Among the myriad reasons for some paucity in my posting is that at long last, I’m digging in and studying up for the Beer Judge Certification Program’s exam. Our local brewing club, the Niagara Association of Homebrewers, is sponsoring an exam at the end of April, so we’re also convening most Saturday mornings between now and then to go through the various points recommended in the interim study guide and tasting the examples outlined in the 2008 style guidelines. Turns out, by the way, that’s a lot of beers. Excellent! Our review group is a nice mix of first-timers and some continuing education/already certified types, so we have a good time and a nice depth of experience.

This is often thought to be a pretty intimidating exam, but I look very much forward to it. Calibrating my palate is the most critical part as far as I’m concerned- I feel I have a pretty thorough knowledge of materials, process, and history and maybe only a fairly good grasp on sub-style parameters. But I’ve always worried that my sense, or language, for any particular flavor might or might not be aligned with those of ‘professionals,’ so to speak. This is one way to get there. And of course, if I can at all strive to be an active judge, I’ll get to meet a lot of people, try a lot of homebrews, and it should generally benefit my personal appreciation, brewing, and punditry/beer-o-visual activities, I hope. So la-ti-da on that.

So, one of the things I happen to know as a person with a background in cognitive psychology is that, when it comes to studying, the most reliable strategy is to practice like you will be tested. That is, simply re-reading things (notes, presentations, books, whatever) might be necessary but is certainly not sufficient. If, as in this exam, you’re going to be tested in open-formats, you should study by writing. Ergo, the aim of this piece is as much to entertain you as it is to practice. Here, I’ll imagine I’ve got ~12 minutes to answer the ingredients/process question they might pull on barley/malting. The study guide puts it thus, I think:

“Explain the malting process, identifying and describing the different types of malts by their color and the flavor they impart to the beer. Give the styles with which they are associated.”

Malting is the process by which raw barley is germinated to the point where insoluble starches become available for mashing, and as well, enzymes necessary for conversion during mashing become activated. In essence, the barley is allowed to germinate under controlled conditions. When the acrospire- what will become the stem of the plant-is the length of the kernel, the barley is considered fully modified- all the starches have become soluble. In fact, by this point some of the starches will have become sugars to power the growth of the plant. At this point, the maltster will dry the malt out, ending the germinating process. Undermodified malts require the brewer to essentially complete this process in the first stage of mashing.

Once the malt is dried, kilning it to varying degrees will lead to different malt characteristics (colors and flavors) in the final beer. Pilsner malts are the most lightly kilned, and as a result, impart little toasted or roasted flavors and little color. Pale Ale malts are kilned at slightly higher temperatures, lending them a small degree of Maillard reaction flavoring. Amber or brown malts are darker still. All of these base malts can be mashed by the brewer to produce sugars for fermentation. Other malts are processed in such a way that their available starches and enzymes are destroyed in the process, so these specialty malts lend only flavor and color, but no sugar, to the process. Highly kilned malts such as chocolate and black patent are examples of these. Caramel malts are essentially mashed by the maltster just prior to kilning, leading to varying degrees of caramelized sugars in the final malt depending on temperature and time and measured in Lovibond.

Some malts are highly associated with particular styles of beer. Examples include the famous beechwood-smoked malts from Bamburg, Germany, which provide distinct smokey flavors to classic Rauchbiers such as Aecht Schlenkela. Amber lagers such as Vienna are driven by the malt of the same name, and Munich malts as well. The darker, roasted flavors of chocolate and black patent malts are mainly associated with porters and stouts, but with a light touch can also provide color and depth in a traditional schwartzbier, or dark lager. And of course, traditional pilsners absolutely require the lightly kinled pilsner malts in order to have their light color and soft malt sweetness.
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OK: Times Up!
I don’t know how many points’ that’d be worth, but it doesn’t seem terrible. cheers-