Stout BJCP category

[brycelarson]

I've got a great little oak / vanilla oatmeal milk stout I've been making for a couple of years. I want to take the plunge and enter some contests this summer and fall - but I'm not sure what style to enter it as. It doesn't really match BJCP 13B or C. B is a sweet stout - which indicates lactose but not oatmeal as ingredients. C indicates oats but not lactose.

I've got both - what do you think?

I'm finally jumping from lurker to actual member here. I've been brewing for 12 or 14 years - but have started taking it much more seriously in the last couple of years.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Do you know any BJCP judges, or have a local club you could take it to? I've found the best way to place a beer style for competitions is to have some others that are well experienced taste it and look at the recipe, then suggest which category it falls best into. These two styles can be fairly similar, and I don't think you are precluded from adding oats to a sweet stout, or lactose to an oatmeal stout.

 

[asidrane]

How strong is the oak? If it is very prominent it should be entered in the wood aged beer category. Otherwise, enter it in the stout category it most tastes like. Either sweet stout or oatmeal stout.

 

[daksin]

If it's got lactose and tastes sweet, it's a sweet stout- oats can certainly be used in a sweet stout. That is UNLESS the oak flavor is more than an extremely subtle undertone, in which case it goes right into Wood Aged Beers.

 

[AmandaK]

Without knowing more than "oak/vanilla stout", go 22C-Wood Aged Beer.

But at any rate, go for it! Entering comps can be very fun and rewarding, especially if you get comments back from a good judge who takes their time with it.

 

[brycelarson]

Thanks guys. I only oaked half the batch - so I might drop it into both the sweet and wood aged categories.