2015 BJCP Annual Report

By Gordon Strong, Mid-Atlantic Rep and BJCP President

Please read the reports from each directorate for more detail and perspective on their respective activities. I will focus on board level activities and major efforts across the program, while also highlighting some of the important achievements within the directorates.

I also want to draw your attention to some of the materials on the BJCP web site, including the list of board votes and meetings minutes. These items can be found within the Member Resources section of the web site.

Strong Growth

The BJCP growth rate continues, with more than 5400 active judges and 9500 total judges now in the program. With lapsing judges considered, we still have seen about a 9) and competitions (8%). The board continues to discuss and evaluate methods for handling growth, such as adding regional assistants, splitting regions, and adding country focal points. Finances are solid, with significant money available for investment in the program.

International

International growth remains very strong, with new exams given in Spain, Peru, and Singapore. The BJCP is now active in 37 countries. The online exam is now available in Chinese, as well as English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Exams are being graded natively in Spanish and Portuguese, and the BJCP has added an in-house translation capability.

Major Events

The BJCP continues to have a strong presence at the AHA National Homebrew Conference, running multiple exams (one of each type, including a pilot cider exam), holding a judge reception and training event, holding a grader training session, and having a member’s meeting.

AHA Relationship

The BJCP continues to maintain a strong relationship with the AHA, with the AHA providing support for BJCP events at the NHC and providing exam scanning support to help with our workflow. The AHA supported the BJCP’s grader incentive program, and also allowed preferential registration for judges at the conference.

Style Guidelines

The 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines were finalized and published. The exam directorate updated its materials, with the exams being cut over to use the new guidelines by November 2015. The guidelines were optional for competitions through the year, but became the primary set of guidelines at year’s end. Additional translations and format conversions are taking place.

Cider Exam

The development of the cider exam continues with Bruce Buerger leading. Exam materials are completed, the exam mechanics seem to be working, grading exams seems to be working, and study materials are being finalized. Pilot cider exams have been given, and were a success.

Mead Exam

The mead exam was converted to an online exam plus an expanded 6 mead tasting exam, similar to the format of the beer exam, with a pricing schedule matching the beer exam.

Exam Processing

The turnaround time on exams continues to improve, although there still seem to be a very small number of significantly overdue exams. Many exams are given without reaching the quota, so the pent-up demand for exams seems to be more adequately addressed (although some areas are still experiencing strong demand). The quarterly written exam seems to be going very well, freeing up more slots for tasting exams.

New Committees and Projects

We authorized an Ethics Committee to develop a Code of Conduct and technical standards for judges, with Sandy Cockerham chairing. We created a project to investigate and recommend ways for disabled judges to be better supported by the program. John Haven and Neil Spake worked this project, and provided recommendations to the board that are currently being incorporated into program materials. An effort to investigate trademarking the BJCP logo and related items is also active.

Education and Training

Work has focused on developing and delivering exam grader and exam proctor training. A new training portal is being developed. A switch to a new Siebel sensory training kit was completed.

Competitions

Revised versions of the Competition Rules and Competition Manual have been published. A registration discount of $5 is now available to BJCP members who are authenticated through the judge portal when registering competitions.

Communications

The newsletter has been redesigned, and a new mailing process has been implemented. Dennis Mitchell has been added to the team. The BJCP maintains an active presence in the BJCP Forum, as well as external services with Facebook and Twitter.

Web Site

The development of the new web site continues, and content continues to be migrated from the old site to the new. Content is being reviewed, updated, and reorganized as part of the migration. Additional technical features are being added, and outside consulting support has been retained.

Upcoming Milestone. We expect to certify our 10,000th judge this year.

By Steve Piatz and Scott Bickham, Exam Directors

The Exam Directorate’s activities are almost completely focused on the various BJCP exams and grading them. Of those activities, grading consumes the bulk of the staff’s time as well as the efforts of all the graders.

As always, we are in need of qualified exam graders. Any active judge of National or higher rank is eligible to be an exam grader. Send an email to [email protected] if you want to become an exam grader. In addition, we really need graders that have experience to continue grading. We seem to always be short of lead graders.

The BJCP’s increasing global presence is seen in the number of international exam sites in 2015. During 2015 we gave exams in the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Chile, Spain, England, Ireland, and Singapore. The future schedule adds Argentina, Czech Republic, South Africa, China, Israel, and Italy to the list.

Accomplishments in 2015

• As part of revising the mead exam materials to match the 2015 version of the style guidelines we made a major change to the mead exam. On November 1, 2015 the original Mead Exam with both an essay and a tasting portion was retired. It is now known as the BJCP Legacy Mead Exam. The new mead exam series consists of an online Mead Entrance Exam and a proctored Mead Judging Exam. The Mead Entrance Exam is structurally similar to the online Beer Entrance Exam, consisting of a combination of 200 true-false, multiple choice and multiple answer questions that must be answered in one hour. The Mead Judging Exam is similar to the Beer Judging Exam requiring the judging of six meads in 90 minutes. The mead exam series continues to be a pass/fail system. There is no mead equivalent of the Beer Judging Written Proficiency Exam.
• With the exception of the Beer Written Proficiency Exam offered at the AHA NHC, the Quarterly Geographically Dispersed Written Proficiency Exam has become the main way people have been taking the beer essay exam. Only active exam graders are allowed to administer the quarterly exam.
• A total of 1429 BJCP exams were given during 2015 versus 1271 in 2014, 1078 in 2013 and 885 in 2012. The exams were given at 165 locations in 2015 versus 128 in 2014, 100 in 2013 and 89 in 2012. The 2015 total includes 33 locations and 113 people taking the Written Proficiency Exam as part of the quarterly program. The yearly breakdown of exam types:
  • 1228 Beer Judging Exams
  • 141 Written Proficiency Exams
  • 57 Mead Exams
  • 9 Trial Cider Exams
• 979 people passed the online Beer Entrance Exam during 2015.
• 24 people passed the online Mead Entrance Exam during 2015.
• Nearly 4000 people have passed the Beer Entrance Exam since the program was implemented in April of 2012.
• As of this date (late-April of 2016) the exam calendar is completely filled about 16 months into the future, compared to about 20 months out last April.
• All of the exam-related documents and study guides have been updated to correspond to the 2015 version of the style guidelines.
• The Beer Written Proficiency Exam has been updated to use the 2015 version of the style guidelines.
• As mentioned above, the Mead Exams have been updated to use the 2015 style guidelines.
• The Beer Entrance Exam is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. The English version of the Beer Entrance Exam has been updated to use the 2015 version of the style guideline and the others will be updated as the associated documents and question pool are translated.
• The number of questions on the Beer Entrance Exam was reduced from 200 to 180 so that examinees can focus more on accuracy rather than time management.
• Work continues to generate a pool of questions for a new BJCP Cider Entrance Exam.

By David Houseman, Competition Director

It was another growth year for BJCP competitions and opportunities for BJCP judges to judge beer, mead and cider. The total number of competitions grew from 579 in 2014 to 626 in 2025, an 8% growth. There were 15 mead specific competitions and 6 cider specific competitions while many of the remaining competitions judged mead or cider or both. The number of competitions held outside the US has grown and provided opportunities for local judges and US judges that travel on business or vacation. In 2015 we had competitions geographically dispersed as follows:

20% of the AHA/BJCP Sanctioned Competitions were held outside the USA with the largest growth to our south from Mexico through Argentina.

For the most part, competitions are submitting their organizer reports on time so that BJCP members are receiving their points in a timely manner. We do have problems with a number of competitions that just can’t seem to get reports submitted on schedule. It takes the Competition Director considerable time and energy to chase these down for you, to review submittals for correctness and then work with judges and organizers to manage corrections. The BJCP has taken a step to encourage BJCP members be organizers by providing a registration discount to BJCP members. As a reminder to BJCP members, do check your record periodically to ensure that you have received expected judging credit. If not first contact the organizer to ensure that the competition report was submitted and that you were included. When you contact the BJCP Competition Director we must have the organizer verify any changes.

The registration process

When registering a competition, it is simply a matter of going to the Online Registration page and filing out the form. Then going to the PayPal page and paying the fee with any credit card; a PayPal account is not required. For those who must leave the registration to return later to pay, DO NOT RE-REGISTER the competition, just follow the Payment App link and pay for your competition.

The BJCP has a private page of pending registrations. When the registration is submitted it shows up on this page for those that have access. When the payment is confirmed the competition is marked PAID. About once a week the Competition Director reviews the list and if the competition, organizer and sponsoring organization are not on an exclusion list for not filing prior organizer reports, approves the competitions and they are delivered as Approved Competition emails to his Inbox. Using these and a local copy of the BJCP database, the competition is registered in the local database, a competition letter is created and an email sent back to the organizer with the competition letter and lists of judges, active and provisional. This is done for each of the registrations, 626 times in 2015. Periodically the local copy of the database exports changes back to the master database. About every two or three weeks the master database if re-distributed to those of us who use it and the On-line Organizer Reporting system is updated so that competitions can file their organizer reports on-line. Competitions registered within about 3 or 4 weeks of the competition date may experience delays in being able to file their reports on-line. This is one reason we recommend registering competitions at least 90 days in advance.

Organizer Reporting

The easiest method of filing the organizer reports for most competitions is to use the On-line Organizer Reporting system. Simply have a list of your judges, stewards, organizer and staff and the information for your competition and you will be able to complete the report quickly.
It helps if you have a reviewed a copy of the Rules on the BJCP web site so you understand how many points each participant should earn. Filing your report on-line has the added benefit that confirmation emails are sent to the participants; this is not the case with the XML reports.

For those who prefer, most of the competition software packages will generate an XML report that you can forward to the comp_director and IT_director. However, do review the report for completeness and accuracy before submitting; these packages are fairly accurate but they can only work with the data they are given and it is said “garbage in – garbage out.”

Whichever way the report is filed, please get those reports submitted within the required 21 days. And since about fifty percent or more of the competition organizers are NOT BJCP members, judges need to become involved with competitions to help non-BJCP organizers understand in importance of getting those reports submitted so you can get your points.

By Randy Scorby, Education Director

Notable accomplishments for 2015

• Developed and provided the next level of exam grader scoresheet training at NCH 2015 with assistance from the Exam Directorate
• Developed a supplement to the Siebel Sensory Training Kit that includes characteristics not present in the kit
• Processed 80 member sensory kit orders and 40 exam kit orders
• Bruce Buerger is developing an Education Training Portal and a certification process for exam graders. A new BJCP Exam Grader Endorsement Program and pin is also part of this development.

For the past two years at NHC, the Education Directorate has developed a grader training program focusing primarily on the tasting exam, and a better understanding of how to grade score sheets. In 2016 we are changing this up and will be presenting a class on exam proctor training. The class will focus on expectations of the proctors, how to better write score sheets that provide maximum benefit to the grading team, and how proctor score sheets differ from exam score sheets in content. We’re hoping to take a bit of mystery out of the proctoring process and encourage more of our qualified members to begin proctoring exams.

Bruce Buerger is also in the process of developing an internet based CEP Training Portal using a popular open source learning management system. The initial release of the portal will include a grader training program to certify those who wish to join the BJCP exam grading team. Those currently acting as exam graders will also be encouraged to complete the exam grading program certification in order to continue grading exams. The course not only provides education on grading, but also helps graders understand program responsibilities as exams move through the chain. The goal for 2016 is to expand the portal with a focus on offerings for the general BJCP membership. Plans are in the works to develop a series of quizzes pertaining to the new 2015 style guidelines. The intent of these quizzes is to help existing judges transition to the new guidelines, as well as serve as a study tool for judges taking the beer written exam or re-taking the beer tasting. Bob Hall has agreed to contribute to this effort. Plans are also in the works for developing training programs that can be used by existing judges for training perspective judges. Amanda Burkemper has agreed to contribute to the beer judge development program and Julie Lawson has agreed to contribute to the mead judge development program. The goal of this effort is to further develop judge training skills through the training of perspective judges.

In April 2015 a major change was made to sensory kit orders, which included a change in vendors and bringing the number of characteristic vials in line with commonly experienced flaws. Siebel is still our primary contact for ordering sensory training kits, but the new vendor is based in Germany. The new kits no longer require refrigeration for shipping or storage and have a shelf life of two years, which is a significant improvement over the previous kits. Their shipping time has improved dramatically, with most kits arriving within one week of placing the order. As a reminder, only one sensory kit order is placed the first day of each month. The shipping time has improved drastically, but you should still consider placing your order a few months before you need it as inventory and other external factors can delay the kits.

For our members in South American countries, the vendor is now requiring that a Tax ID number accompany the order before they can ship. If you live in South America and order a kit through either the exam or member portals, you can email your Tax ID number to the education director at [email protected] so that information can be included when sending the master order to Siebel. We have also learned that customs and duties fees can be significant when shipping to South America, so it is advisable to check with your local customs office prior to ordering.

By Al Boyce, North Region Rep and BJCP Treasurer

The 2015 Annual Financial Report can be downloaded here:

Explanation of 2015 Financial Report

Income

1. Exam Fees: 106% of budgeted amount. 165 exam sites in 2015 vs. 134 in 2014 (2015 had “Quarterly Written” sites.) 819 New Judging Exams, 361 Judging Retakes, 150 Written Retakes, 20 New Mead Exams, 37 Existing Member Mead Exams.
2. Contest Certification Fees: 100.4% of budgeted amount. 631 contests held in 2015 vs. 594 in 2014. 131 2016 contests registered in 2015.
3. Merchandise Receipts: 12.66% of budgeted amount. Café Press and Rank pins. Received a $931 pmt from Café Press in 2014 that had been accumulating for a while.
4. PayPal Interest: Haven’t received this for awhile
5. Misc. Income: 190.3% of budgeted amount. $1889 BJCP Judge Reception receipts in June – $1075 in 2014.
6. Returned Checks: $0
7. Savings Acct: 123% of budgeted amount. Interest from Savings Acct. 2015 Balance – $100,111.34
8. WRS Reimbursement: Payments from US Court from Bill Slack: $120
9. Siebel Flavor Kits: 81.52% of budgeted amount.
10. Online Exams: 112.45% of budgeted amount.

Expenses

1. AHA SCP Fees: No longer being charged
2. BJCP Grants: No BJCP Grants awarded in 2015
3. Continuing Education Program: 73.44 for NHC BJCP Reception
4. Legal Fees: None in 2015
5. Merchandise: 98.7 for Judge Name Badges.
6. Miscellaneous: 60.46% of budgeted amount. Exam Translations, 2013 Tax late filing penalty, Rep meals at NHC, Rep brunch at GABF
7. Office Supplies: 115.88% of budgeted amount. New version of Filemaker Pro, misc. IT expenses
8. PayPal Fees: 94.72% of budgeted amount . Self explanatory.
9. PO Box Rental and Forwarding: 31.86% of budgeted amount.
10. Postage: 57.68% of budgeted amount.
11. Printing: None in 2015.
12. Recognition: None in 2015.
13. Exam Program: 96.46% of budgeted amount. Proctor travel, Exam admin reimbursement, Dropbox reimbursement, Regis exam pmt, AHA Judge/Grader pmts
14. Shipping Merchandise: None in 2015. (What shipping there was was bundled into Exam Admin reimbursement in Exam Program expenses)
15. Surety Bond: None in 2015. Renegotiating new Surety Bond to bring insured amount up to $120,000.
16. Telephone: None in 2015.
17. Website Development and Domain Renewal: 41.21% of budgeted amount.
18. Savings Account: No expenses.
19. Siebel Flavor Kits: 56.69% of budgeted amount. Went to a less-expensive, “slimmed down” flavor kit. Demand dropped when we raised prices.
20. Online Exam Fees: 93.07% of budgeted amount.

Exam Program Finances

• There were 165 BJCP Written or Tasting Exams scheduled in 2014, 29 more than in 2014. This increase was primarily due to the institution of the Quarterly Written Exams. Ten exams were cancelled.
• Exams were administered to 1387 people – 143 more than 2014 (an average of 8.4 tests per site).
• A total of $30,824.50 was collected for exams – ALL paid via PayPal. This was 109% of what was budgeted.
• $13,210.50 of exam fees was left with the sponsoring organizations.
• There were 819 new tasting exams.
• There were 361 tasting retakes.
• There were 150 written exams.
• There were 20 new mead exams (not previous BJCP members).
• There were 37 existing mead exams (previous BJCP members).
• We collected $25,996 in fees from online exams. At $10/exam, that’s about 2599 exams offered.
• Costs for the online exams were $4,653.64 – 93% of what was budgeted.
• As of the end of 2015, we had 130 exams scheduled for 2016, and 38 exams scheduled for 2017.

Competition Program Finances

• The BJCP sanctioned 631 competitions in 2015, 6.2% more than 2014.
• We received $18,960 in contest sanction fees – 107% of what was budgeted.
• As of December 31, we had 142 competitions already scheduled for 2016.

Siebel Flavor Kits

• The other significant source of income (and expense) for the BJCP was Siebel Flavor kits.
• We received $7,450 in income for Siebel kits.
• We spent $19,956 for these 136 of these kits, including shipping and handling.
• These kits are subsidized by the BJCP. Approved CEP Exam Prep courses may buy them for $50, BJCP members may buy them for $100. Actual cost to the BJCP is about $67.31, including shipping.

Other Expenses for 2015

• The new website development has cost $2184.26.
• The BJCP spent $5508.33 on the BJCP reception at the AHA NHC in San Diego.

By Mike Dixon, Communication Director

Accomplishments in 2015

In 2015 we ordered 693 badges and the total cost was $4836.25. Increased shipping costs both domestic and especially international along with the increase for various clasp options caused the average cost per badge to be almost $7. The options which were first offered in 2014 have been very popular with many judges selecting the lanyard or magnet while a third of the orders still select the traditional clasp.

Dennis Mitchell became Assistant Communication Director in 2015 and took over the email and newsletter as his primary duties. The newsletter format was moved to the temporary BJCP website in development and changed to a blog format. Dennis worked with our website consultant to establish the revised look and feel of the newsletter. Dennis devised a Google based sheet which will be utilized in the 2016 elections and will streamline the nomination and endorsement processes for the election. Over time Dennis was integrated into other duties and in the future he will assume a more comprehensive role for the Communication Directorate.

Our Facebook group membership grew to over 3,600 members and we typically approve two new people every day and the vast majority are existing judges, those waiting to take a taste exam, or those interested in the program. Since we have a wide base of participants on Facebook from around the world we have established rules which strive to keep discussions civil and on point. We had several spammers try to join in 2015 and banned over 120 of them as a result and implemented more stringent membership approval rules for those countries where the spammers asking to join originated. We occasionally have spam posts, but members have been quick to report the posts for violation and we have banned the spammers.

Our Twitter account (@BJCP_Official) has continued to grow in 2015 and now has over 1,100 followers. Followers should remember that while @BJCP_Official may be mentioned by any Twitter member, only tweets originating from the account represent the official stance of the BJCP.

Forum membership increased in 2015 to 1,550 members. The email based opt-in methodology in conjunction with a style related question has almost eliminated spammers trying to become forum members. Inactive accounts are deleted after a year has passed without responding to the opt-in email and the number of deletions per year is less than 10 with the opt-in system.

With the publication of the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines we had many app requests and granted several. Four iPhone apps and two Android apps were developed for the guidelines in 2015 and those are available on the BJCP Forum. Several guideline translations are underway in many different languages and once complete those will be listed on the website. There were numerous copyright requests and those were approved on a case-by-case basis.

In 2015 the requests for IDs and passwords were handled as quickly as possible to allow judges to use their IDs for competition or to gain access to the database. It is important for judges to maintain their record with the correct mailing and email address so we can contact you. Judges with missing or bouncing emails appear on the bad address report. https://legacy.bjcp.org/apps/reports/noemail.php

We continue to look for volunteers who would like to contribute to the newsletter or any of the Communication Directorate’s efforts.

By Gordon Strong, Mid-Atlantic Rep and BJCP President

After spending the better part of 2014 migrating our web site to a new hosted system and getting the basic web site design completed, 2015 was mostly consumed with maintenance tasks, supporting directorate requests, and working with content migration.

Web site

The new WordPress-based web site is running, and more content is making its way on to the server. We are still running primarily on the legacy site, while supporting the directorates in revising and moving data.

We continue to use outside support for design, but our primary roadblock at the moment is internal resources to review, update, and move the large amount of data to the new site. The release of the new style guidelines and many exam directorate changes has caused a ripple effect in the work.

We started allowing more content providers to work with the new site, and are now hosting the newsletters on the new site. A lot of exam-related data has been moved, thanks to Steve Piatz, but much still needs to be reviewed and reorganized. We expect to keep moving more data as it is reviewed.

We expect to use a mix of the two sites as we continue to update content due to program changes, but hope to maintain links between sites as necessary.

We have a new contract in place to work on phase 2 of the web site implementation, including making it more responsive on mobile devices, and creating more custom forms to better display our structured content. More content needs to be migrated before the bulk of that work can be done, however.

We continue to investigate and develop plug-ins and enhancements to allow us to do additional tasks, such as providing a flexible event management system for calendar-like features, and to provide a single sign-on experience across external sites being developed (such as the exam grader portal). We are also investigating how to provide additional portal-like experiences for competitions and exams, and how to deliver style guideline information from a database instead of documents.

Applications and services

We spent quite a bit of time on our mailing system. We were experiencing intermittent delivery failures of some messages, so we began using an external delivery service with enhanced monitoring and tracking features. This eliminated the failures, but we also had to recently switch to another service after the initial one stopped offering the service we needed.

We continued with back-end enhancements to the administration toolset to make it easier to manage and maintain the server and services. We developed a tool to allow exam directors to verify uploaded exam files to the server.

We developed a system to allow us to check membership status, and used that to offer competition discounts to active, logged-in members.

We developed a bulk mailing system to replace an external service we had been using that became too difficult and expensive to use. The new system allows us to more easily target messages to regions or members with specific ranks. This system was used to deliver newsletters and to do mailings related to the recent election.

Process improvement

We continue to speed up the pace of data updates on the web site, now providing exam closeout notifications within a few days of the exam closing. The integration of more judge materials into the judge record now allows judges to see their data much sooner than before.

Personnel

We received a few volunteer offers to help with development tasks, but those additional staff have yet to deliver results. We continue to seek additional web developers, particularly those with WordPress development experience, to join the team. We also could use those with application migration experience as we move our legacy web applications to the new WordPress environment. Our applications are typically written in PHP with MySQL database support running in a hosted environment. Additional programming support for developing new applications in this same environment is also needed.

We also could use someone with experience in Semantic Web to assist with the completion of the vocabulary project.