What about becoming a BJCP judge?

As I mentioned in the first post, the initial goal of this project is to achieve BJCP certification to become a beer judge. BJCP stands for 'Beer Judge Certification Program.' It is a non-profit organization that evaluates and certifies people to be beer judges. The BJCP was founded in 1985 in the United States. Since the 1970s, there has been a major brewing boom in the land of Uncle Sam, which also created the need to define what does and does not belong to the globally recognized beer styles. The BJCP style guide is not the only one out there, but it is undoubtedly the most used by home brewers and microbreweries. The information in the style guide is used to test individuals interested in becoming BJCP-certified judges. As of this post, there were 6,788 active judges according to the BJCP website.

Thus, the BJCP not only certifies judges but also organizes and keeps this great bible of beer styles up to date. It’s important to note that the BJCP itself does not organize competitions but sanctions those that choose to use its criteria. When we talk about criteria, we're not only referring to the style guide but also to an entire code of ethical conduct and a systematic evaluation process that competitions must adopt.

So, are all beer judges certified by the BJCP? No. There are competitions that are not BJCP-sanctioned, as well as other types of training that can qualify a person to be a beer judge, such as a beer sommelier course. However, in BJCP-sanctioned competitions, only judges with BJCP certification, and thus BJCP members, are accepted. If you're interested, check out the BJCP page and stay tuned for the post on how the evaluation process works.