What are Parameters for Competition Brews?

My New Year's Resolution is to enter a couple brews into a few competitions this year, and a question just clicked in my brain. So I have a Blonde Ale that I'm quite fond of, however, it falls WAY outside of the IBU range. According to my brew software, it lists it at 98 IBU. I was calling it more of a pale ale, but then i realized all of the other characteristics fell within the Blonde category. So will that nick me on points because it doesnt fall neatly into the style guidelines? How would i get around that? Can i tweak the name a bit, call it an American Blonde Ale or something?
Please help! I want to enter into a competition soon!

Your best chance of winning is to pick a style and brew to the guide. The point of these competitions is to test your ability to brew within the limits of a style. Submitting a beer, no matter how good and no matter what you call it, that is outside the guidelines doesn't work very well.

So then how does one go about creating a beer that is great, but doesnt fall within a specific category? That makes competition brewing kind of boring, no? I mean, say I don't normally like Blondes (beers, that is... im not crazy) but i manage to find a way to make one that really suites my taste... How do I get pro feed back on it, or get it out there?
It just doesnt seem to allow for a whole lot of creative licensing when competition, right?
I'm sure the responses are going to be 'if you fall outside of the guidelines, you arent actually brewing that style' and that 'competitions are to see how well you can brew a specific style', but are there any competitions that favor creativeness?

Category 23!

http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style23.php

But remember even with category 23, the bjcp asks that you identify and underlying style...they want the base beer to be a good representative of the style.

For example my chocolate mole porter, with mexican hot chocolate and chiles still has a good base porter under it. In fact in one of the contests I entered it in, the judge commented on the base style.

Revvy said:

But remember even with category 23, the bjcp asks that you identify and underlying style...they want the base beer to be a good representative of the style.

For example my chocolate mole porter, with mexican hot chocolate and chiles still has a good base porter under it. In fact in one of the contests I entered it in, the judge commented on the base style.

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Agreed my smoked imperial porter wasn't malt forward and "portery" enough since i used a S-33 yeast (but the peppery notes were a nice addition). It cost me some points.

I gotcha. That's kind of what i was thinking. Do you guys think a blonde ale would compete well in that category? It seems like a lot of people are entering the kind of beers you guys were mentioning, chille'd beers, chocolate beers, stuff like that. Would an over-hopped blonde be too 'safe' per se?

Copperpots_Brewing said:

It just doesnt seem to allow for a whole lot of creative licensing when competition, right?
I'm sure the responses are going to be 'if you fall outside of the guidelines, you arent actually brewing that style' and that 'competitions are to see how well you can brew a specific style', but are there any competitions that favor creativeness?

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The idea of brewing within a category is that it allows the judges to critique your beer against other beers that fall within the same parameters. It is supposed to be a comparison of your skills against other competitors.

A blond with 90+ IBUs might taste good, but it's not a blond and it wouldn't score very well in that category. As for category 23...I don't think overly hopping a blonde is going to really set it aside as a specialty beer. I would honestly pick up a copy of Brewing Classic Styles and take a look at those recipes.

david_42 said:

Your best chance of winning is to pick a style and brew to the guide. The point of these competitions is to test your ability to brew within the limits of a style. Submitting a beer, no matter how good and no matter what you call it, that is outside the guidelines doesn't work very well.

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I hope there are exceptions to this...I've got an 144.5 IBU IIPA dryhopping as we speak, hope to have it ready for a competition with an early April deadline.

osagedr said:

I hope there are exceptions to this...I've got an 144.5 IBU IIPA dryhopping as we speak, hope to have it ready for a competition with an early April deadline.

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Dude I just read the quote in your signature about 3 times and I laughed harder each time I read it.

BTW I am about to start dry hopping my accidental 1.092 OG - 1.020 FG (The OG was the accident) Pliny clone - luckily I was already close to 200 calculated IBUs so I'm not worried about any problems with a balance in the bitterness, and I have plenty of hops with which to dry hop with. This is by far the biggest beer I have made, at 9.6% ABV.

keesh said:

Dude I just read the quote in your signature about 3 times and I laughed harder each time I read it.

BTW I am about to start dry hopping my accidental 1.092 OG - 1.020 FG (The OG was the accident) Pliny clone - luckily I was already close to 200 calculated IBUs so I'm not worried about any problems with a balance in the bitterness, and I have plenty of hops with which to dry hop with. This is by far the biggest beer I have made, at 9.6% ABV.

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All the credit for my sig goes to MalFet--I'm just quoting him. Hilarious!

My IIPA had an OG of about 1.085 including 2.5 lbs of dextrose. I loved the taste of it in the kettle and at every stage since. To be honest I'm liking it a bit less as the dry hops take effect. Like you, I'm finding the high IBUs are balanced nicely by the malt. The last gravity reading I took put the ABV right at the 9.6% mark--smaller than my 10.87% Belgian Golden Strong and whatever my Eisbock has for ABV.

osagedr said:

All the credit for my sig goes to MalFet--I'm just quoting him. Hilarious!

My IIPA had an OG of about 1.085 including 2.5 lbs of dextrose. I loved the taste of it in the kettle and at every stage since. To be honest I'm liking it a bit less as the dry hops take effect. Like you, I'm finding the high IBUs are balanced nicely by the malt. The last gravity reading I took put the ABV right at the 9.6% mark--smaller than my 10.87% Belgian Golden Strong and whatever my Eisbock has for ABV.

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So your IIPA is the same ABV as me but your OG was lower - you got better attenuation than me, I see. I was brewing with some buddies and we were drinking pretty heavily so I didn't take any notes (also forgot the flameout addition, hah) so I can't remember exactly what the mash temp ended up at, but I was shooting for a lower one to yield more fermentables ala Vinnie C.'s Pliny recipe. I wonder if it had more to do with my yeast, because I had forgotten to make the starter until the morning of the brew day, about 10 hours before pitching. Then again, it could still be fermenting, which I hope because I wanted it to be a little drier than 1.020.

Aaaaanyways, /threadhijack over.

keesh said:

So your IIPA is the same ABV as me but your OG was lower - you got better attenuation than me, I see...Then again, it could still be fermenting, which I hope because I wanted it to be a little drier than 1.020.

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Dextrose will help get your gravity down to where you want and give your beer the lighter body you want for the style. I used 2.5 lbs. Post-fermentation is a good time to add it anyway.

"I have a Blonde Ale that I'm quite fond of, however, it falls WAY outside of the IBU range. According to my brew software, it lists it at 98 IBU."

Sounds like an IPA to me.

dover97 said:

"I have a Blonde Ale that I'm quite fond of, however, it falls WAY outside of the IBU range. According to my brew software, it lists it at 98 IBU."

Sounds like an IPA to me.

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I brewed it as a pale ale, but the color and abv parameters didnt match up, but everything else but ibu matches a blond. I think it's too light in color and abv to be an IPA or pale ale, but too bitter for a blond... It's a bastard

If you are a little light on the color that would likely only cost you 1 or 2 points out of a possible 3. Also, there is a good chance that a low ABV wouldn't be noticed.

osagedr said:

Dextrose will help get your gravity down to where you want and give your beer the lighter body you want for the style. I used 2.5 lbs. Post-fermentation is a good time to add it anyway.

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I already added the same amount of dextrose as you. I think I planned on doing it at flameout to reduce any Mallaird reactions so it wouldn't darken but as I said, we had been drinking pretty heavily so I think I threw it in with bittering additions. It looks pretty dark in the fermenter but when I took my reading I was happy with the color. The body seems about right as it is now if I recall correctly, but it is hard to tell without carbonation.

keesh said:

I already added the same amount of dextrose as you. I think I planned on doing it at flameout to reduce any Mallaird reactions so it wouldn't darken but as I said, we had been drinking pretty heavily so I think I threw it in with bittering additions. It looks pretty dark in the fermenter but when I took my reading I was happy with the color. The body seems about right as it is now if I recall correctly, but it is hard to tell without carbonation.

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You'll likely end up with a great beer!

I intended to go last five minutes of the boil, forgot the dextrose with the ridiculous number of hop additions, took a gravity reading and was scratching my head as to why I missed the mark so bad...then it hit me.

Then I planned to add the dextrose at high krausen but after doing some reading talked myself out of it. Waited until fermentation was basically finished then added it--talk about happy yeast!

Copperpots_Brewing said:

I brewed it as a pale ale, but the color and abv parameters didnt match up, but everything else but ibu matches a blond. I think it's too light in color and abv to be an IPA or pale ale, but too bitter for a blond... It's a bastard

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dover97 said:

If you are a little light on the color that would likely only cost you 1 or 2 points out of a possible 3. Also, there is a good chance that a low ABV wouldn't be noticed.

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I agree with Dover, and that the most important thing to read in the style guidlines are not the box at the bottom with the parameters but the actual notes for aroma/taste/apperance/flavour/etc.
Read the notes for the blonde, pale ale, IPA and tell us what it sounds like more.
Depending on what calc the brewing program uses you'll get a different result for the IBUs. And no judge could say what the exact IBUs/SRM are so if you were slightly over/under the parameters you shouldn't get stung to hard.

The other thing is you are entering the beer knowing that it doesn't quite fit into a specific catagory and you have decided on the best catagory for it. Might hurt your chances for placing but you will still get good feedback, i.e.
Blond ale - good malt flavour but overly bitter/hop flavour & aroma for style (yep pretty much what you would be expecting)
Blond ale - DMS/Diactlye/oxidation/etc. detecetd and overly bitter/hop flavour & aroma for style (yep pretty much what you would be expecting for the IBUs but not expecting the other off flavour problems - now I can work on them)

I think the best things you can do is taste it. Does it really taste like a blonde ale? Or does it taste like a pale ale?

Don't worry about numbers and color, worry about taste, as this is what the judges will mainly be going off of.

If it doesn't taste like either, enter it in both categories (if possible, under different nams of course) and see what happens. OR, don't enter this one, and enjoy your fine creation on its own terms. I have a Belgian beer that isn't a BPA or Trippel but somewhere in the middle. It can't hold a candle in a comp, but it is a great beer.

Don't worry about the parameters. I brewed a Belgian Blond and entered it as that even though my efficiency was terrible and the OG was way low for the style.

Got a 39.

As for your beer, I'd enter it as an IPA (14B) if you have American hop aroma and flavor in there. Judging American Ales two weekends ago, it was really disappointing to not have ANY American hop aroma or flavor in some entries.