What is Beer Judging?

As consumers that drink beer, we judge beer every time we drink it. We think about whether we like it or not, whether we think it's a good beer. But formal and competition beer judging is slightly different.  Today, I'm going to talk to you about the different ways that beer is judged, and the different ways that you could get into beer judging.

How consumers take part in beer judging

As a person that likes to drink beer, every time you drink beer, you are going to judge it.  You're going to consider whether you enjoyed the taste and would you recommend that to other people. We also judge beers based on there styles, it may be a style that you don't enjoy or one that you've just started to understand. So the style is going to make a big impact on how you judge that beer. We also judge beers by the brewery. We pick breweries that we particularly enjoy, and we return to buying their beers again and again.  Beer judging can also be done by consumers on apps such as Untapped. Sometimes these viewpoints can be quite misleading for breweries, and people have quite controversial things to say about the beers that they check into their accounts on Untapped. There are other places where you can do this as well online such as Rate Beer and Beer Advocate.

Beer Judging for Competitions – Beer Judge Certification Program

Beer judging for competition, however, is quite different. One of the organizations that is used for beer judging is the BJCP or the Beer Judge Certification Program. This is based in America and is a voluntary organization, which has set out style guidelines currently for 120 beers. In the 2015 version there are 4 provisional styles, and also mead and cider styles. The beer styles are separated into 34 categories.  These include sections such as Standard American Beer, Amber Malty European Lager, Brown British Beer and Belgian Ale, so they are separated together depending on style and also possibly area of the world that they've come from. These guidelines are periodically reviewed and new beers are added as new styles develop. For example, in the current guidelines, which were updated in 2015, New England IPA is set as a provisional style and has not yet been fully added into the guidelines. These guidelines are used at homebrew competitions, at beer festivals where beers are judged and they are also used to inform the beer style section of the Cicerone Certification Program. 

To become a beer judge as part of the BJCP you do have to go through an exam, take some training and also build up a range of points that are gathered from judging competitions but also from stewarding and helping out at competitions. So these guidelines are quite important to people that are looking to do some beer judging.

There is another set of guidelines as well, that comes from the Brewers Association, also in America, they are set out slightly differently, so it is quite interesting to look at the two to see where the differences are. You can download a PDF of both of these from their respective websites. Find the BJCP style guidelines here and the Brewers Association style guidelines here.  The BJCP also has a really useful app that you can download to your phone that has all of the guidelines in it.

Beer Judging in other countries

British beer judging, however, is slightly different.  CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale organises the Champion Beer of Britain competition. Judges are selected from well-respected brewers, beer journalists, and well-known beer enthusiasts. The beers for Champion Beer of Britain are put into six style categories. The beer judging is done on whether the judges enjoyed the beer and in fact, whether they would go out of their way to find the beer. This is a much less formal style of judging than in the US.

Beer judging in Belgium is again quite different. In fact, in Belgium, brewers don't adhere to guidelines at all. As far as they're concerned. They are going to make a delicious beer and they're going to make it however they want. They scoff at our beer guidelines and just make delicious beer! Here's to the Belgian brewers who are going to do it their way!

So as you can see, there are lots of different ways that beer judging can take place. The BJCP guidelines are very useful for understanding what a beer could or should be.  They can help you determine if the beer is a good example of the style and are a good base for beer knowledge. But at the end of the day, if you are doing some beer judging of your own, it's whether you really enjoy that beer. Because enjoying beer is the best part of our beer tasting hobby.

I'll be going through each of the beer style guidelines listed in the Beer Judge Certification Program, to test my knowledge and learn more about beer. Follow my journey here on the blog or via my You Tube Channel here.

If you'd like to learn more about beer, come and join us in my beer membership, The Beer Tent Society. We look at different beer styles informed by the BJCP guidelines each month and try different ones in a live tasting. You can find out more information and join The Beer Tent Society here.