Granted it’s only the second week of classes but I feel that my beer knowledge is growing by leaps and bounds. I’m starting to recognize different things in different beers that I may not have noticed before. And even if I did notice them, I didn’t have the vocabulary to accurately share what I was experiencing. It’s very exciting to see this kind of growth.
Methodology:
Basically, we’re given the style of beer we’ll be tasting, then we receive our samples and get to tasting. The BJCP scores a beer on a 50 point scale with not all aspects given equal weight. For example, with the current scoring system I employ, everything is weighted equally on a 1-5 star scale. While this may seem fair, in actuality I may be doing myself a disservice. On the BJCP score sheet, aroma is worth 12 points, appearance/3, flavor/20, mouthfeel/5, and overall impression/10. This makes more sense. Obviously how a beer tastes should carry the most weight, followed by aroma. All the other factors have been assigned points accordingly. With this in mind, I may have to readjust my scoring scale.
Beer List:
To make things quick, I’ll list the beer style, the brand, and what I scored it with very little tasting notes to accompany it. You can always just look at the BJCP style guidelines for yourself to see what a particular beer style is supposed to taste like.
| Style (Example) | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Mouthfeel | Overall Impression | Total |
| 3A Vienna Lager (Trader Joe’s Vienna Lager) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 18/20 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 42/50 |
| 3B Oktoberfest/Marzen (Spaten Oktoberfest) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 17/20 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 42/50 |
| 4A Dark American Lager (San Miguel Dark) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 18/20 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 43/50 |
| 4B Munich Dunkles (Hofbrau Haus Dunkles) |
8/12 | 3/3 | 16/20 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 38/50 |
| 4C Schwarzbier (Kostriber) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 18/20 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 43/50 |
| 5A Maibock (Trader Joe’s Hobrau Bock) |
7/12 | 3/3 | 16/20 | 4/5 | 6/10 | 36/50 |
| 5C Dopplebock (Spaten Optimator) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 18/20 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 43/50 |
| 5D Eisbock (Kulmbacher) |
10/12 | 3/3 | 18/20 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 42/50 |
If there’s anything that I’ve taken away from week 2, it’s that Spaten makes some really good beers. I wasn’t always into Spaten though. My initial exposure to Spaten was a bad one as the beer, from a tap at a bar, had noticeable sour notes to it. Normally, sour isn’t a bad thing but for the type of beers that Spaten makes, it’s a horrible off flavor. I would like to think, in retrospect, that the bar had dirty tap lines (which means I won’t be drinking there for a bit) rather and admit Spaten makes horrible beers. I will have to pick up more Spaten in the future.
Related posts:
- BJCP Classes, week 1 In the past, I’ve written about the need for credibility...
- Spaten Oktoberfest/Marzen I had initially bought this beer late in the fall...
