Bjcp style guidelines question

[drat12]

Hi all. My apologies if this is not in the correct forum, but I couldn't find an area that covered this specifically.

I am considering entering in a Porter that I brewed last year and then sat on oak cubes soaked in bourbon for several months. This ended up being a 5.5 percent beer that no major hint of bourbon or oak, but it's so darn smooth that I think I'm going to enter it in one of the local contests this year.

My question is this - is this a 20a American Porter or would it be 33a specialty wood aged beer?

The. Reason I'm confused is that I am so used to the heavily Oaked/heavily bourboned/almost "hot" beers that seem to dominate that style. I used oak in bourbon, so I'm leaning toward 33a, but it doesn't seem right to put this beer up against some imperial oatmeal bourbon barrel stout or the like. Thoughts?

 

[artichoke]

Hi, if you have enough spare bottles might I suggest that you enter both categories and see what happens.

- Artichoke

 

[day_trippr]

You want more confusion? Check out 33B

https://beerrecipes.org/BJCP-2015-Style/115/33b-specialty-wood-aged-beer.html

Given 33a has this recommendation...

"This style is intended for beer aged in wood without added alcohol character from previous use of the barrel. Bourbon-barrel or other similar beers should be entered as a Specialty Wood-Aged Beer."

....if the oak chunks were bourbon soaked, I think 33b might be more appropriate than 33a...

Cheers!

 

[brewstergalVT]

I would enter it in 33B Specialty Wood-Aged beer. If the booze is noticeable it will get points off if it's entered in any other category.

 

[dmtaylor]

You must enter based on taste. If you and your friends and family cannot taste the oak or bourbon at all, then do NOT enter it in the wood-aged category. If you enter just the plain porter category, the judges do not receive your recipe and do not know what you did. They only receive a style name and they taste the sample that is set before them. If you tell them it is wood-aged and they don't taste the wood, they might mark you down in points for that. On the other hand, if you enter in a porter category (not wood-aged) and they pick up oak character, they are likely to actually judge it based on taste alone, even with slight hints of wood or bourbon, unless it is very strong, then they *might* mark it down.

 

[drat12]

day-tripper - 33b might be the way to go on this. I'll have another taste of it to see if I can sense the bourbon or oak. The "smoothness" that is mentioned in the guideline is definitely there....

On the other hand, I recognize what you are saying dmtaylor about if I enter it as a porter, but there happens to be additional flavors, I may be okay....