Scottish 70 or 80?

[brettwasbtd]

I made a Scottish ale based off of Jamil's Recipe from Brewing classic styles. It is absolutely delicious! Might be the best beer I have made to date. I want to enter this beer in a local competition next month but im not sure whether to enter it as a 70 or an 80. I had an original gravity of 1048 and final of 1018 (which is out of range). Not sure if this was due to my mash temperature, yeast selection or viability (used Wyeast Scottish 1728) and fermented around 60* - Ibus 23 using rager or 19.5 using tinseth bottled conditioned to approximately 1.8 volumes. I'm leaning towards the 80/- because the OG was so much higher than a 70. My only worry is the my beer will be smaller/less to it compared to some higher 80/- in a competition? As you can see I have deemed it a 75 in my signature Any thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks!


70/-
Vital Statistics: OG: 1.035 – 1.040
IBUs: 10 – 25 FG: 1.010 – 1.015
SRM: 9 – 17 ABV: 3.2 – 3.9%

80/-
Vital Statistics: OG: 1.040 – 1.054
IBUs: 15 – 30 FG: 1.010 – 1.016
SRM: 9 – 17 ABV: 3.9 – 5.0%

 

[Oldsock]

I think you are better off in 80/- since you are within the gravity range. It will be too thick for the lighter category. Good luck.

 

[brettwasbtd]

Thanks for the input. I actually listened to the Brew Strong archive from last month where they talked about Competitions. John and Jamil made the point to say that you shouldn't try to brew bigger/out-of-style just to impress/trick a judge. If they are a good judge they will know whats in style and score accordingly. So I guess I will enter and deem this an 80.

 

[Oldsock]

I think the bigger thing can work, but on more moderate styles (saying going just over a pale ale or porter). With small beers one of the easy things to look for is too big for style (especially when you have a number of beers of the same style lined up).

 

[BrewThruYou]

I was listening to a brewing network podcast and they were saying it would be really hard for a regular judge to distinguish a Scottish 70 from an 80....the gap is just so small.

Technically, an OG 1.040 with 15-25 IBUs overlaps into both categories. But it doesn't really matter. In my last comp, they judge the entire category 9 - Scottish and Irish Ale against each other, so it wasn't like the subcategory was judged and there was a winner for 70 or 80.

I would put it in 80 and not worry about it.

 

[brettwasbtd]

Look through my old topics and realized I never checked in on this. I actually enter that beers and 80 and won 2nd place BOS! The recipe is in my dropdown. Guess I owe that to you guys saying to with 80