A year and a half ago when I started formulating my own beer recipes – my friend Chris asked me if I had looked into hopville.com. Since then, Hopville has helped me understand and target the bounds of beer styles. By the numbers. But not by the ingredients. Even in the latest iteration Hopville warns of that discrepancy.

To get a better understanding of style-appropriate ingredients and tasting profiles – I declared one of my 2013 goals is to be BJCP certified.

This week, I start the process – an 11 week course leading to the BJCP exam.