Catagory Help!

So we are in need of some urgent help trying to figure out what category this beer we brewed is. It came out first and foremost delicious, but also super smooth, malty, more oak chippy than a bourbon taste (but the bourbon is coming on more as it ages). Here's the recipe:

Extract: 6lbs Light DME, 4lbs Wheat DME
Steep : 0.5lbs Crystal 120, 0.5lbs Cara-Pils
Hops @60 - 2oz Fuggles
@ 40 - 1oz EKG
@ 10 - 1oz EKG
Yeast: Nottingham
ABV: 9.5% ABV
IBU's: 28.6 IBUs
Other: Makers Mark Soaked French Oak Chips

Any help would be really appreciated!

Strong Ale

If you age with wood, is it automatically in the wood aged subgroup?

I assumed so, but I'm pretty new. I guess I thought it was automatic, but I've been wrong before...

The first and most important thing to consider is "what does the beer taste like?" The judge doesn't see the recipe.


Just because the beer touches wood does not necessarily make "wood aged" the best fit category for that particular beer. In any of the speciality category the special ingredient / feature needs to be front and center.

That said, based on the recipe I'd agree with the earlier poster. Old Ale might make sense. It is a category with a fairly broad range of possible interpretation, and a hint of oak would not be out of place.

Consider this - enter it in two categories.