Nationals - what category for my beer?

[redshift]

I asked this in the nationals thread but didn't get a definitive answer so thought I'd start a separate thread.

I noticed there is no option to select category 34C - experimental, so I don't know what to do with my brew. It's a dry hopped saison with a 5% white wine addition at bottling.

Any thoughts?

[robotmonkey]

Fruit beer maybe? Grapes are a fruit :-P

[redshift]

Fruit beer maybe? Grapes are a fruit :-P

That's probably not a bad shout actually, as stupid as it sounds I hadn't actually thought of that 

[Pheeel]

If the beer has sat on grapes yes but I don't think it meets the bar for fruit beer

The Fruit Beer category is for beer made with any fruit or combination of fruit under the definitions of this category. The Culinary, not botanical, Definition of fruit is used here - fleshy, seed-associated structures of plants that are sweet or sour, and edible in the raw state. Examples include pome fruit (apple, pear, quince), stone fruit (cherry, plum, peach, apricot, mango, etc.), berries (any fruit with the word 'berry' in it), currants, citrus fruit, dried fruit (dates, prunes, raisins, etc.), tropical fruit (banana, pineapple, guava, papaya, etc.), figs, pomegranate, prickly pear, and so on. It does not mean spices, herbs, or vegetables as defined in Category 30, especially botanical fruit treated as culinary vegetables. Basically, if you have to justify a fruit using the word "technically" as part of the description, then that's not what we mean.

[redshift]

Yeah I understand what you're saying, I'm trying to see if there's some reasonable way for me to enter this. I brewed it specifically for the competition unaware that we don't do an experimental category, so it's a little disappointing but there's no point in entering in in a category where it'll score badly for style anyway.

[Jonnycheech]

Sounds like there needs to be an experimental category so.

Maybe add some wood, say it was aged in a white wine barrel and enter in wood aged category 

[benji]

What's the story with IPL's this year ?

[SlugTrap]

Sorry to be slow off the mark, gang; I'm the one who should be answering here...

Yeah I understand what you're saying, I'm trying to see if there's some reasonable way for me to enter this. I brewed it specifically for the competition unaware that we don't do an experimental category, so it's a little disappointing but there's no point in entering in in a category where it'll score badly for style anyway.

This is a tough one - I can't see where it goes. Other styles are a bad fit, as posts in this thread explain. The best hack would be Johnnycheech's idea to oak it + slip it into 33B, though obviously you wouldn't want to be up front about the wine addition...

I'm sorry that you brewed specially. We didn't do 34C last year, either. BJCP is very much a "brew + judge to defined guidelines" organization, and the competitions follow that model.

What's the story with IPL's this year ?

Like last year:
21B.
This style is for beers that "have the balance and overall impression of an IPA" - that's true for IPLs, despite the yeast. 
Specify base style, strength, + characteristics for the judges to look for.


I put a more formal thread on this topic in the Members section.

[redshift]

Thanks for the reply and I appreciate the suggestion but I might just sit this year out. I take some pride though in the fact that I have brewed a beer which really doesn't fit a category!

[brianbrewed]

On a similar note,
I have a whiskey barrel porter I was thinking of entering.
It's pretty close to an American Porter, style wise, but there's an addition of whiskey that pushes the ABV to 7%.

Any suggestions to what style I can enter as?

[Pheeel]

On a similar note,
I have a whiskey barrel porter I was thinking of entering.
It's pretty close to an American Porter, style wise, but there's an addition of whiskey that pushes the ABV to 7%.

Any suggestions to what style I can enter as?

Sounds like 33B

[SlugTrap]

On a similar note,
I have a whiskey barrel porter I was thinking of entering.
It's pretty close to an American Porter, style wise, but there's an addition of whiskey that pushes the ABV to 7%.

Any suggestions to what style I can enter as?

1. Actual whisky? Then that's the same issue as the white wine saison above: there's no style that encompasses straight additions of other alcoholic ingredients.
33B is the closest fit, but judges will be looking for barrel: "The wood-based character should be evident"

2. This thread has more info about these kind of questions.

[brianbrewed]

33b it is.
Thanks guys