The new microbrewery that I was loosely involved with at it's beginnings has opened. Glad I left the owner to his own devices after his "pre-grand opening" (where he had none of his own beer ready to serve, only other micros). The beer he is selling is truly awful. One I sampled the other day was nearly undrinkable, with what I think was a budding infection. The other three were just plain bad. So bad that I would not be able to drink a pint of any of them.
And on that note, I just got my scores back from the BJCP tasting exam. I am now a BJCP judge with the rank of Certified. I was two points shy of the score required to take the Written Proficiency Exam, which is what is needed to pass with an 80% or better to achieve the rank of National. Their exam system (which is described on their website: http://www.bjcp.org/docs/BJCP_Exam_Structure.pdf) is a bit complicated, requiring three seperate tests. I'll decide whether or not it matters to me to take the written proficiency exam the next time an opportunity to take the tasting exam rolls around. It's somewhat tantalizing, having come so close (a score of 80% on the tasting exam and 10 judging points are required to take the final test. You need 20 experience points to advance to National rank if you score well enough {an 80% composite score between tasting exam and written proficiency exam} on the last test).
Gotta get brewing more again now that the weather's cooling. Have my best session APA so far going into competition this Saturday for 10/12 judging. High hopes, but it's a very crowded flight and there are some VERY good brewers in the area, so we'll see.
Hope you're all doing well and brewing great beer!
You might just have to go back and 'splain what he's doing wrong. It's a shame to make sucky beer.
20 minutes to go from 68* water to 157*. The really weird thing is the lack of noise.
