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Author Topic: What category should I enter this beer as?  (Read 2539 times)

Offline banjo-guy

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What category should I enter this beer as?
« on: January 27, 2017, 06:03:38 pm »
I would love to get some advice on what category to enter my Mocha Stout beer in for the upcoming AHA competition. It is inspired by Founders Breakfast Stout but is not a clone. Should I enter as a stout,clone,or speciality beer? Did I miss a category?
 Thanks for any advice.

Offline Stevie

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2017, 06:08:08 pm »
If you can tell it doesn't belong in a standard stout category, go speciality. I still don't understand the concept of the clone category.

Offline banjo-guy

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2017, 08:15:20 am »
Thanks. It seems like speciality is the way to go. I thought that I had seen awards given to coffee stouts that were in the stout category. ( I have zero expectation of winning anything ).

Offline mikepires17

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2017, 05:05:57 am »
You could try entering it in both specialty and stout category. I''l do that sometimes if I'm on the fence about which category to enter a beer. Sometimes it places in the category you least expected out of the two.

Offline udubdawg

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2017, 07:13:47 am »
a moderately strong oatmeal stout with chocolate and coffee?  That's an SHV entry, not specialty.

...Unless the "inspired by" includes some noticeable ingredient (oak, bourbon, etc) you haven't mentioned.

if the coffee is anywhere near the strength of FBS you will NOT do well in the standard stout categories.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2017, 07:15:26 am by udubdawg »

Offline Stevie

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2017, 07:58:35 am »
You're right, but it doesn't make sense.

Offline banjo-guy

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2017, 08:56:41 pm »
a moderately strong oatmeal stout with chocolate and coffee?  That's an SHV entry, not specialty.

...Unless the "inspired by" includes some noticeable ingredient (oak, bourbon, etc) you haven't mentioned.

if the coffee is anywhere near the strength of FBS you will NOT do well in the standard stout categories.
What is an SHV entry?


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Offline santoch

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2017, 09:55:57 pm »
I concur, Spice, Herb, Veg (SHV) is the place for that beer.

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Offline PORTERHAUS

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2017, 04:10:00 am »
I have entered Chocolate Porters, Coffee Porters and Porters with both Chocolate and Coffee into competition into the Spice, Herb, Vegetable beer category. Specialty beer category is a catch all for beers that do not fit somewhere else. If the beer fits somewhere else, you will get dinged for that, especially a comp such as this.

Also how you list the beer within that category makes a difference. I contacted Gordon Strong about this not too long ago and he helped me take the same beer from a 38 to a 44 in back to back competitions. I understand they where individual comps and all but how you label the beer "paints a picture" for the judges to pick through the beer. The first comp I labeled the beer "Porter with Chocolate and Coffee". Since the judges noted the coffee was more up front and the chocolate came off more like cocoa I took that and put that in the description so that was what they tasted. The next comp I changed up the wording and entered it as "Porter with Coffee and Cocoa" and drove in several more points for it. These comps were literally like 2 weeks apart with the same beer. but I believe the changes made a difference and it made sense to me. 

Offline banjo-guy

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Re: What category should I enter this beer as?
« Reply #9 on: February 02, 2017, 04:58:22 am »
Thanks! You really cleared this up for me.


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