I'm entering my first competition and I'm not sure exactly how to fill out the bottle label. It has lines for "Category Entered" and "Subcategory Entered." I have a Northern English Brown Ale (11C) and a Coconut Porter (20/12A). My impression is that the brown ale is category 11C and doesn't have a subcategory while the Porter is category 20 and subcategory 12A. Is that right?
The brown ale would be category 11, subcategory 11C. The coconut porter would be category 20, with no subcategory. But you'll specify 12A as the base beer. There should be a place on the label or other entry form to specify the base beer, as well as the fruit(s) used.
Thanks, I turned it in around 6 though . Suppose it would have been easier to just post the form they requested, there's no base beer option: http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCP_BottleID.pdf For the fruit I wrote "Category: 20 (coconut)," and I put 11C as the brown ale category. Are organizers usually really picky about the label or will they forgive that kind of thing?
Yeah. With that bottle ID form, there's usually also another more detailed form (not attached to the bottle) that asks for the base beer for the categories that require it. Organizers run the full spectrum of humanity. But in general, I'll say that in a small-ish competition, they'll tend to bend over backwatrds to figure out what you mean. In larger competitions, they may not have the time.
