Finally! a Recognized Beer Judge by the BJCP

Hey there! The wait was long, but in the end the result came through! About five months pretending I wasn’t thinking about it 😂 but now I’m finally a Recognized BJCP Judge. Don’t know what the BJCP is? Check out a quick summary here! I still have the chance to move up to Certified Judge and climb the hierarchy, but let’s take it one step at a time. I already described the journey of a BJCP judge when I passed the first stage. This post is to share the long-awaited achievement that was one of the main reasons behind creating this blog.

The idea of becoming a BJCP judge first crossed my mind back in 2021. At the time, I was living in Lisbon, diving deep into homebrewing and reading John Palmer’s How to Brew. That’s also when I found out there would be a judge exam at the ArtBeerFest (in Caminha, Portugal), a festival I went to a few times while living there. However, back then my self-sabotage convinced me it would be too hard to balance studying with work in the two or three months left before the exam date. Truth is, I probably wouldn’t have gotten a seat anyway—spots are limited and often sell out up to a year in advance.

Fast forward three years: I was now living in Thessaloniki, unemployed, and had no excuse to let self-sabotage delay things again. I made the decision around August–September 2024, which was also when the idea for this blog started taking shape. After some frustration trying to find an available date, I finally got a spot for the exam that would take place in Romrod, Germany. Taking the exam ended up being part of BrewVenture #1, and I’ve already shared the full story in this post. In short, on exam day we evaluated six beers as if we were judging a real BJCP competition. At the same time, two experienced judges were evaluating the very same beers. The process is to compare our score sheets with theirs and decide if we’re truly fit to join the BJCP judging pool. To pass, you need at least 60%. Beyond that, the higher your score, the higher you rank within the judge hierarchy.

So, it’s a long process. In my case, most participants took the exam in German. I remember talking to one of the proctors afterward, and he mentioned that part of the delay in results was due to translating the score sheets from German into English. Since mine was in English, it had to wait for that whole process too—because all exams from the same session are sent together for grading. The exam took place on March 8, and finally, on August 17, I got the long-awaited email. I was really happy with my 78% score—it aligned perfectly with my goal of eventually becoming a Certified BJCP Judge (which requires a minimum of 70%).

But the exam score alone isn’t enough. To move up, you also need to get involved in the community and accumulate what they call “experience points.” In May this year, I had my first opportunity to judge at a competition in Bulgaria, which earned me one judging point. I still need four more to reach the five required for Certified BJCP Judge. The good news is that I won’t need to retake the exam to move forward. I had even reserved a spot for another exam in November, but thankfully that won’t be necessary.

So how can I earn those experience points? The most obvious way is by judging at BJCP competitions (at least half of the required points have to come from this type of activity). In my case, I need five points in total to become Certified, which means only 2.5 points can come from non-judging activities. These other activities include organizing BJCP competitions, helping with their organization, or assisting with logistics on competition day. As you can see, experience points really do require active involvement, either as a judge or as part of running competitions.

I don’t yet have my next step lined up in this journey, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for competitions that fit both my geography and my budget. When it happens, you already know—there’ll be new content here on the blog or on our social media.

Thanks for the support, cheers! 🍻