The purpose of the Beer Judge Certification Program is to promote beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. We certify and rank beer judges through an examination and monitoring process.

The BJCP was founded in 1985 and has administered the Beer Judge Examination to 4,683 individuals worldwide. 2,591 are currently active judges in the program, with over 400 holding the rank of National or higher. Since we started keeping detailed records, our members have judged over 432,369 beers and we have sanctioned over 3,428 competitions.

  • September 2008

    G U I L T Y ! ! !

    Former BJCP President and Treasurer William R. Slack entered into a Plea Agreement which was accepted by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire on September 2, 2008, one day before his scheduled trial. In the plea agreement, Mr. Slack agrees to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud for his role in a scheme to defraud the BJCP of between $30,000 and $70,000. The Court has scheduled a sentencing hearing on December 16, 2008 at 10:30am at the Federal Courthouse in Concord, NH.

    Although the wheels of justice have turned slowly, they do continue to turn. This process will not be complete until the sentencing hearing is concluded. We will withhold further comment on this matter until all the legal proceedings are finished. Then we will make a final report to our membership, as well as thank those whose diligent effort over many years led us to this day.


  • August 2008

    Exams Closed Through December

    Due to a huge exam planned for San Diego (45 examinees), the Exam Directors have closed registration for further exams in December. The exam program is likely to be stressed with the record turnout. We need experienced exam graders to volunteer to help clear an exam this size. Contact one of the Exam Directors listed on our Officers page. Update: Space was not available for all 80+ original examinees, so the test has been scaled back to 45. January exams are reopened, but December remains closed.

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    Website Changes

    Some technical changes have been made to the BJCP Website. We've converted most pages to use PHP rather than HTML, which will allow us to better maintain the consistency between pages and also allow us to add more dynamic content later. If you have bookmarks to individual pages, they will likely break. Try changing the extension from ".html" to ".php" and see if that works. Otherwise, start here and navigate to the new page and update your bookmarks. If you notice anything really broken, let us know.

    Thanks to Joe Dougherty for leading this change. After completing this project, Joe stepped down as webmaster. We are searching for a replacement. During this time, updates to the website might occur less frequently as they have over the last month.

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    Staff Updates

    The board has approved the following staff appointments:

    • Mike Dixon as Communication Director, replacing Ed Westemeier.
    • Joe Gerteis as Assistant CEP Director, replacing Mike Heniff.
    • Charlie Gow as a new Associate Exam Director.

    These and all other staff positions can be found on our officers page. The positions of Assistant Communication Director and Webmaster are currently vacant, but candidates are being interviewed.

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    First Mead Exam Given

    The first BJCP Mead Exam was given on August 3rd in St. Paul, MN as part of the Mead Day weekend celebration. The exam was co-administered by BJCP Exam Director (West) Steve Piatz and BJCP Mead Subcommittee Chairman Susan Ruud. Six examinees took this pilot test. Want to see the actual exam? We have it listed on the Mead Resources Page as the Sample Exam.

    We had hoped to give the first exam at the AHA NHC in Cincinnati, but the grading support was not yet in place. This first exam will allow us to pilot test the full exam and the grading program. Revisions may still be made to the exam based on the results of this test. We are using a larger team of graders on the initial exam to allow more graders to get experience with this exam.

    Additional mead exams will not be scheduled until the results of the pilot test are assessed and any adjustments made to the exam and program. In the meantime, the Exam Subcommittee is working on the Mead Study Guide. More information will be announced when the exam is closed and the results are known.

  • July 2008

    Color Guide Instructions Now Available Online

    The Color Guide page describes our new BJCP Color Guide, a free resource for BJCP members. It serves as a resource for instruction on color guide use, as well as details on how to care for it, and how to acquire replacements. All active BJCP members were mailed a guide in late May (which also let us validate your mailing addresses). Anyone taking the BJCP Exam will get a Color Guide along with their results, as will anyone being promoted.

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    AHA NHC Update

    You can now download the presentations given at the judge reception. Links for the presentations are located with their corresponding speaker on the agenda.

    All the experience points from the NHC have now been awarded, so check your record for judging and CEP points. If you think anything is missing, let Gordon know about it.

  • June 2008

    XML Style Guidelines

    An XML version of the 2008 style guidelines has been contributed by Greg LaPolla. It can be downloaded from the Style Center page.

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    BJCP Officers Election

    The BJCP Board of Directors has held their required annual election of officers. Gordon Strong and Al Boyce were reelected President and Treasurer, respectively, and Joe Formanek is the new Vice President, replacing Dave Sapsis who has retired from the board.

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    Cider Judge Training Grant Approved

    The BJCP Grant Committee has approved a $390 grant for Gary Awdey of Eden, NY to cover unreimbursed costs associated with supplying cider training kits to several AHA NHC first round judging sites.

    Gary has also personally provided this cider judge training to two groups of judges, one in Minneapolis and one in Virginia. This is the first year that cider has been judged in regional sites as part of the AHA National Homebrew Competition. On his own initiative, Gary developed a short training course for cider judges, procured commercial and homemade examples, and provided supplies to three judging regions. Those attending the training sessions received CEP credit. This grant recognizes the value of those training kits to BJCP judges.

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    Study Guide Revised

    A few small, but significant changes have been made in the BJCP Exam Study Guide, in an effort to clarify some points that were occasionally misinterpreted by examinees. In particular, the Guide now contains a full version of the first (BJCP) question on the exam, including the complete pool of true/false questions in that section. We feel fairly certain that anyone with an intelligence level above that of Saccharomyces should be able to obtain a passing score on this question, although we have been proven wrong before. Some minor wording changes were also made throughout.

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    New Style Guidelines Available

    Well, not really new guidelines, but one of the problems experienced with such a comprehensive set of guidelines is the sheer length of them. When you need to download a copy for printing, the current guidelines comprise a hefty package.

    So, in response to a number of requests, we have arranged for Cafepress to produce a printed and bound edition of the current style guidelines that you can order for delivery to your mailbox.

    This is a nicely formatted (easier to read) book, wirebound to lay flat. It costs $8.30 plus shipping, and the BJCP makes exactly one penny per copy sold (just as an accounting device). Typical shipping cost in the US is $5.00 for one copy, but if a group goes together, the shipping cost per copy can go way down. For example, the typical shipping cost for 10 books is $10.60, or $1.06 per copy. Canadian and international shipping costs are higher, of course, but that information is all available on the ordering website.

    To order the printed BJCP Style Guidelines, go to http://www.cafepress.com/bjcpstore.

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    Regional representatives elected

    The winners of the 2008 regional rep elections are:

    Mid-Atlantic:
    Gordon Strong (incumbent), with 83% of the total vote in the region.
    Voter turnout was 45% of the region's active members.

    Midwest:
    Joe Formanek (incumbent), with 82% of the total vote in the region.
    Voter turnout was 30% of the region's active members.

    South (no incumbent running):
    Phil Farrell, with 61% of the total vote in the region.
    Voter turnout was 34% of the region's active members.

    West (no incumbent running):
    Jamil Zainasheff, with 57% of the total vote in the region.
    Voter turnout was 42% of the region's active members.

    The winners will officially take office June 1, 2008.

    Our thanks have also been expressed to Lyle Brown, Pancho Luna, Mike Dixon, Jeff Glovan, and David Teckam for showing exceptional initiative and interest in the program.

  • April 2008

    Exam materials updated

    Many of the documents associated with the BJCP Beer Judge Exam have been updated. The updates are minor, but if you plan to administer, study for, take, or grade any exams in the near future, we encourage you to download the necessary documents in the Exam Center.

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    Upgraded forum software

    The BJCP Forums have been upgraded (thanks, Jamil) to the newest version of the phpBB software. We're confident that this will eliminate the various little bugs that have crept into the forums over time, and provide a better user experience.

  • February 2008

    Frequently Asked Questions Updated

    The list of Frequently Asked Questions has been expanded, to include questions specifically about our Style Guidelines.

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    BJCP Style Guidelines Revised

    The last (2004) revision of the style guidelines has been updated. This is not a major revision, and all the category and style names and numbers remain the same. Technically, this is the "2008 update to the 2004 guidelines" but will generally be known as the 2008 guidelines. The website navigation bar has been updated to point to the new version, and you can find a one-page PDF summary of the changes HERE.

    Special note for prospective exam takers:
    Exam graders will accept all answers based on either the new version or the previous version for the time being. Starting with exams taken in July 2008, only the new version will be considered correct when grading exams.

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    BJCP Annual Report for 2007 Published

    The BJCP officers have put together the annual report covering most of our activities for the last year. We encourage all members to read it and become aware of what's going on in our program.

  • January 2008

    New Limit on Exam Scheduling

    Due to the significant growth in requests to schedule the BJCP Beer Judge Examination, we have had to impose a scheduling limit of no more than five exams per month. The reason is simply that we don't have enough volunteer exam graders to provide a reasonable turnaround time at present.

    But you can help! If you are a National judge or higher (or a Certified judge with a score of 80 or better on the essay portion and some relevant experience), please contact one of the Exam Directors to volunteer as an exam grader.

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    Beer Flavor Training Kits

    One of the original goals of our Continuing Education Program (CEP) was to provide new resources to help people prepare for the BJCP Beer Judge Exam. After a lot of work by our CEP team, we are delighted to announce (January 2008) the immediate availability of a beer flavor training kit.

    These are custom kits, made up to our specifications by the FlavorActiV company, the world's largest provider of beer flavor training services and products.

    Please check the CEP section for more information.

  • Former BJCP Treasurer Indicted For Fraud (May 2007)

    As many members know, there has been an ongoing effort to deal with the failure of the former BJCP Treasurer, Mr. William R. Slack, of Nashua, New Hampshire, to turn over the funds in the treasury to the current Treasurer. Mr. Slack, also a former BJCP President, has not communicated with the current Board of Directors, and we have been pursuing a resolution of this matter since 2004.

    For obvious reasons, the BJCP officers and legal committee are unable to comment publicly, but we feel the membership deserves to be kept informed as much as possible.Links in the following paragraphs will display the relevant documents.

    We recently learned that a Federal Grand Jury has indicted Mr. Slack for fraud. This indictment was reported in the local newspaper in Nashua. Mr. Slack was served with a summons on April 30, 2007 for his initial appearance in U.S. District Court on May 17, 2007.

    Mr. Slack appeared with his public defender at that hearing, and entered a plea of "not guilty" to the charge. He was released pending trial, subject to a number of conditions, and a trial date has been set for July 10, 2007.

    The Department of Justice has issued a press release describing the case, including potential penalties. The case is also summarized in their Annual Report, page 66.

    1st Update: Mr. Slack, through his public defender, requested a continuance (legalese for a delay in going to trial). On June 26, 2007, the court granted his request, and rescheduled his trial for October 10, 2007.

    2nd Update: Mr. Slack, through his public defender, requested a second continuance which was also granted, which postpones his trial until at least February 5, 2008.

    3rd Update: Mr. Slack, through his public defender, requested a third continuance which was also granted, which postpones his trial until at least June 3, 2008.

    4th Update: Mr. Slack, through his public defender, requested a fourth continuance which was also granted, which postpones his trial until at least September 3, 2008.

    5th Update: Mr. Slack, through his public defender, entered into a plea agreement on September 2, 2008. In the agreement, Mr. Slack agreed to plead guilty to his crime. Sentencing is scheduled for December 16, 2008 at 10:30am at the Federal Courthouse in Concord, NH.

    We continue to work closely with the appropriate authorities, but since legal proceedings are continuing, we are not able to comment at this time beyond this statement.

  • Earlier news items can be found on the News page, which also has a link to the Archives page containing even older items.