Category Archives: BJCP

Announcing Spring Showdown 2019 – Homebrew Competition

April 1, 2019BJCP, CompetitionsBJCP, brewcomp, homebrew, torontoGTA Brews

Click Here to go to the main competition page and register!

Our popular seasonal homebrew competition is back for 2019! As usual, we will be accepting all styles of beer, mead, and cider. Since this is our small competition, entry will be restricted to GTA Brews members only.

This seasonal competition is designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members to enter their beers for feedback and fun. The focus is on providing excellent feedback, so we keep the entry cap and fee low. Our hope is that lots of first-time entrants will find themselves on the winners list and be motivated to continue entering competitions. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the 2015 BJCP Guidelines.

Continue reading Announcing Spring Showdown 2019 – Homebrew Competition →

Announcing Spring Showdown 2018 – Homebrew Competition

March 14, 2018BJCP, CompetitionsBJCP, brewcomp, homebrew, torontoGTA Brews

Click Here to go to the main competition page and register!

The sixth competition in this small competition series will take place in May, and since we skipped Winter Warmer, we will be accepting all styles of beer, mead, and cider!

These seasonal competitions are designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members (and anyone else) to enter their beers for feedback and fun. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the 2015 BJCP Guidelines.

Continue reading Announcing Spring Showdown 2018 – Homebrew Competition →

Brew Slam 2017 – Wrap Up

February 5, 2018BJCP, Community, Competitions, EventBrew Slam, brewcomp, BrewerOfTheYear, homebrew, HomebrewCompetition, torontoGTA Brews

Brew Slam 2017 is finally wrapped up after almost a whole year of planning, and a ton of execution. What a year! The last of the prizes made their way into the hands of our winners this week, so it’s finally time to write my annual wrap up post. With 806 entries judged, I’m very proud to say that we met and exceeded our goal for 2017 of becoming Canada’s largest homebrew competition (by almost 300 entries)!

The judging and awards for Brew Slam 2017 happened back in November, but we’ve been hard at work since then making sure that everyone got their prizes as fast as we could. Don’t stop reading now because some pretty amazing things happened this year that I want to share.
Continue reading Brew Slam 2017 – Wrap Up →

BJCP Exam Prep Tips from Eric

July 7, 2017BJCP, Learning MaterialBeerJudgeTraining, BJCPEric Cousineau

Online Exam Tips

The BJCP Entrance Exam (online exam) is based on the BJCP Exam Study Guide, and many of the questions come right out of there
The styles tested are from the 2015 BJCP Guidelines
There is a 20 question practice exam available for free at: http://bjcp.coursewebs.com/
Write this exam ASAP so you can judge homebrew competitions for practice
You can buy the 3for2 package that gives you three attempts, do this and just take a shot to see where you need to study
Here is a presentation from Victor North, that provides a good Intro to the BJCP
Here is a blog post that goes over the exam and gives some more specific tips: http://barleypopmaker.info/2014/07/23/5-tips-for-passing-the-bjcp-online-entrance-exam/
The online exam is PASS/FAIL, so don’t obsess about perfection, just focus on getting through it so you can begin practicing scoresheets

Tasting Exam Prep Tips

Practice filling out scoresheets for all kinds of beers, especially ones that aren’t world class examples
I highly recommend that everyone read the BJCP Scoresheet Guide before the exam so you have an idea what the graders are looking for
My blog post has lots of tips, including a breakdown of an exam that I scored 82 on
My blog post has lots of links at the bottom, but here are a few favourites:
- Scoresheet deconstruction, BarleyPopMaker Tips, BlueRibbonBrews Template, BlueRibbonBrews Tips, Brewnology Podcast Episode 4

Tasting Exam Outline

Exam consists of writing scoresheets for 6 beers, with 15 mins given per beer
Bring mechanical pencil, erasers, and other writing items you want
Only basic calculators can be used, no smartphone apps
This is a closed book exam, referring of the guidelines is not allowed
The exam only covers categories 1-26, specialty categories are not included
Be prepared to write neatly and firmly to ensure the graders can read your writing clearly when scanned, also do not write to the edges or on the back of the pages