Help needed, entering homebrew cup for the first time.

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Cobby76, Feb 5, 2019.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Cobby76

    Cobby76 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2016 Japan

    Hi guys, I’m trying to enter the local brew competition for the first time,confused with the category where to place my beer in. I’ve brewed Cocowizen the recipe is:
    • 8 lb White wheat
    • 2.5 lb 2-row malt
    • 1.2 oz Crystal hops, 3.9% a.a. (60 min)
    • Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen
    • 1 lb (0.45 kg) toasted coconut 2 days in the primary before kegging.
    • Yeast Lalemand Munich Classic Wheat beer yeast 1pack.
    • OG 1048
    • FG 1010
    • Fermented for 10 days at 70.7 F
    The judges will use BJCP 2008 gyde lines.
    I wounder where does it suppose to go to fruit beers because of coconut or to wizen category?
    Thank you for help.
     
  2. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Assuming you can taste the coconut, enter it as a fruit beer.
     
    Maestro0708 likes this.
  3. SFACRKnight

    SFACRKnight Grand Pooh-Bah (3,348) Jan 20, 2012 Colorado
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    If you enter it as a fruit beer both the fruit and the base beer need to be evident. If its lacking fruit flavor, or tastes like the base beer is not a hefe you will get dinged. I entered a fruited wit for judging a few years back, the raspberries were super jammy, but it wasn't obviously a wit. I kept getting honorable mentions until I entered it as an American blonde with raspberries. BOOM! Medals.
     
    riptorn likes this.
  4. dmtaylor

    dmtaylor Savant (1,149) Dec 30, 2003 Wisconsin

    Spice Herb Vegetable
     
  5. Cobby76

    Cobby76 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2016 Japan

    Thank you guys .Tomorrow is the last sample before I keg.According to the recipe only two days on coconut. Will let you know how does it taste like.
     
  6. Dave_S

    Dave_S Crusader (429) May 18, 2017 England

    Yeah, I would have assumed that coconut is a nut rather than a fruit (from a cooking / brewing standpoint if not a biological one), and the BJCP classifies nuts under SHV rather than fruit. The other advice above all still seems to apply, though.
     
  7. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    IIRC, the 2008 guidelines do not mention coconut at all. Botanically, it's a fruit.
     
    SFACRKnight likes this.
  8. Dave_S

    Dave_S Crusader (429) May 18, 2017 England

    Did a bit of Googling, found Gordon Strong writing in 2011:
    "21a is the right place. I'll clarify in the next set of guidelines. The intent of fruit vs SHV beers is to keep to the culinary interpretation of the ingredient not the botanical one. If (God help us) you made a tomato beer, it would be entered in 21a not 20. Coconut tastes more like macadamia nuts and cashews than it does raspberries and cherries. So it goes in 21. I thought 'nut' was good enough, but apparently not. That was the intent, though."

    https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=9146

    Good pedantry, though. Presumably you'd still enter peanut stout as a vegetable beer since it's technically a legume?
     
    dmtaylor likes this.
  9. dmtaylor

    dmtaylor Savant (1,149) Dec 30, 2003 Wisconsin

    Yeah, the guidelines basically say somewheres to ignore the botanical definition and instead apply the culinary standard. Coconut is an in-betweener but falls more to the vegetable side as it's not very sweet (without sugar added).

    Makes me wonder if plaintain would be treated as a fruit or as a vegetable. Depends on sweetness & ripeness I suppose. Meanwhile, a green-ass banana wouldn't belong on the fruit side IMO. Let your bananas ripen, dammit.
     
  10. PortLargo

    PortLargo Pooh-Bah (1,831) Oct 19, 2012 Florida
    Pooh-Bah

    Amen brother . . . it's smart to not declare what style you brewed until you taste it. Judges don't know what you tried to brew, only what's in front of them.

    For the OP, there isn't anything wrong with entering it in the two different styles (one entry as base, one entry as SHV or fruit or whatever). Your sacrificing some extra bottles but covering all the bases. FWIW, a Miami homebrew club has an annual competition called the "Coconut Cup", which is next month. They have a special entry for "coconut" beer (category 99) for funsies . . . I've had their Gold Medal'er and it was soaking in flavor from the tropical nut. It tasted what I expect suntan lotion to taste like.
     
    riptorn likes this.
  11. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    Have you used this yeast before to make a hefeweizen? I have made this style and variants (e.g., dunkelweizen) several times with WLP 300 (liquid) and once with Fermentis WB-6 (dry). I did not like the dry yeast version. On the other hand, I once used Fermentis T-58 to ferment a wort made from dry wheat extract and I thought it seemed more credible as a hefeweizen than as something Belgian (which is how T-58 is often described).
     
  12. Cobby76

    Cobby76 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2016 Japan

    Sorry guys ,miss wrote didn't use Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen.I used the dry yeast. Kegged today,very good balance .I liked it,let see how it will go.
     
    riptorn likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.