New to competition, 20A vs 30A

[lateknightucd]

Hey all, I'm going to be entering my first competition at the end of the month. I have a Coffee Porter that I'm really happy with and would like to get some other opinions on. My question has to do with selection of categories. The base beer for this particular recipe is definitely in the 20A category. I did, however, add cold brewed, light roast coffee in the keg. This particular coffee adds bittersweet chocolate and some stone fruit notes with none of the characteristic coffee roast and bitterness. I believe that the chocolate notes add to the Porter without a bunch of over-the-top coffee flavors that would leave it unbalanced. My hesitancy about entering this as a 30A Coffee Porter is that I risk the judges expecting more coffee flavor than they're going to get. My thought was to enter as a 20A and disclose the coffee in the ingredient list. Am I allowed to do this though? If I add additional adjuncts like coffee am I required to enter as a 30A?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[billl]

You can enter in any category you want and the beer will/should be judged against that style. They should be judging by what they actually taste/see/smell, not on an ingredient list. The only one who has tasted it is you, so you are in the best position to say which style it is.

 

[zmanzorro]

If the coffee is noticeable, they're going to ding you for wrong style.

Honestly, if you're going to enter a competition, brew for a competition. It doesn't do well to cram a beer into a category that it doesn't really fit in.

 

[BroomVikin]

Having never entered a comp. myself I could be totally wrong here but can't you enter a bottle in each category and see how the comments go?

 

[secondbase]

Enter it in both categories. It will probably score better in 30a because you'll lose points for the coffee addition in 20a. One thing about 30a is finding a good balance between the addition and the base style while still being able to detect the addition so I wouldn't worry about it not being prominent enough, especially if the beer is better by the addition of coffee. Good luck!