Northeast
Max Finnance
Greetings Fellow North East Judges!
It has been a relatively quiet winter and early spring in the Northeast, hopefully that means you all have had more time to fire up the brew kettles, dive into a new beer book, or grade an exam set or two.
I have crossed paths with many of you over the past few months, judging at the Ocean State Homebrew Competition (RI) and Homebrew Alley (NY). I also proctored a mead exam in Rhode Island last month, but sadly our beer judging exam had to be canceled due to lack of interest. There is a beer judging exam scheduled in NYC for 6/2. I remain committed to helping all judges in our region find seats for the exams they’re trying to take, so please reach out to me if you’ve struggled to find a date for any of the BJCP exams.
Speaking of exams, Assistant Rep. Eric Cousineau administered both a beer judging exam and a beer written exam in April and May (respectively) in Toronto, thanks to him for continuing to help folks enter and advance in the BJCP ranks.
Assistant Rep. Jay Hersh is staying busy in Northern New England, continuing his important work as an exam AD, and will have helped with the Greg Noonan Memorial HBC (5/4) by the time you read this. With some of the MontreAlers sending in entries, this is a truly “international” competition.
In the coming months there are great opportunities to judge across our region at the CT Craft Beer Grand Prix (5/11), Erie County Fair Homebrew Comp (5/19), 1st Annual BrewHQ Homebrew Challenge (6/1), 27th Beer & Mead Brew Off (6/8), the CT Club-Only Homebrew Comp (6/8), and the OHBS 1st Homebrew Challenge (7/22).
I’d also like to draw special focus to the NHC First Round, which will again have a judging site in Brooklyn, with judging 6/7 & 6/8. Asst. Rep Katie Sloan is an organizer for the NYC location, and this is sure to be a fantastic two days of judging.
Finally, congratulating Bernie Ramchatesingh for his advancement to National and Mirella Amato for her advancement to Master!
I hope to see as many of you as possible as I’m making the rounds judging this spring, and please reach out if you have any questions or concerns for the Northeast region.
Cheers,
Max
Mid-Atlantic
Fred Mullner
HOMEBREW IS GOOD!
IF YOU LAMENT THE LACK OF THIS YEAR’S CLUB NIGHT, BEER & SWEAT IS THE NEXT CLOSEST THING!
Bloatarian Brewing League presents the 36th Annual BEER & SWEAT KEG-ONLY HOMEBREW COMPETITION! 
Imagine…. Over 100 kegs of homebrew all on tap for you to sample after judging is complete!
Join BBL and friends for camaraderie, shenanigans, and the Blessing of the Brews within the sacred chambers of the Holiday Inn & Suites Cincinnati Eastgate on August 10th… comfortable lodging is again just a stumble away from the tasting hall.
ENTRY DISCOUNT OFFER – ENTER YOUR BEER FOR FREE!
BUT HURRY! Book your room(s) with the Holiday Inn Eastgate using our block code BSK by June 1, and you will receive a one-time-use discount code for a FREE entry registration ($10 value) for each room night you book. Stay two nights, get two free entries! To get the discount code check the rules at our BAP competition site and be sure to follow at the Beer and Sweat Facebook page for updates. Registration for entries and judges/stewards opens on June 24.
*************************************
Dominion Cup
Richmond Virginia, August 17,2024
Fellow Homebrew Judges – Be sure to save the date(s) for the 31st (or 32nd, we’re not sure) Dominion Cup, sponsored by the James River Homebrewers, in Richmond, Virginia. The final two rounds and Best of Show will be held Saturday, August 17, 2024 at the Richmond Volleyball Club. Early rounds will take place earlier in the week.
The Dominion Cup has become one of the premier homebrew competitions on the East Coast. We expect at least 500 entries. In addition, there will be some serious prizes in the judges’ raffle.
The web site for registering beers and to volunteer to judge or steward will be open around July 1. Emails to Mid-Atlantic BJCP Judges will go out before then with details. You may want to add [email protected] to your contacts to keep these important emails out of your junk folder.
If you have any questions, please contact me at the above email address.
Jeff Hewit
*************************************
Brewers for Real Potables (BURP) held the 30th Annual Spirit of Free Beer Home Brew
Competition on April 6, 2024 hosted by Silver Branch Brewing in Silver Spring, MD. There were 207 entries this year, up from ~147 last year. The 207 entries were spread across thirty-four 2021 BJCP categories and were judged across twenty flights in two separate judging sessions, with twenty beers moving to the Best of Show table.
This years Best of Show winners are:
- Best of Show – Cole Christian from DC Homebrewers with an English Porter called Porter Alfredson
- 2nd Place – Mark Hogenmiller from BURP with a Mixed Fermentation Sour Beer called Le Petit Bouffon
- 3rd Place – Matt Pyle from BURP with a California Common called Worthy
And a shout out to our Bill Moe Award winner for best extract-based beer:
- Keith Blanchard from Morris Area Society of Homebrewers with a Saison called Return of the Highwayman
CONGRATULATIONS not only to our Best of Show winners, but to everyone that medaled in their category!!! We can’t wait to see everyone back in 2025 for the 31st Annual Spirit of Free Beer Home Brew Competition!
Matt Peppe
President, BURP
*************************************
The Butler County Brewing Society is proud to announce the 5th Annual Fermentation Frenzy BJCP Competition. The competition will be held on Saturday, July 27th at 9:30am. A nationwide contest that started in 2019 is now in its 5th year and will be held in Hamilton, Ohio at the Butler County Fairgrounds. Open to all Homebrewers who make Beer, Mead, and Cider. This will be a special event this year as we will have many of the highest ranking BJCP judges to assess your creations. Cost is $10 per entry with all the details found at: https://frenzy.butlercountybrewing.org/.
If you’re also a Winemaker, we will be having the Fermentation Frenzy Wine competition at the same time and place. Check out: https://winefrenzy.butlercountybrewing.org/ for more details and to enter. As always, we are looking for more judges and stewards! Contact Lance Clayton, Competition Coordinator, at 513-300-9627 or [email protected] for questions or more details.
Some special news from the Butler County Brewing Society in Hamilton, Ohio. We are pleased to announce 3 of our club members have just passed their tasting exam and are now official BJCP Judges! Congratulations to Chuck Beardslee, Lance Clayton, and Matt Cutter who now join Cory Aldrich as the 4 members of BCBS in this exclusive group. A big shout out to Cory Aldrich as he set up study/tasting sessions to get everyone well prepared for the tasting exam and shout out to Rick Franckhauser who ran the tasting exam with his “Franckenbeers” and asking us to judge a sour Wee Heavy as a Flanders Red (HaHa). Having this group of judges and their knowledge will help propel our club to greater brewing and more knowledgeable club members!
Prost,
Fred Mullner
Asia-Pacific
Mark Hibberd
We have a new Master Judge in our region to congratulate, our first home-grown Master judge in Australia. Congratulations to David Gilks from the Canberra Brewers! He brings the total number of Master judges in the region to four. I know David worked hard to attain the rank, is an active grader, and overall a keen contributor to the BJCP community. In case you missed it, David was profiled in a recent newsletter https://www.bjcp.org/newsletter/members-spotlight-2/
On that note, I’m happy to see more judges resitting the Tasting Exam with the aim of achieving 80+ scores as the first step in progressing to higher ranks. I’m also pleased to see an increase in the number of sites in our region hosting quarterly Written exams (China, Australia, New Zealand). If you have questions about finding an exam or contributions for the next update, please reach out to me at [email protected]
North
Gail Milburn
Hello from the North Region! As we enter late Spring and glorious Summer, the competitions and events are ramping up. Alaska sees the Great Alaska Craft Beer and Homebrew Festival on May 25 in Haines. The Prairie Beer Awards on May 27 in Winnipeg led by Assistant North Region Representative Dave Cole will be a big event with a number of highly ranked judges.
I’ll be helping judge at our Michigan inter-club showdown the Celebrity Deathmash on June 1. The Nordeast Brewers Alliance is holding the Sour Times Homebrew Competition on June 8 in Minneapolis and the Aurora Brewing Classic will be held the same day in Edmonton.
The Michigan Beer Cup (which includes Cider and Mead) will be held on July 20, this year on the west side in Kalamazoo. The following week will be the Michigan State Fair Homebrew Competition in Novi on July 27. August brings the BRB Sizzlin’ Hop Summer Showdown in Parkland County, Alberta on August 12 and the 8th Annual Manitowoc County Fair Blue Ribbon Homebrew Competition on August 17 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, as well as the Minnesota State Fair Homebrew Competition in St. Paul on August 24. With a new organizer this year, the Great Lakes Cider and Perry Competition (GLINTCAP), held May 15-17 in Grand Rapids Michigan, is not a sanctioned competition as of this writing but remains a great way to learn about Cider by judging or stewarding.
The Exam Calendar includes the BJCP President Sandy Cockerham administering Beer and Written exams in Winnipeg on June 1 (thanks, Sandy!) and the first ever Cider exam in Michigan on September 14 administered by Grand Master Judge Mike Winnie.
Your Regional Representative and Assistant Representative also have busy judging schedules including Dave Cole organizing the Prairie Beer Awards in Winnipeg in May, traveling to Oslo Norway in June for the Askim Olfestival, and serving as a Head Judge for the Canada Beer Cup in Niagara Falls in September. Your Regional Representative Gail Milburn will be judging in Indianapolis in May for the 1st Round National Homebrew Competition and also in July for the Indiana Brewers Cup, as well as the Celebrity Deathmash and the Michigan Beer Cup and possibly a couple of other competitions, as well. I’ll also be proctoring beer, mead and cider exams in next few months, as well. June brings travel to Poland to learn more about the wonderful world of Polish Mead!
As always, I encourage you to get those experience points and increase your judging skills by signing up to judge at any and all competitions that you can. If you are a new judge or looking to take one of the three types of judging exams (Beer, Mead or Cider), stewarding is a great way to learn about judging that type of beverage. Cheers and happy judging!
West
Brian Cooper
We are still seeing fairly strong activity, with many of our exams running quite full. Our San Diego area judges recently administered a (full) beer exam in Mexico City, as we continue to support neighboring regions’ needs. Interest in judging remains strong, with various study groups bringing up new judges.
Although competitions come and go, it seems the majority of major regional competitions are continuing, usually with solid entry counts. A few are seeing higher entry counts than in the past — usually with extra effort toward promotion — while others have trended a bit downward from past highs.
Importantly, the West region looks forward to being a major hub of judging for this year’s National Homebrew Competition. First Round judging will be held in San Diego June 7th – 8th, and Final Round judging will be done there August 17th to 24th. I strongly encourage our judges to come out and assist with these.
Also, I would personally like to welcome Hirendu Vaishnav from our region to his position as a new Assistant Director in the IT Directorate. He has jumped right in with our IT Directors to work toward updating our IT system, and I am hearing and seeing promising signs from that team. The new system will help to improve efficiencies all around, making the work of BJCP officers easier, and giving members more freedom to update their own information, among other things.
One last note, during the recent (painful) period of lengthier grading delays, I worked to try to encourage as many of our National and higher judges to grade exams as possible. We are seeing signs of improvement, but the need is still great. A relatively small number of regular graders carry a disproportionate amount of the grading workload. I’ll take this moment to encourage all who are qualified to jump in and help when they are able.
Here’s two photos taken after our Mexico City BJCP beer tasting exam…
Europe, Middle East, Africa
Marek Kaminski
Competitions:
– the UK’s most anticipated homebrew competition of the year takes place this weekend – LAB Open competition and festival will happen at Hammerton Brewery in North London. 350 entries and three days of judging followed by the general public being invited to sample all the beers attend the awards ceremony,
– later in May Reading Amateur Brewers will host a sours only competition, and October will bring a British & Irish beers only competition hosted by Norwich Amateur Brewers.
Exams:
– the number of exams is also going strong with tasting exams across the continent and new exams locations in Palermo, Vielha, Rennes and Milan among others,
– tasting and written exams are scheduled to return in Barcelona, Madrid, London, Brno and Poznan,
– more exams are lined up in Wales, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Hungary among others.
Midwest
Sandy Cockerham
Hi Judges!
National Homebrew Competition First Round sites have begun in the Midwest! Indianapolis’ NHC has begun early flights of the smallest categories and the main judging will be Friday, May 17 and Saturday, May 18.
Kansas City’s NHC site will be judged June 3-8 and Chicago’s dates are June 11, 14 and 15. Please support the First Round sites!
The St. Louis Brews held a BJCP Cider judging exam last month. I believe the next exam in the region will be the BJCP Beer Judging Exam I’m giving on July 14, the Sunday after Indiana Brewers Cup competition happens.
Wishing all judges a continued great Spring and beginning of summer. I hope to see you all out at various competitions!
South
Sal Mortillaro II
No updates at this time
Latin America
James Foster
No updates at this time
Mountain/Northwest
Brad Darnell
No updates at this time