What Category for Coconut Porter?

Entering my toasted coconut porter in a BJCP event and was torn whether it should be in 12B Robust Porter base category, or 21A for Spice, Herb or Vegetable?

The toasted coconut is not overpowering, but is there. In fact most who have had it notice chocolate or coffee flavors over the coconut. However, I think it reminds me slightly of a Mounds bar...it's got chocolate and it's got coconut in background. My feeling is that where the roast flavors come forward for most people, then it fits in 12B. But then I risk the judges picking up the coconut and calling it out of style. What to do, what to do.

Any suggestions?

have u had anyone try it and not tell them there is coconut in it?

i'd put it in 21A if you can notice it. subtle ones do better than intense IME.

I have entered mine as a (20A) fruit beer and a spice beer (21A) in different competitions. However the coconut in mine is a bit stronger than what you describe, although not overwhelmingly so. If you don't mind paying for an extra entry you could do it in one of those in addition to 12B to see what feedback you get. I did that with a rye IPA I made where I felt like the rye was there, but not really forward enough to pick out easily. Put it in 14B and 23, and got appropriate feedback for both entries.

dcp27 said:

have u had anyone try it and not tell them there is coconut in it?

i'd put it in 21A if you can notice it. subtle ones do better than intense IME.

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I have had someone try it without them knowing what it is and no, they did not guess coconut. Maybe I still taste coconut because it was very strong coconut when first bottled and has mellowed, but I know it's there, so I taste it? So it's definitely subtle.

weirdboy said:

If you don't mind paying for an extra entry you could do it in one of those in addition to 12B to see what feedback you get.

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I don't think I have enough left for 2 entries. I had saved three bottles (bombers) for the comp from the start and most of the rest has been devoured as my friends do love it whether they taste the coconut or not! Will have to check the back of my beer fridge to see if I have three more in there. You never know because last month I found a pale ale I made a year and a half ago!

I'd definitely go SHV (21A). If you can taste it, you don't want it going into the standard porter category.

I guess I should have listened to everyone, entered it as robust porter. Did not get my score sheet back, but saw my score online. A whopping 16! Everyone that had my beer loved it, so I am hoping this was just a case of it getting scored low for being out of style, plus the fact that by judging day it was over 6 months. Going to have to brew again and send it in to another comp fresh and in the right category to redeem myself.

Well you'll have to wait and see what the scoresheets say, but a 16 indicates something else going wrong. If it's been that long, it could be an infection that took a while to take hold, or maybe oxidation.

My luck, I had one bottle that was not perfectly clean and that 's the one I sent in! LOL! Oxidation could definitely be possible. Actually found two more bottles in my beer fridge when I was making space to put my latest brew in. Will have to crack one open and see what it tastes like!

I didn't judge porters, but if this was OSHC a very common complaint for them was lack of roast so that may be a contributing factor to the score. The stouts I got had a similar problem.

Usually a score that low indicates that the beer had at least two to three major off-flavors that completely overpowers the beer. If you're not picking up those off flavors at home, it's likely to do with your packaging/shipping. Is it possible that the bottle wasn't well sanitized or that you oxidized the beer?

When you get your score sheet back, crack open a bottle that you have on hand and compare to the judging notes.