Help choosing a category for competition...

[BrewChem]

I'm planning on entering a few beers in a competition and have a bit of a quandary... I brewed a straight-forward English Porter (13C). On a whim, I dropped about a dozen medium oak cubes in the carboy about a week before kegging. My intent was to give it a from-a-cask-like flavor.

It does have an oak note in the flavor but not dominating or in-your-face. Should I enter it as 13C or as a wood-aged beer (33A)..?

 

[Gameface]

Both

I have a few beers that I enter into multiple categories.

Chances are that in the porter category they'll mention a "strong" wood flavor and in the wood-aged beer category they'll say they couldn't really taste the wood-age character at all. But you never know and you'll learn something from the notes on both entries.

 

[dmtaylor]

Chances are that in the porter category they'll mention a "strong" wood flavor and in the wood-aged beer category they'll say they couldn't really taste the wood-age character at all. But you never know and you'll learn something from the notes on both entries.

Gameface is right. I'll say it another way:

Enter based on taste, not based on what you wanted it to taste like. Never enter based on a recipe. Always enter based on how the beer actually tastes.

If you can't taste the oak, enter as an English Porter. If you can, then enter as a wood beer or as both.