Howdy TR,
I think there are several ways to pass a BJCP exam. For example, if you had a photographic memory and a poor to average palate there is a slight chance you would pass though you shouldn't of course.
I'm not too sure why the exam relies so much on rote learning. The reason might be that people going for the exam will have been brewing for a long time and much of the knowledge will be innate to them by that stage. But, knowing by rote the OG, FG, recipe, mash temp, and water profile of every beer style is a big ask in my opinion and may exclude brewers with excellent palates but not so great a memory
.
If you don't have a photographic memory and haven't been passionate about a wide range of beer styles for a few years then I think you can approach this BJCP stuff in the following manner...
1. Ask yourself if technical knowledge and judging of a wide range of beer styles will be fun and challenging for you. Do you have a real passion for this? If not, forget it. The primary aim of BJCP is to give quality feedback to brewers. Plenty of people will sit the exam without this intention and then be able to judge. They shouldn't.
2. If personal knowledge of beer styles is your passion (and not judging) then you should taste, read up on and brew as many beer styles as you can. You will also need to take detailed tasting notes on the beers you taste. Working through Jamil's book is a top way of doing this but that is a lot of beers! I think it is a long-term project.
3. If knowedge of beer styles and the pleasure of handing on other brewer's feedback is your passion then in addition to 2 above, I would look at sitting any BJCP exam you can. If there is one next week, go and sit it! (There won't be - they are few and far between.) You'd fail for sure but you will also learn a lot. They also have different levels of passes. If you get a basic pass, you get certain rights and responsibilities. These increase with experience and/or better rote learning.
So, assuming you want to go all the way, you might want the course manual. I have one here and it is really just a photocopy of everything on the BJCP site. It is all downloadable. My manual is no better laid out than what you will find on their site. Some info is even years out of date!
Your plan of working through Jamil's book is brilliant. I would also suggest you spend many hours perusing the BJCP website. My manual is the size of a ream of A4 paper (must be 500 pages) but I haven't seen anything in it that is not on their site. So understanding their site layout and reading the stuff there will give you the same technical info as anyone else.
What it won't give you though is experience and a good palate. These could possibly be gained by joining your local brew club or getting online with some sites that discuss individual beers. You should do both these things and still be very careful of what comments you hear. I have tasted beers that have been obviously and hugely faulted only to see them described favourably. I don't regard myself as having any experience in beer appreciation so never say anything apart from, "That was great!" or "Didn't like that at all.". What worried me though was talking after these tastings to find some experienced judges saying, "Yep, I thought that beer was crap too," whilst less experienced people always seemed to play it safe in their scoring - it's always average!
Finding people that can accuratley describe and judge a beer in an honest language that you can understand will be the hardest thing. I had a guy (John Jens) teach me wine twenty years ago quickly and easily. I haven't found anyone that has been able to do it for beer yet.
We need more of these magic JJ guys in the beer department and you, TR, with your slow approach and attitude, may well become one of them.
Hope so!
Pat
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