[positiverpr]

i've got 3 beers that i'm trying to work in to a comp. only one entry per category. i have a 1 year old saison brett beer(fairly strong brett character). i know that traditional saison would have brett and the bjcp style guide says some sourness/tart is ok. it also mentions lacto but not specifically brett. i could enter it in belgian specialty but i have a 100% brett beer with honey, 2 sugars and a little oak that i think needs to be in that category. it doesnt have enough oak to stand out in the oak category. also i have a clean belgian version of that beer that could be entered as belgian specialty or maybe belgian pale but the little oak and the slightly dark color from the buckwheat honey dont quite fit in the pale. i'm thinking brett saison should go into the saison category but what would you do with the other two?  i also thought about the experimental category for the clean or 100% brett beer but they dont stand out enough(the brett had a big starter and no o2 so the character is subtle). if anyone can make sense out of my rambling and has some insight it would be appreciated.

[jeffy]

They'd probably all score the best in Belgian Specialty, but I understand they are only allowing one per sub-cat, so I have no immediately helpful suggestions, but here goes anyway.  I have had some commercial Saisons with brett, so I see no problem with your first choice.  If you can identify the wood character in the other, especially if you prompt the judge to look for it, then wood-aged is a good choice.  The cleaner one with honey can go into Belgian Specialty.  They sound really good.

[tomsawyer]

I'd personally enter the clean Belgian as a Belgian pale ale.  Having just judged a specialty category, I found that there were a lot of entries that would have been pretty good in the normal categories but got entered in specialty for subtle changes.  The stuff that did best had some real special/different character.  The Brett/honey/oak would most likely be more distinctive.

[snowtiger87]

A Saison with a lot of Brett character belongs in Belgian Specialty. It will get dinged in the Saison category if the judges are good.

[positiverpr]

thanks guys.

[rjharper]

Some competitions allow multiple entries in the specialty categories.  You might want to check the specifics.