Hey guys isnt it craft beer week? Any of you doing anything special?

I'm trying to get a Christmas Beer Exchange going on the
Dakotahomebrewers yahoo group (Big Sioux Brewing Society) and I wanted to know if anyone on here
would want to participate. I'm going to keep track of the people who
are interested. If we get a lot of people together we will separate
into smaller groups. Everyone would bring one 12 oz bottle for
everyone in there group. I was thinking of doing the exchange on or
around the 18th of December. so that should be enough time to brew
something before then. Let me know. Thanks.

In April of 2011, the PHC will be hosting a BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) exam. There is room for 12 people to take this exam and any slots not used by the Fargo brewers can be filled by others who want to take the exam. We try and hold an exam ever couple of years so the next one on Fargo might not be until 2013.

More info about the exam and the program is available at the BJCP website http://www.bjcp.org
This is a very tough and involved exam and you really have to know the brewing process, ingredients, beer styles, and tasting. It is not the type of test that you can cram for in a week and hope do well. We set up a study class of 10-12 weekly meetings before the exam and have had a pretty good success rate of getting people to pass.

If you would like to see how the judging works in practice and to see if you might want to put forth the effort to become a BJCP judge, I would highly recommend you come to Fargo and help out with our Hoppy Halloween competition judging October 29th and 30th. You could help judge or help steward (ie bring the beers to the judges and other gopher work during judging). You can even start accumulating judging points at Hoppy Halloween before you have even taken the exam.

Let me know if you have any questions on the exam, Hoppy Halloween judging, or the study materials we use. Besides the benefits of telling people you are a real Beer Judge, everyone who goes through the effort to study the information it takes to pass the test say that it makes them a better brewer.

Dean
BJCP Certified Beer Judge