We are pleased to announce that the first BJCP-registered competition was held in Shanghai on May 28th, 2016. The first of two BJCP Beer Judging exams will be held in Beijing on September 17, 2016, followed by one in Shanghai in May, 2017.
The BJCP is working with the homebrewing and craft brewing communities in China to assist in the registration of competitions, which can be done online by any organization. Organizers have the right to run their competitions as they see fit, consistent with these rules. Organizers have wide latitude to create a unique competition experience. The BJCP Competition Handbook provides good guidance and advice, but it is not binding. Registration of the competition ensures that the experience points earned by the judges are recorded and credited towards their advancement within the judging program. The BJCP plays a passive role in the competition registration and has no involvement in choosing the date of the competition or determining whether the entries will be homebrewed or commercial beers.
BJCP Beer Judging exams anywhere in the world may be scheduled by any groups of participants that meet the criteria specified on our website for having an exam. These criteria include having at least ten examinees who are currently BJCP judges or who have passed the online Beer Entrance Exam, and we also require that the local exam administrator work with the exam directors to ensure that the exam is scheduled on a date when qualified proctors are available to travel to the city where the exam will be held. The examinees in China may write the scoresheets in Mandarin, English, Spanish or Portuguese, but exams written in languages other than English will be translated for the graders. This extra step typically does add more than 30 days to timeline for completing the grading and processing the results.
We look forward to continued collaboration with the brewing community in China to help them improve their understanding and awareness of beer styles and provide a path on which they can become certified beer judges!