Subject: Digest for the period 1/26/2005 - 1/27/2005 Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 01:02:53 -0500 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Re: Digest for the period 1/24/2005 - 1/25/2005 (Annie Johnson) 2. Witbier ingredients (Rich Ireland) 3. Re: Wit ingredients (Jan 25) (Gordon Strong) 4. BJCP annual report and election notice (Ed Westemeier) 5. BJCP exams (Scott Bickham) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Annie Johnson Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 09:21:12 -0800 (PST) Subject: Re: Digest for the period 1/24/2005 - 1/25/2005 "And all wheat is not created equal. Broadly, there is soft and hard wheat. Soft wheat has weaker gluten and is softer and easier to mill. It also is typically lower in protein than hard, 9-10% vs. 12-14%. Some wheat varieties are planted in the spring and harvested in the fall (spring wheat) or planted in the fall and harvested in the summer (winter wheat). Spring wheats are generally grown in colder, drier areas and tend to have higher protein levels and stronger gluten than winter varieties. Furthermore, the bran can be red or white (not the husk, which wheat does not have as a naked grain). A single gene controls both color and the level of tannin and phenolics in the bran. White wheat is lower in both of these bitter compounds than red. I like the softness this seems to give to wits. Pierre Celis brewed with the local soft white winter wheat in Belgium, but uses the local hard red winter wheat in Texas. I prefer soft, white winter wheat over hard red for wit beers. I would chose soft red winter wheat as a second choice for the protein characteristics. Fortunately, Michigan is one of the top producers of soft, white, winter wheat, as is NY. Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin also grow it. A bit is grown in the Pacific NW on contract for local maltsters, which should tell you something about its brewing desirability." In the US, hard red winter wheat is predominately what one will find at the local homebrew shop. Across the pond, it's not the same story. I agree with you that the 2004 guidelines are correct and simply view the differences between 1999 and 2004 as evolution of fact. Cheers! Annie JudgeNet - the beer judge digest wrote: Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. BJCP Belgian Wit Ingredients (Tom Schmidlin) 2. Spirit of Belgium Homebrew Competition results (Anderson Robert W (Andy) NSSC) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tom Schmidlin Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:37:16 -0800 (GMT-08:00) Subject: BJCP Belgian Wit Ingredients Sorry if I missed a discussion on this earlier, but I've noticed that the 2004 guidelines list the ingredients for Belgian Wit as "About 50% unmalted wheat (traditionally soft white winter wheat)". This is in direct contrast to the 1999 specs which state "About 50% unmalted hard red winter wheat". This strikes me as a pretty big change. Presumably the 2004 version is correct, so I'm curious if this was a well known (to others) mistake in the 1999 version or if it was only discovered when the guidelines were being revised? I don't brew (and tend not to judge) wheat beers, so I've got little to no experience with this style (outside of the occasional Hoegaarden). Thanks in advance. Tom ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Anderson Robert W (Andy) NSSC Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:47:16 -0500 Subject: Spirit of Belgium Homebrew Competition results Greetings, On 15 January, the Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP) held the homebrew competition for Spirit of Belgium 2005 (SOB). While the homebrew competition was just that Saturday morning, the entire SOB lasted for 3 days. We had a total of 150 homebrew entries, which makes this our largest SOB Belgian Beer Homebrew contest yet. Congratulations to Jay Adams of Mill Spring, NC who won Best of Show AND 2nd place BOS. His Straight Lambic won BOS, while his Flemish Red Ale garnered 2nd place BOS. Steve Piatz of the Minnesota Home Brewers Association prevented Jay from sweeping all the prizes by winning 3rd place BOS with his tripel. Anyway, all the results can be found at: http://www.burp.org/events/sob/2005/competitionwinners.htm Cheers, Andy Anderson SOB 2005 Homebrew Contest Organizer ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rich Ireland Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:06:34 -0500 Subject: Witbier ingredients Although I am not a food scientist, It makes more sense to agree with the previous style guidelines calling for the use of hard winter wheat. Hard wheat is higher in gluten (proteins) which should enhance the turbidity of the witbier. The soft varieties are high in starch content; so one could logically conclude that some of those starches will convert into fermentable sugars and not lend themselves to cloud the beer like the proteins would. This whole theory could come crashing down if the hard wheat proteins are easily precipitated during a good boil... Any real food scientists out there that would like to weigh in? Rich Ireland -----Original Message----- From: JudgeNet - the beer judge digest [mailto:judge`at`synchro.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 1:04 AM To: Digest Recipients Subject: Digest for the period 1/24/2005 - 1/25/2005 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. BJCP Belgian Wit Ingredients (Tom Schmidlin) 2. Spirit of Belgium Homebrew Competition results (Anderson Robert W (Andy) NSSC) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tom Schmidlin Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:37:16 -0800 (GMT-08:00) Subject: BJCP Belgian Wit Ingredients Sorry if I missed a discussion on this earlier, but I've noticed that the 2004 guidelines list the ingredients for Belgian Wit as "About 50% unmalted wheat (traditionally soft white winter wheat)". This is in direct contrast to the 1999 specs which state "About 50% unmalted hard red winter wheat". This strikes me as a pretty big change. Presumably the 2004 version is correct, so I'm curious if this was a well known (to others) mistake in the 1999 version or if it was only discovered when the guidelines were being revised? I don't brew (and tend not to judge) wheat beers, so I've got little to no experience with this style (outside of the occasional Hoegaarden). Thanks in advance. Tom ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Anderson Robert W (Andy) NSSC Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:47:16 -0500 Subject: Spirit of Belgium Homebrew Competition results Greetings, On 15 January, the Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP) held the homebrew competition for Spirit of Belgium 2005 (SOB). While the homebrew competition was just that Saturday morning, the entire SOB lasted for 3 days. We had a total of 150 homebrew entries, which makes this our largest SOB Belgian Beer Homebrew contest yet. Congratulations to Jay Adams of Mill Spring, NC who won Best of Show AND 2nd place BOS. His Straight Lambic won BOS, while his Flemish Red Ale garnered 2nd place BOS. Steve Piatz of the Minnesota Home Brewers Association prevented Jay from sweeping all the prizes by winning 3rd place BOS with his tripel. Anyway, all the results can be found at: http://www.burp.org/events/sob/2005/competitionwinners.htm Cheers, Andy Anderson SOB 2005 Homebrew Contest Organizer ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gordon Strong Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 19:46:14 -0500 Subject: Re: Wit ingredients (Jan 25) > Sorry if I missed a discussion on this earlier, but I've noticed that the > 2004 guidelines list the ingredients for Belgian Wit as "About 50% > unmalted wheat (traditionally soft white winter wheat)". This is in > direct contrast to the 1999 specs which state "About 50% unmalted hard red > winter wheat". > > This strikes me as a pretty big change. Presumably the 2004 version is > correct, so I'm curious if this was a well known (to others) mistake in > the 1999 version or if it was only discovered when the guidelines were > being revised? I don't brew (and tend not to judge) wheat beers, so I've > got little to no experience with this style (outside of the occasional > Hoegaarden). Thanks in advance. I can answer this one... The 1999 specs were basically written to state what Celis was doing in Texas rather than what Hoegaarden was doing in Belgium. Pierre got what was local and cheap rather than what was traditional. The 2004 specs corrected this error. I wrote the guidelines with extensive input from Randy Mosher, who cites this as one of his most favorite styles and has done extensive research, and Jeff Sparrow, who wrote a Zymurgy article on the subject and gave me notes from his visit to Hoegaarden. However, the prize for detecting this error goes to Mr. CAP (Jeff Renner) who wrote (regarding "hard red winter wheat"): "This simply is not true. Pierre Celis used hard red winter wheat in Texas because he was in the hard red winter wheat growing area, but in Belgium, soft winter wheat is used (white, I believe). This has lower protein and I think it is to be preferred. I use Michigan grown soft white winter wheat myself. Michigan grows a significant portion of this. I like white wheat because it has less phenols and tannins, although I don't know if that really makes a difference." Gordon Style Committee Chairman ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Westemeier Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 14:37:13 -0500 Subject: BJCP annual report and election notice Two BJCP announcements of interest to all current judges: 1. ANNUAL REPORT TO MEMBERS The annual BJCP report to members is available on our website (www.bjcp.org) and includes the President's letter to members and a current financial statement. 2. BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTIONS (West, Midwest, South, Mid-Atlantic) Every year, we go through the exercise of updating our BJCP Board of Directors (also known as the Regional Representatives). These are the seven people who each represent a geographical region, and are (1) the only elected officials in the BJCP and (2) the ones who make all the big decisions. Normally, when elections are held in the Spring, two things happen: a. Representatives are reelected unopposed because nobody else bothered to become a candidate. b. There are howls of dismay, crying "Why didn't you remind me about this?" Please note that we reminded you (in this forum) back in November (remember?). We're looking for elections in these regions: Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, South, and West. If you're not sure which region you're in, please check our website. If you would like to become one of this exalted tribe, get your petition in by the end of January (that's this coming Monday) to BJCP, Attn: Program Administrator, PO Box 375, Hayward, CA 94543. You get 500 words (total) for your biography and position statement, and you need five regular BJCP members from your region to support your candidacy. You might get a couple of days grace if you let Russ know it's on its way (program_admin`at`bjcp.org), but I can't guarantee that. Thanks for your interest, Ed Westemeier BJCP Communication Director communication_director`at`bjcp.org ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Scott Bickham Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 17:51:08 -0500 Subject: BJCP exams Greetings, Just wanted to make a few brief announcements. The first is that the BJCP exam committee has been quite busy looking at an array of issues, but the first result is that we have made the exam consistent with the 2004 Style Guidelines. That doesn't mean that we will stray too far from the mainstream styles on the exam, but knowing more styles can only help your judging. Other things we are working on are building a better process around the exam procedures and selection of the exam beers. Ed Wolfe is doing a stellar job as chair of the committee, and he has led a number of very active discussions on topics on interest. More details will be forthcoming. A second announcement is that we will be holding a BJCP exam in conjunction with the AHA National Homebrew competition in Baltimore. Possible dates are June 16th (the beginning of the conference), and June 18th (the Saturday morning during the conference). If you would like to register, please let me know, along with your date preference. Finally, we are continuing to look for new graders, so anyone who is interested and has scored more than 80% on the exam should contact me. Cheers, Scott Bickham BJCP exam director, East sbickham`at`stny.rr.com ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * **********************************************************************