smoked scotch ale

Hi all, I originally posted this in the ingredients forum and didn't get any hits, thought I would try here.... If an admin has a more appropriate place in mind, please move this thread.

Just looking for some advice on how to enter a strong scotch ale in a local competition. It was the first runnings I did in a partigyle brew, part of my grain bill was some 2 row that I smoked with hickory. The smoke flavor is far less present in the strong ale as compared to the lower gravity brew from the second runnings, but it is still there.

Would I be better served to enter this beer in the 22b - other smoked beer, or just stick with 9e - strong scotch ale?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

If you could enter it in both. It isn't uncommon for scotch ales to have some smoke flavor, so if you can only do one I'd go for scotch ale. 9E does include smokey flavors but it sounds like it is for a more reserved smoke flavor/aroma and not the dominant flavor.

From BCJP (all three categories of scottish ale): "The optional peaty, earthy and/or smoky character comes from the traditional yeast and from the local malt and water rather than using smoked malts" and "Although unusual, any smoked character is yeast- or water-derived and not from the use of peat-smoked malts."

If you can taste smoke, ESPECIALLY if it's not from peat smoked malt, it should go in 22B Other smoked beer. I would specify that it is based on a Scotch ale, and you used hickory smoked 2-row.

Thanks for the input guys, I'm going to get a couple impartial taste testers to let me know how smokey they think it is, but I'm really leaning towards the smoke category at this point.