HISTORY OF BEER, HTTP

66. History of Beer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_beer

II. BEER JUDGING AND THE BJCP EXAM

The most complete and current information about the BJCP can be found on the BJCP web site (http://www.bjcp.org). The Member Resources section contains a wealth of information about the organization’s background, history and evolution. A. The BJCP Guide The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is a non-profit organization that encourages the advancement of education of people who are concerned with the evaluation of beer and related fermented products. The BJCP certifies Beer and Mead judges, and ranks beer judges through an exam and monitoring process. The program was created in 1985 through the joint efforts of the Home Wine and Beer Trade Association (HWBTA) and the American Homebrewers Association (AHA). Since 1995, the BJCP has operated independently of either founding organization, governed only by its membership of participating judges. In 1985, some 30 people took the BJCP beer exam and became certified. Since that first exam, over 200 judges have joined the ranks annually. At this time (March 2012), there are about 4,000 judges active in the BJCP and a total membership of over 6,500. The purpose of the BJCP is to promote beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. The BJCP Exam Prior to April 2012, the BJCP beer exam was comprised of two parts: essay and tasting, which were completed in a three hour time period. The essay portion was worth 70 percent of the final score and was designed to determine an individual’s overall knowledge of beer and his or her ability to clearly express the information in writing. The tasting portion of the exam was worth 30 percent of the final score, and each candidate was asked to judge four beers as he or she would at a competition. To score well on the tasting portion, the prospective judge must accurately score the beer and describe all significant aspects of it, as well as comment on style characteristics. That examination system that existed prior to April 1, 2012 is now called the BJCP Legacy Beer Examination. Beginning in 2009, the BJCP experienced a rapid growth in the number of prospective judges taking the exam, and this continued through 2011 with over 750 exams being administered annually. This growth produced a large number of essay exams, which were manually graded by volunteer National and Master judges. This is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming process, and even though new graders were constantly being recruited, the backlog of exams forced the BJCP to limit both the number of exam sites and the number of examinees at each site. This was not a sustainable situation, so beginning in April 2012, the BJCP revised the exam system to better meet the needs of the current and future membership. The key addition was a web-based entrance exam, which is electronically graded and serves the purpose of establishing the readiness of a prospective judge to take a proctored tasting exam. The revised BJCP beer exam now consists of three parts: