We all love beer. You love beer, I love beer, and that's a beautiful thing. Every time we take a mouthful, we evaluate it to some degree, either an idle "mmm, tasty" or an analytic "sulphurous, astringent", to a meaningless "4+2+3+4+3=3.6".If you blog about beer, and if you read this blog, it's because you're interested in this evaluative process, to a greater or lesser degree. You can now have yourself certified [insert joke here] as Possessor Of Beer Knowledge by The Beer Academy, who are running a series of "How To Be A Beer Judge" courses all over our beer-soaked isle. You can have a look at the schedule here. I'm particularly pleased to see that the Leeds course appears to be nearly full, which means that by the time the European Beer Bloggers Conference hits town in May there will be a sector of the local populace, distinguished no doubt by gowns and mortarboards, who are able to talk about why a beer is either awesome or bogus with reference to appropriate evaluative language. You never know, it might bring you a step closer to that hallowed gig of paid writer.
A fool and his money and all that.
ReplyDeleteDo they also do certificates in chip butty judging?
You pays yer money, etc
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI've got one of those...
ReplyDelete" or an analytic "sulphurous, astringent", to a meaningless "4+2+3+4+3=3.6""
ReplyDeleteI would say the latter carries more meaning than the former. Horses for courses.
Bro - I'd disagree, but there you are
Delete4+2+3+4+3=3.6 is indeed meaningless. Unless one of the scores is weighted, as the arithmetical mean would be 3.2.
ReplyDeleteI haven't taken the Beer Academy course buy have attended various sensory sessions, including some academic guinea-pigging. The great thing about such courses is that they make you stop and think. And then stop and think again about the precise terminology required to adequately describe what you're experiencing.
Which, of course, doesn't stop me writing tasting notes like "smells of Easter on the Gower Peninsular", but you can't win 'em all.
Simon - I did that in my head, while getting a toddler ready for nursery, so I'm not going to sweat the accuracy of it, But as you say, the whole point is to make you stop and pay attention to what's going on, and then attempt to communicate that
DeleteI'm in Wirral. If there was one in Liverpool or Chester I'd sign up, but the nearest is Burnley which means a full day off work which I can't afford.
ReplyDeleteI do fancy doing this, sadly the only one close is Burton and the Mrs is taking me away somewhere as a surprise for my birthday, unless of course she's sending me on the course for my birthday and that is the surprise, a course, of course...
ReplyDelete