Help with Competition Categorization

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by PangaeaBeerFood, Mar 2, 2012.

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  1. PangaeaBeerFood

    PangaeaBeerFood Initiate (0) Nov 30, 2008 New York

    Hey Everyone,

    As I'm sure you all know, the AHA just opened registration for their National Homebrew Competition. I just had a quick question for categorization.

    One of my beers is a Pumpkin Spice beer (with a Scotch Ale base) that's bourbon barrel aged. How would I categorize that? Last year I submit it as a Wood-Aged Beer (22C) with the sub-style as a Spice/Herb/Vegetable (21A). However, it was disqualified because 21A also requires a sub-style identification. Would that just make it a Specialty Beer (23)?

    Any help would be appreciated, as I suck at categorizing "outside the box" beers.
     
    #1 PangaeaBeerFood, Mar 2, 2012
  2. jslot38

    jslot38 Pundit (947) Apr 18, 2005 New Hampshire

    Not sure I follow what happened last year... I think what might have tripped you up is you used a sub-style from a different style. In other words, you would have to go with the style being Smoked / Wood Aged Beer 22 and the substyle being Wood-Aged Beer 22C or Spice/Herb/Vegetable 21 and the substyle as 21A.
     
    #2 jslot38, Mar 2, 2012
  3. LeeryLeprechaun

    LeeryLeprechaun Savant (1,094) Jan 30, 2011 Colorado
    Trader

    You could register it as a spice/herb/vegetable beer and put the sub style as a scotch ale.
     
    #3 LeeryLeprechaun, Mar 2, 2012
  4. PangaeaBeerFood

    PangaeaBeerFood Initiate (0) Nov 30, 2008 New York

    Sorry if my logic was hard to follow, haha. Both styles require that you list the "underlying beer style", i.e. if you you made a bourbon-barrel aged imperial stout, you'd have to enter it into 22C (Wood Aged) but denote that it was a Stout base. I entered mine into 22C, but with Spice/Herb/Vegetable as the underlying style and they said it wasn't properly entered and disqualified it.
     
    #4 PangaeaBeerFood, Mar 2, 2012
  5. jslot38

    jslot38 Pundit (947) Apr 18, 2005 New Hampshire

    I agree with this. Enter Scotch ale as the base style. It sounds like the Pumpkin spice and not the barrel is the dominate character here.
     
    #5 jslot38, Mar 2, 2012
  6. beesy

    beesy Pundit (801) Jul 21, 2010 Ohio

    This
     
    #6 beesy, Mar 2, 2012
  7. mschofield

    mschofield Pooh-Bah (1,871) Oct 16, 2002 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Do you feel it's more of a wood aged beer or a spiced beer?
    More wood aged: Enter in 22c with base style as "Bourbon barrel aged Scotch Ale made with pumpkin spice"
    More of a spiced beer: Enter in 21a with base as "Pumpkin spice beer, based on Scotch Ale that has been bourbon barrel aged"

    Or just enter in category 23 if you feel neither is the dominant character and both are still noticeable.

    Or enter all 3 and let the judge's decide where it does the best.

    You'd end up in the same situation with say an Imperial Stout, with coffee that has been bourbon barrel aged. I'm sure they've seen it before.
     
    #7 mschofield, Mar 2, 2012
  8. mschofield

    mschofield Pooh-Bah (1,871) Oct 16, 2002 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    By the way, did you guys see how fast it's filling up? Portland, San Fran and Philly are all over 600.
    San Diego and Denver are almost over 600. And Indy and Chicago are almost to 500.
     
    #8 mschofield, Mar 2, 2012
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