Homebrew Competition: What category do I enter this in?

22C or 23A are the likely culprits.

I'd say honest 23A would be the catch all for you, but you could also stand to go against some pretty unique things there, so it's a toss up!

 

23A would be your best bet since judges will call out different flavors other than what the other categories specify. 23A is a tough category to win. I recently got a 43 with an apple brandy oaked mexican chocolate stout and did not place. Good luck!

 

Being as it is wood aged I would go 22C, I just judged a competition this past weekend and judged 23A and 22C, from the sound it would do better in 22C.

 

How prominent is the Walnut? If it tastes like there is actual walnut in the beer, then 23a. If there are hints of walnut that could be part of the malt bill, yeast profile, etc, then 22c.

 

Submit to all of them, since your beer could work for any of them depending on the flavor profile, ordinal position, and the judges' palettes, etc.. I've had the same beer medal in multiple categories in the same comp, but get completely polarizing remarks from judges, so you never know what to expect.

 

Whatever category you enter it in, base it on what flavors you can taste and smell and not what ingredients you used.

As an example if the walnut is barely noticeable or hard to detect it's not worth even mentioning it in your entry. In these categories judges base their score on "intent of the brewer" as much as what they do on taste and smell. In other words, if you used walnut and a judge can't taste/smell it, you will get dinged for putting it as an ingredients.

 

I'd stay away from 21A. If you think it has a strong enough oak flavor, I'd go with 22C. I agree that specialty beer is going to be a catch-all and that you'll probably do well here too.

 

enter it in all of them why stick to one. It is usually quite interesting to see the same beer judge in different catagories (depending if you get good judges or shitty ones)

 

you can always enter in multiple catagories, usually there is a stipulation on you can only enter one beer per SUB CATEGORY...but that sometimes changes with fruit beers and such depending on the comp

 

thats where a lot of bad judging comes into play....I have had beers entered in two different catagories like that and had one place with low 40's and then get 29 on another. Bad judges

Curious what were the differences between the scores.
WHat were the judge rankings?

 

What's the point of entering in more than one category if you're not expecting different results? Judging is supposed to be to style so I'd expect different scores for the same beer.

 

No, Not when you are dealing with certain categories, ( especially the like of wood, specialty, belg specialty etc...) also like the ones the original poster was talking about, they are not set styles of beer. If you have entered competitions long enough you will see there are very good judges and very bad judges.

If you entered a hoppy pale ale in Pale ale and also entered it in an IPA, there is a very fine line on that between a pale ale on the higher end of the style and an IPA on the lower end of the style, but a well brewed example on that edge should not have much for conflicting info or scores with trained judges.

Now if you took that pale ale and entered it in category that was completley different yes you are going to have bad scores because it is not to style, even though it was well made. (again if you have a judge that is capable of determining that)

Scores may be close sometimes, but actual comments throughout the score sheet can be very far off when they should not be.

 

If you enter a beer in 23A Specialty Beer and the characteristic that makes it special isn't pronounced or noticeable, then I'd expect a lower score than in the more appropriate category. Beers that fit well in other categories shouldn't be winning in 23A.

In this case, I again ask "What's the point of entering in more than one category if you're not expecting different results?" If a beer would do well in either than pick one and go with it. If you're assuming there might be bad judges, then maybe you should pick a different competition.

 

Might be bad judges? A different competition? Picking a different competition has nothing to do with it judges can be from all over and a certain competition does not have a list of grand master, certified, national, or any ranking known.
I have received bad judges form some of the biggest competitions in the states to some of the smallest ones.

If you do not think there are bad judges out there, well just do not know how to repsond to that. You must not have entered many competitions, got the luck of the draw on judges or something.
You can enter more than one category because certain beers allow it to be entered in more than one. Like I said depending on the beer the results should or should not be different.

 

Of course there are bad judges. All I'm saying is that getting a "low 40's" in one category and then a "29" in another, by itself, is not necessarily evidence of bad judging.

 

For the categories it was entered in and if you were to read the comments yes it was definitive evidence of bad judging