What Style Would You Call This?

I just made a sort of Oktoberfest Lager style Ale, but went a tad light on the hops. If I wanted to enter this in a homebrew competition, what style do you think it could be placed under? Would it need to be specialty?

Here's the recipe...

10 lb pilsner malt (2 row)
.5 lb .23 kg Aromatic Malt (25.0 SRM)
1.5 lb Vienna
1 lb Carapils

1 oz. Tettnang at 60 min.
0.25 oz Hersbrucker at 30 Min
0.12.5 oz Hersbrucker at 15 min

Used BRY-97 American Ale yeast and fermented at 68.

Was going for something for all my non-beer-geek friends to enjoy but which still had some class.

Just wondering what I could do with it style wise, should I want to enter it into a HB competition.

I'm not familiar with BRY-97, but if it's an ale yeast then it's technically not an oktoberfest. By definition oktoberfests/marzens are lagers and require lager yeast. This is actually similar to oktoberfest/ale hybrids such as beirmunchers oktoberfast ale. I have some fermenting now and it tastes DELICIOUS, but it's not a true oktoberfest. Honestly not entirely sure what you would enter it into a competition as. I would imagine specialty.

I have never competed, so I don't know, but Pale Ale seems like a general category.

read the BJCP categories and see what it tastes like, looks like, smells like. Technically, it is not a style. But, the judges don't know what you put in it, so if it tastes like a style you are ok. My guess as possibilities - Vienna, Octoberfest, Alt.... might be possible options.

Maybe call it an altbier?

Thanks. Looking into those suggestions I'm thinking Düsseldorf Altbier might be the closest I have seen so far. Not 100% within the guidelines but pretty close. I have never had a n Altbier so your suggestions were all very helpful, thanks.

Braufessor said:

...the judges don't know what you put in it, so if it tastes like a style you are ok....

Click to expand...

+1

The ingredients, per se, do not make the style. All that matters is what it looks like, how it smells, and, most importantly, how it tastes. If it looks, smells, and tastes like an Octoberfest (or an altbier or a Russian imperial stout), then it's an Octoberfest (or an altbier or a Russian imperial stout).

Of course, the ingredients you use contribute to the appearance, the aroma, and the taste, but ultimately they don't determine the style.

JLem said:

+1

The ingredients, per se, do not make the style. All that matters is what it looks like, how it smells, and, most importantly, how it tastes. If it looks, smells, and tastes like an Octoberfest (or an altbier or a Russian imperial stout), then it's an Octoberfest (or an altbier or a Russian imperial stout).

Of course, the ingredients you use contribute to the appearance, the aroma, and the taste, but ultimately they don't determine the style.

Click to expand...

Understood, I just wasn't even familiar with a style that tasted like an ale like Oktoberfest, with a little less of a hop profile. The ingredients were all I had to use to express what it might be like. But I take your point.

An oktoberfest is not a hoppy beer- it's definitely a malt-centric beer.