Competition Beer Category

[Blain]

Hello All.

I'm new to this forum and fairly new to home brewing.

I'm thinking about entering my second beer competition and need help with picking the category for my beer.

The competition is called the Monster Homebrew competition. As far as I know, the only categories are:
Hop Monster
Malt Monster
Other Worldly (Specialty)

I am wanting to enter a Bourbon Barrel Porter, but Not sure if it should go in Malt Monster or the Specialty category. I'm not familiar with this competition and not even sure if a Bourbon Barrel Porter has any place in a competition like this.

Looking for any help I can get.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Blain

 

[Gavin C]

Hello All.

I'm new to this forum and fairly new to home brewing.

I'm thinking about entering my second beer competition and need help with picking the category for my beer.

The competition is called the Monster Homebrew competition. As far as I know, the only categories are:
Hop Monster
Malt Monster
Other Worldly (Specialty)

I am wanting to enter a Bourbon Barrel Porter, but Not sure if it should go in Malt Monster or the Specialty category. I'm not familiar with this competition and not even sure if a Bourbon Barrel Porter has any place in a competition like this.

Looking for any help I can get.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Blain

I would submit it to the malt monster category as I don't think it is sufficiently odd to qualify for the other category which will contain who knows what. A bourbon barrel porter is fairly mainstream these days.

From their website (I'm guessing it's this comp here in Texas)


Contest Categories - You will submit your beers to be judged in one of three contest categories
Malt Monster
Hop Monster
Other Worldly (that special beer that doesn’t quite fit into one of the other two categories i.e. Sours)

Best of luck BTW. Your beer sounds very tasty.

 

[cjones]

I would submit it to the malt monster category as I don't think it is sufficiently odd to qualify for the other category which will contain who knows what. A bourbon barrel porter is fairly mainstream these days.



From their website (I'm guessing it's this comp here in Texas)





Contest Categories - You will submit your beers to be judged in one of three contest categories

Malt Monster

Hop Monster

Other Worldly (that special beer that doesn’t quite fit into one of the other two categories i.e. Sours)



Best of luck BTW. Your beer sounds very tasty.

Be Careful of bad advise - its style 33b in the bcjp which they state they use -

33b is a specialty and specifically list the beer in question.

 

[Gavin C]

Be Careful of bad advise - its style 33b in the bcjp which they state they use -

33b is a specialty and specifically list the beer in question.

They do not use the regular BJCP style guidelines in this comp. They only have 3 categories. A, B or C. They make no specific inclusions or exclusions for style C (the other worldly category). If you care to check the linked website to the competition (that I think the OP is entering) this would become very clear.

 

[cjones]

i did - we use bcjp right there plane as day.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1446523891.530500.jpg

 

[cjones]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1446523977.523303.jpg

heres the bcjp on specialty-

somebody that assume just because a beer is common which some would say its not, (do u have a barrel aged beer?) and not look up bcjp guidelines on what classifies as specialty. many competition break it up this way - and place judges that will be expecting certain types of styles - specialty will have judges looking for 28 thru 34. malty will be cover all the beers that fall into that category under classic. and so on... maybe if you were a judge before you would know this.

 

[Qhrumphf]

They do not use the regular BJCP style guidelines in this comp. They only have 3 categories. A, B or C. They make no specific inclusions or exclusions for style C (the other worldly category). If you care to check the linked website to the competition (that I think the OP is entering) this would become very clear.

View attachment 313598

heres the bcjp on specialty-

somebody that assume just because a beer is common which some would say its not, (do u have a barrel aged beer?) and not look up bcjp guidelines on what classifies as specialty. many competition break it up this way - and place judges that will be expecting certain types of styles - specialty will have judges looking for 28 thru 34. malty will be cover all the beers that fall into that category under classic. and so on... maybe if you were a judge before you would know this.

You're getting your signals crossed here.

It says explicitly that judging is done by the 2008 BJCP guidelines. You're referencing the new 2015 guidelines. The specialty categories are very different between the two. Beers that were or weren't specialty beers in 2008 may now be the other way in 2015.

This is an ambiguous setup for this competition and I wouldn't enter as a result. If I personally were organizing this, I would have entrants enter under their normal BJCP category (whether 2008 or 2015, it doesn't matter), and then have the prize categories set up by the competition directly. This is pretty commonplace- in smaller comps the English Brown and Scottish Ale, or Light Lager and Pilsner, or whatever categories will often be grouped together as one prize category. Point is, let the comp figure out whether your 22C Wood Aged Beer (what this should be entered as) belongs in Malt Monster or Other-Worldly.

However, this'll also make it stupidly unwieldy to judge unless it's a VERY small comp, or unless they want some epic mini-best of shows with some majorly long queued judging.

Given that it's in that 20-23 grouping under the 2008 guidelines the comp is using, if you HAVE to pick one of those three categories, I would go with Other-Worldly.

 

[Homercidal]

It's a mix competition. They claim to use the 2008 BJCP guidelines, but then kind of throw the book out the window. They require each entry to have a starting gravity of at least 1.0666. This drops a HUGE portion of the guidelines out the window.

You could submit it as a Baltic Porter, which is one option in the porter category, or submit it as an Otherworldly, using the BJCP guidelines for Cat23 "Specialty" beers. They specifically list Imperial Porter under its umbrella, although it might also fall under the Cat22 for barrel aged beer. in both cases, I think the Other-Worldly category fits you beer the best.

 

[Blain]

I appreciate all of the input.

I was leaning towards the Other Worldly anyway and wanted some reinforcement on my decision or otherwise some strong opinion to convince me to go the Malt Monster Route.

Like I said, I'm still new to Brewing and competitions so I do appreciate everyone's advice and opinions.

Now the sad thing is that I have to give up 3 of my beers for judging.
Sipping on this thing now, it's very tasty (in my opinion) but I do want to see how it stands up to a judges opinion.

Best Regards,
Blain

 

[Subdivisions]

I'd keep my beers and drink them and save $8. It just seems weird and gimmicky.