I made a dill pickle beer, and would like to enter it into a competition, however, I'm not sure what category. I used wheat and pilsner extract, along with acidulated malt, to create a sour base, and added some dill along with the hops. In the secondary, I added dill pickles, juice and all. Technically speaking, I don't think this is a sour, and cucumbers are a fruit. So many choices.
What BJCP category?
- Thread starter ruppe
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How does it taste? Like pickles? Cucumbers are a veggie, and so I'd go with spice/herb/veg beer.
+1 to Yooper's suggestion of veg beer - provided it actually does taste like pickle/dill.
Perception is everything when it comes to competitions; and having an objective tasting/opinion is key. You could make an amazing standalone beer, but if there's something about it that doesn't conform to the category it's submitted in, you're going to get dinged for it.
For example, if you submit a blueberry IPA (just making up an dumb example), but the blueberry is completely imperceptible, you're best to submit it in the IPA category versus the fruit beer category.
Perception is everything when it comes to competitions; and having an objective tasting/opinion is key. You could make an amazing standalone beer, but if there's something about it that doesn't conform to the category it's submitted in, you're going to get dinged for it.
For example, if you submit a blueberry IPA (just making up an dumb example), but the blueberry is completely imperceptible, you're best to submit it in the IPA category versus the fruit beer category.
Spice Herb Veggie
That was my first thought, but then looking beyond that, the options were numerous. Tastes exactly like dill pickles, which I'll probably get penalized for, since they look for "subtle" flavor that doesn't mask the beer. And yes, we all think of cucumbers as vegetables, but they are a fruit. They are in the same family as melons.
I'd love to see this argument played out on a BJCP score sheet.
I guess this circles around to the idea of why you're submitting a Dill Pickle beer to a competition in the first place. I'm not suggesting it's a bad beer, but odds are it won't do well compared to styles, simply because style guidelines don't support it.I do a pumpkin lager that i brew for myself & friends. (No pumpkin, just spice, btw.) It's essentially pumpkin pie in a glass, which is what i shoot for. However, I did submit it one time and it got knocked on a scoresheet or two as a result of it being exactly what i wanted - over the top 'pie characteristics'.
As long as you have some perspective, you may find that submitting it is fruitless (pun intended).
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