kanzimonson
Well-Known Member
A lot of us are making holiday and pumpkin beers right now and I'm sure some of us will craft something special that we feel is worthy of entering a competition. This got me thinking...
The BJCP guidelines require that you state the base style for your fruit/spice/veggie beer. This helps calibrate the judge's palette when tasting. If they feel you incorrectly stated/represent a style, you can lose points off your score.
But one big problem I see has to do with altering the sweetness of our base beers. When I make a pumpkin beer, I will be using something like an Irish Red as a base. But I'm going to use 50-100% more crystal malt than a typical Irish Red, and I may cut the IBUs back by 25-50%. In a subjective sense, this probably makes a better beer - pumpkin pie is sweet and I like my pumpkin beers to be sweet. The spices used in pumpkin beer add their own type of bitterness, so the reduction in IBUs is appropriate. Because I'm using spices, I don't use late hop additions. But all this diverges quite a bit from the actual Irish Red style.
How do y'all cope with this when entering holiday beers in competition? Do you just enter the beer in the category and state the basics, i.e., "Irish Red base with pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices"? Or do you try to make it clear that YOU know the beer altered the base style, i.e., "Irish Red with increased specialty grains for caramel/sweetness, reduced IBUs, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spices, minus late hop additions"?
It seems excessive to be so descriptive, and it also comes off as pandering to the judges or being a know-it-all. But hey, if it demonstrates you have some knowledge you might just take home the prize... thoughts?
The BJCP guidelines require that you state the base style for your fruit/spice/veggie beer. This helps calibrate the judge's palette when tasting. If they feel you incorrectly stated/represent a style, you can lose points off your score.
But one big problem I see has to do with altering the sweetness of our base beers. When I make a pumpkin beer, I will be using something like an Irish Red as a base. But I'm going to use 50-100% more crystal malt than a typical Irish Red, and I may cut the IBUs back by 25-50%. In a subjective sense, this probably makes a better beer - pumpkin pie is sweet and I like my pumpkin beers to be sweet. The spices used in pumpkin beer add their own type of bitterness, so the reduction in IBUs is appropriate. Because I'm using spices, I don't use late hop additions. But all this diverges quite a bit from the actual Irish Red style.
How do y'all cope with this when entering holiday beers in competition? Do you just enter the beer in the category and state the basics, i.e., "Irish Red base with pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices"? Or do you try to make it clear that YOU know the beer altered the base style, i.e., "Irish Red with increased specialty grains for caramel/sweetness, reduced IBUs, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spices, minus late hop additions"?
It seems excessive to be so descriptive, and it also comes off as pandering to the judges or being a know-it-all. But hey, if it demonstrates you have some knowledge you might just take home the prize... thoughts?
