So 18 years ago when we first married, I thought the worst my husband would do would be to make me a beer snob. Today, I realize this relationship has far surpassed that initial thought...
So today I found myself involved in a discussion regarding my husband's recent BJCP exam. I won't tell you what my friends call this exam. He received a scan of his score sheets with his scoring accuracy results. So he forwards me the score sheets, his overview of his results, and the scoring guide to ask my "professional opinion." By "professional opinion" he meant as a former teacher. I can make a rubric and score with the best of 'em. I am toying with the idea of printing out his score sheets and grading them using the guidelines to give him a projected score, in my "professional opinion." If I'm accurate, maybe I can qualify as an exam scorer...
To prepare for the exam, he took an online course. It was interesting for me to see someone take an online course for fun, for a hobby. He was quite the serious student, with his headset, beers, plastic cups, water, and crackers. I would hear him in a serious tone discussing carbonation levels, light lacing on the glass, malty notes, caramel finishes, etc. I've only seen students take graduation required courses online, or educators complete professional development online, or college students complete course requirements online as part of a degree program. I had never seen someone take an online course for fun, although I probably have seen someone drink there way through completing an online class. But I digress...
The same is true for last October's foray to the 30th Annual Dixie Cup. I saw grown men that I know would not have made it through a single session of my high school chemistry course listening attentively to a 90 minute session from the guru of water chemistry followed by a 90 minute session from the guru of yeast production. Since I've been in administration for the last 12 years, its been a long time since I've seen chemical equations and molecular structure diagrams. I guarantee you my students worshiped the quicksand I walked on, but never paid quite that much attention. To think, if only I had given them free beer...I would have been fired, but they would have learned a good bit of organic chemistry.
I guess when you are married long enough, you either grow together or apart. We have grown together in unthinkable ways. His love of beer and my love of science have created an unexpected partnership on the food and beverage side of this relationship. I don't know of many other couples where the husband's friends joke with him, "Did you calibrate your pH meter yourself, or did you have Sheila do it?"
One of the unique things about the Beer Judge Certification Program is that exam scoring is done by other judges. You would have to qualify as a National or higher ranking to become a grader. That would require passing the online pre-test, getting an 80 or higher on the tasting exam, and gathering the number of judging points required to achieve National ranking.
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