Before my review, a suggestion for Jeremy and Julia. You should address each of the styles typically called for by the BJCP Written Exam. Specifically, this would be the following episodes (prior to others):
Marzen, Wee Heavy, American Stout, Dry Stout, Foreign Extra Stout, Weissbier, Munich Dunkel, American Porter, Scottish Light, Helles Bock, etc.
I really wish something like this existed when I was first studying for BJCP and Cicerone levels, but I’m really glad it exists now and I really appreciate the in-depth focus on the 2021 BJCP Style Guide. I have two problems with it: Firstly, they often talk about food pairings with beer styles that an ordinary person can’t get as easily - it is one thing to talk about carbonara with a Helles Exportbier, but it is kind of silly and rare to get scallops from the English coast with that beer. Kind of useless information. My other problem with the show is that they sometimes wander unclearly on terms and methods that have definite meanings, which is a little frustrating (though positive because it forces me to look up what they said that I disagree with). Sometimes, Jeremy will say things that are outright contrary to fact and easily debunked (ex. “Czech Pilsner evolved from German Pils”, which is completely untrue and easily debunked but asserted by him as fact). Another example is the January 23 episode in which Julia repeatedly talks about removing 1/3 of the liquid in a decoction mash (which is done in TURBID mashing for lambic and Brett/Pedio beers), versus the thickest 1/3 of the mash to better develop malty flavors. In the December 22 episode on Marzen, Julia Herz says they use decoction mashing (correct) as a way to differentiate them from Czech Amber Lagers - but those are also traditionally made using a decoction mash. Still, really good and worth listening to for a good analysis of beer styles according to the 2021 BJCP Style Guide.
