Subject: Digest for the period 4/27/2005 - 4/28/2005 Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 01:01:19 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. RE: The Purpose of the BJCP (Houseman, David L) 2. Re: The Purpose of the BJCP (Ed Westemeier) 3. RE: The Purpose of the BJCP - "Real Beer" (Al Boyce) 4. Re: Purpose of BJCP (John C. Tull) 5. Re: The Purpose of the BJCP (MeadGuild`at`aol.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Houseman, David L Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:31:10 -0400 Subject: RE: The Purpose of the BJCP When the BJCP says: "The purpose of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is to promote beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills." Exactly what is meant by "promote . . . the appreciation of real beer"? What is the BJCP actively doing toward this end? Ehh...drinking a lot of beer? :-) I believe the promotion of the appreciation of real beer comes about in part by the establishment of style guidelines for a wide variety of the world's beer styles and the registration and support of competitions in which the qualify of the beer is objectively assessed. David Houseman ********************************************************************** * 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, 27 Apr 2005 08:28:19 -0400 Subject: Re: The Purpose of the BJCP On Apr 27, 2005, Tom Schmidlin wrote: > > Exactly what is meant by "promote . . . the appreciation of real beer"? > > What is the BJCP actively doing toward this end? This may be just a matter of semantics. First, I think you'll find most of your answer when the new CEP is fully rolled out (quite soon, now). Second, the word "appreciation" has a couple of specific definitions. The primary one, from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is: 1 a : JUDGMENT, EVALUATION; especially : a favorable critical estimate b : sensitive awareness; especially : recognition of aesthetic values c : an expression of admiration, approval, or gratitude I think that "Judgment, Evaluation" covers what we do quite well. Ed Westemeier BJCP Communication Director ********************************************************************** * 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: Al Boyce Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:31:00 -0500 Subject: RE: The Purpose of the BJCP - "Real Beer" I just hit REPLY without chopping off the rest of the email, so I hope the JudgeNet janitors will delete my prior email. Otherwise, just read this one... Sorry! Tom Schmidlin wrote: >>Exactly what is meant by "promote . . . the appreciation of real beer"? >>What is the BJCP actively doing toward this end? Tom- I am the BJCP Treasurer, and the Regional Rep for the North region, but I speak for myself in answering your question, and of my own personal experience, not as a representative of the organization. I brewed extract beers for 9 years before I discovered the BJCP, and organized brewing in general. I did not know about the BJCP Style Guidelines. I only knew, following my trip to England in 1981, and a trip to Seattle shortly thereafter, that there was better beer than MillerBudCoors. I learned Guiness tasted different in England and Ireland than the stuff they imported and sold here. So I started making Stouts. I made a LOT of Stouts in 9 years! I don't remember how I learned about it, but I discovered that the Minnesota Home Brewers Association had a class that trained beer judges, and I signed up. In the course of the next 12 weeks, I was exposed to a WORLD of "Real Beers" - most of which I had never HEARD of before, and not all of which I liked (lambics :-( ). But I did come to APPRECIATE them. And I started buying quite a few of the new styles I'd learned, and brewing quite a few of them too. Through involvement in the beer club, I have now helped teach that same exam prep course to about a hundred new people since then, and helped them "appreciate real beer." And our club has had events at the State Fair, where literally thousands of people have stopped by and told about home brewing and real beer, and many other public events (you can hardly get homebrewers to STOP talking about beer!) And we have requested "real beer" from our liquor stores and bars, and many have complied. The strength of the BJCP's "promoting the appreciation of real beer" lies in it's members. To borrow a phrase from the AHA, most become EvangALEists (and EvangLAGERists...) once they take the BJCP Exam Prep course, and learn of the Styles outlined in the BJCP Style Guidelines, and try scores of the classic commercial examples of those beers. Now I'll speak as the North Regional Rep of the BJCP - what would YOU like to see the BJCP do to "promote the appreciation of Real Beer", and what will you do to help? An organization is as strong as it's members. We rely on MANY members from outside our Board of Representatives and officers in committee work and accomplishing the goals of the organization. We want to hear suggestions from our members of what they would like their organization to do, and we solicit their help in doing it. Thanks for bringing up the topic! ********************************************************************** * 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: John C. Tull Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 12:10:57 -0700 Subject: Re: Purpose of BJCP It is presumed that when one becomes educated about "real beer," they will also gain a greater appreciation. The BJCP provides opportunities for people to gain validation for their beer knowledge through the exam process. The BJCP provides opportunities for people to be recognized for their contributions as both a judge and as a non-judge volunteer in homebrew and commercial beer competitions. The BJCP develops standards and provides educational materials for people to advance their knowledge of beer. And this is all done as a volunteer organization. I don't know, but this seems like quite a bit to me. The BJCP is also working towards developing a continuing education program to further promote knowledge and appreciation of "real beer." John Tull > So, perhaps because I phrased my question to JudgeNet in a (hopefully) > humorous way, people though it was not a serious question. My > mistake. Let > me rephrase: > > When the BJCP says: > "The purpose of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is to > promote > beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer > tasting and evaluation skills." > > Exactly what is meant by "promote . . . the appreciation of real > beer"? > > What is the BJCP actively doing toward this end? > > Tom Schmidlin > > > ********************************************************************** > * 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: MeadGuild`at`aol.com Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 21:40:34 EDT Subject: Re: The Purpose of the BJCP Tom Schmidlin wrote (in part): > When the BJCP says: > "The purpose of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is to promote > beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer > tasting and evaluation skills." > > Exactly what is meant by "promote . . . the appreciation of real beer"? > > What is the BJCP actively doing toward this end? Well exactly what does "promote beer literacy" mean? Teach people how to read beer labels? (that was humor) The only thing I know that was etched in stone was when I left my first wife.. And I had to do that three times. So rewrite the mission statement, circulate to all members, read a hundred or more revisions plus several rewrites, redo and start the process again. We worked for three semesters on a mission statement for the University. As soon as the Dean left, the new Dean changed it. :) Dick ********************************************************************** * 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 * **********************************************************************