together in ways that are unique and useful. Respectfully, dion -- Dion Hollenbeck Email: hollen at woodsprite.com Home Page: http://www.woodsprite.com Brewing Page: http://hbd.org/hollen --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4-- --Next_Part_SYNC10013A81C4-- Received: from srvr20.engin.umich.edu (root at srvr20.engin.umich.edu [141.213.75.22]) by srvr5.engin.umich.edu (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id BAA00823 for ; Wed, 22 Aug 2001 01:06:58 -0400 (EDT) Received: from synchro.com (cccox.ne.mediaone.net [24.147.232.105]) by srvr20.engin.umich.edu (8.9.3/8.9.1) with SMTP id BAA22154 for ; Wed, 22 Aug 2001 01:06:56 -0400 (EDT) From: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" To: "Digest Recipients" Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" Subject: Digest for the period 8/21/01 - 8/22/01 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 01:04:15 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Next_Part_SYNC10013A81C4" X-Hops: 1 Status: RO --Next_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fw: Anne Arundel Co. Fair Homebrew Competition (Jim Wagner) BJCP Experience Points for Judging Commercial Beers (David Houseman) Northern New England Regional Homebrew Competition, September 15th (Thomas O'Connor) Heretical Suggestion (Dion Hollenbeck) --Next_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4" --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Return-Path: Received: from barry.mail.mindspring.net ([207.69.200.25]) by synchro.com with SMTP (Mailtraq/1.1.5.1167) id SYNC9733A6700 for judge at synchro.com; Mon, 20 Aug 2001 21:34:01 -0400 Received: from oemcomputer (pool-63.49.112.214.bltm.grid.net [63.49.112.214]) by barry.mail.mindspring.net (8.9.3/8.8.5) with SMTP id VAA24887 for ; Mon, 20 Aug 2001 21:33:54 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <008401c129e1$94c678e0$d670313f at oemcomputer> From: "Jim Wagner" Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" Errors-To: judge-owner at synchro.com Sender: judge at synchro.com To: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest Subject: Fw: Anne Arundel Co. Fair Homebrew Competition Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 21:35:36 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 X-Hops: 3 X-POST-MessageClass: 10; Mailing List Message ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Wagner To: judge at synchro.com Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 8:14 PM Subject: Anne Arundel Co. Fair Homebrew Competition The Anne Arundel County(Maryland) Fair will host it's 3rd annual(1st BJCP sanctioned) Homebrew Competition at the A.A.Co. Fairgrounds in Crownsville, Maryland. The judging will be on Wednesday, September 12th starting at 9:30am....I know it's a weekday, but it's too late to change it this year to a weekend, so if you are able, PLEASE COME! Lunch will be served to all judges and the fair will also give a small gratuity to each judge in attendance. Please call Chairman Joe Brotherton 410-721-1514 if you need directions to the fairgrounds or contact Jim Wagner 410-515-3222 duclawbrewer at mindspring.com if you have any other questions. --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Return-Path: Received: from hawk.mail.pas.earthlink.net ([207.217.120.22]) by synchro.com with SMTP (Mailtraq/1.1.5.1167) id SYNC9843A73F8 for judge at synchro.com; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 08:32:32 -0400 Received: from trhousemdlrem (user-2iniken.dialup.mindspring.com [165.121.81.215]) by hawk.mail.pas.earthlink.net (EL-8_9_3_3/8.9.3) with SMTP id FAA08075 for ; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 05:32:20 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <002201c12a3c$88dd66a0$d75179a5 at trhousemdlrem> Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" From: "David Houseman" Errors-To: judge-owner at synchro.com Sender: judge at synchro.com To: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest Subject: BJCP Experience Points for Judging Commercial Beers Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 08:26:40 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 X-Hops: 3 X-POST-MessageClass: 10; Mailing List Message I can't recall seeing the message below on JudgeNet. Perhaps it made it prior to the lightning strike and I missed it, but if not, I'm reposting in order to get feedback from judges: A several weekends ago Scott Bickham and I were among the judges judging a commercial competition at State College, PA. Actually a very nice little event with some wonderful beer. The question again came up about BJCP judges receiving judging credits for judging such events. Since I've had the opportunity to judge some of these, of course I'm biased. But other BJCP judges do participate and I was asked as the regional rep to bring this to the BJCP board for discussion. The BJCP board is discussing the issue but thought that perhaps this should be placed before the members for their feedback and opinions. Should the BJCP just limit recognition for judging only to homebrew events? Or set some minimal standards for commercial events as well? Frankly some of the commercial judging events are much better run than many of the homebrew events. Some do require feedback to the entrant; some do not. One possibility as I see it would be for the BJCP to publish a list of criteria, which might include the use of the BJCP Style Guidelines (or something substantially similar equivalent) as objective judging criteria, that a commercial competition must adhere to in order to have BJCP members who judge receive experience point credit. Having judged some commercial events the only style compromises I've seen are the inclusion of styles that reflected what was being brewed commercially, like Lite Rye or Caribbean Lager (40% cane sugar). But then we did the same by including the styles being brewed by homebrewers and eliminating those which really aren't popular. Not all the commercial competitions are sponsored by the commercial enterprises. A number of the smaller ones are in fact done with the proceeds going to charity. There is a range of commercial competitions from the GABF, WBC and the GBBF to small state fairs and regional or state competitions. The quality of the tasters in the GABF is outstanding. Any BJCP judge who judges there has the opportunity to learn from the best brewers/tasters of places like A-B and Coors. These guys don't pull their punches and don't compromise. While some of us may not care for their marketing, their technical people are excellent. A high percentage of the judges at the GABF are in fact BJCP judges. While they are there in their capacity as brewers or writers or owners, many are in fact BJCP judges. Should they not receive experience point credit for their judging experiences. Every judging experience can be nothing but beneficial. There aren't many of us that haven't judged a competition or three that the local club or organization hasn't placed some strange style on that particular competition's style guidelines. The Strange and Scary Homebrew Competition is an example. The Schukyll Dark style used at some local Philly competitions. These certainly weren't from any BJCP or AHA guidelines! Yet we judge them. I judged one competition that excluded styles! Just divided the beers by the color they appeared to be in their bottles and tasted for "best" beers. That was a homebrew competition for which the judges received judging credit! The BJCP has the opportunity to ignore the commercial competitions or help to make some of them better. I think the facts support our embracing commercial competition participation by BJCP judges, not discouraging participation. The only competition I've seen that the judging was just on drinkability was a homebrew competition for which the BJCP awarded experience points. The GABF absolutely has style guidelines to which the beers are entered and judged with just the same effort that we do in homebrew competition. We train judges to use their evaluation skills and some events may use BJCP style guidelines and judging forms will others may differ. Nonetheless, skilled judges should be able to adjust and adapt. I'm not suggesting that we sanction or register commercial competitions, but if a commercial competition is held to some (as yet to be defined) standard, then participating BJCP judges would be eligible to received judging experience points for their efforts. . The benefit to us it that it spreads the good word about our skills and experience and gets recognition for the BJCP. So what is the opinion of the BJCP membership? Pros? Cons? Dave Houseman MidAtlantic Representative --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Return-Path: Received: from dolomite.mint.net ([216.227.128.33]) by synchro.com with SMTP (Mailtraq/1.1.5.1167) id SYNC9873A78CA for judge at synchro.com; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:27:55 -0400 Received: from nehealth.org (gw-nehealth-3.mint.net [216.227.189.180] (may be forged)) by dolomite.mint.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id LAA11602 for ; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:27:43 -0400 Received: from NEHDOM1-Message_Server by nehealth.org with Novell_GroupWise; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:22:57 -0400 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 5.5.3.1 Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 11:22:55 -0400 From: "Thomas O'Connor" Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" Errors-To: judge-owner at synchro.com Sender: judge at synchro.com To: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest Subject: Northern New England Regional Homebrew Competition, September 15th Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline X-Hops: 3 X-POST-MessageClass: 10; Mailing List Message Hi, all, "Tis again my pleasure to announce the 11th Annual NNERHC being held in = Rockport, Maine on Sat., Sept. 15th. This competition is the 4th in the = New England Homebrewer of the Year circuit. The usual 26 BJCP categories are being judged in beer, cider, and mead, = plus a category 27, which is an open category for 1st time entrants, = especially novices, and for beers of uncertain style or brewed with basic = technique. Entry fee is $5 per entry. 3 bottles for beer are requested, and 2 each = for cider and mead (unless 750 ml wine bottles are used, than one will = do). Fewer bottles will not disqualify an entry, but may leave the = entrant one short for the BOS table if it wins 1st place. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons will be awarded, as well as ribbons for = 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place BOS. A BOS trophy will be awarded, as well as = engraved beer glasses for every 1st place winner. There are no limits on the number of entries for each subcategory. If you = have more than one, please be sure to specify which is which on the bottle = labels. For entry forms, please see the New England Homebrewer of the Year website = at http://mail.symuli.com/NEHBOTY and you can link to the BJCP website = from there to get category nunbers/letters. Entry deadline is generously set at Wednesday Sept. 12th. Entries may be mailed/UPS'd to me at 15 Wildwood Lane, Rockport, ME 04856, = or dropped off at drop off locations: =20 The Purple Foot Downeast, 116 Maine St., Waldoboro, ME (207) 832-6286, The Hop Shop, Gray, ME (207) 657-5550, Stout Billy's Homebrew, 115 Mirona Rd., Portsmouth, NH (1-800-392-4792). BJCP Judges are dearly needed for judging this fine competition! Early = autumn in Maine is absolutely beautiful, and well-worth the trip. = Accomodations and directions are available upon request. For further info, contact Thomas J. O'Connor, III, M.D. at toconnor at nehealt= h.org or phone (207) 236-3527. --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Return-Path: Received: from vala.pair.com ([209.68.1.127]) by synchro.com with SMTP (Mailtraq/1.1.5.1167) id SYNC9983A7FD8 for judge at synchro.com; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:00:50 -0400 Received: (qmail 22961 invoked by uid 59292); 22 Aug 2001 02:00:36 -0000 Received: from localhost (sendmail-bs at 127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 22 Aug 2001 02:00:36 -0000 Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:00:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Dion Hollenbeck Errors-To: judge-owner at synchro.com Sender: judge at synchro.com X-Sender: Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" To: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest Subject: Heretical Suggestion Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Hops: 3 X-POST-MessageClass: 10; Mailing List Message I am currently preparing to take the BJCP exam once again and in so doing, it has prompted me to think about what we are having to memorize. I know that this will probably provoke some strong opinions, but why should we have to memorize the particulars of the style guidelines when every time we judge they are available to us in their full form? Would not our efforts be better spent on learning things which are 1) not available to us at each competition and 2) would better serve the brewer in giving him better feedback? Of what use is the memorization when the only time we will have to call up this information from memory is for the exam? Please do not misunderstand me, I am a proud BJCP member and thoroughly support education of brewers and judges in support of furthering our passion of beer appreciation. I just have always had a problem with examinations which comprise of giving back memorized facts that in use in the real world will always be available in some sort of reference material. What should be learned is the underlying principles of using those facts and putting them together in ways that are unique and useful. Respectfully, dion -- Dion Hollenbeck Email: hollen at woodsprite.com Home Page: http://www.woodsprite.com Brewing Page: http://hbd.org/hollen --Message_Part_SYNC10013A81C4-- --Next_Part_SYNC10013A81C4--