[mav603]

I have a bourbon barrel porter i would like to enter into local beer competition. I use makers mark when bottling and then age for a year but do not use any wood chips in the making or aging of the beer.

 I have been told that 33B - Specialty Wood-Aged Beer would be the best category to enter in.

thoughts?

[denny]

Sounds like it won't have any wood flavor, so I wouldn't enter it in that category.  Enter it as what it tastes like.

[klickitat jim]

Sounds like it won't have any wood flavor, so I wouldn't enter it in that category.  Enter it as what it tastes like.

Probably right when it comes to getting decent scores, but my favorites you can tell what had been in the barrel, but the barrel itself is hard to find.

[ethinson]

Sounds like it won't have any wood flavor, so I wouldn't enter it in that category.  Enter it as what it tastes like.

It's still going to taste like a barrel aged beer, in my opinion.  From a judging perspective I think the 33B is about the only place to put it.  You could stretch and go for 34C experimental, but you're going to get lumped in with a bunch of other stuff and you're going to have to describe in great detail what the judges should be expecting.

I would go 33B and list it as "American Porter aged on(/with) Bourbon".  The guidelines say you only have to give information about the type of wood and char level if it makes a big impact.

"Entry Instructions: The entrant must specify the additional
alcohol character, with information about the barrel if relevant
to the finished flavor profile. The entrant must specify the
base style;"

Is your beer "Wood Aged"... no... but based on flavor profile and judging perspective there's not another category where it would fit. 

That's my interpretation of the guidelines.

Also, your feedback can guide you, if you plan to enter more than one.  A good judge if they feel something is out of style, should recommend what category they think it should be.  "This would be better suited as an XYZ."

Good luck!

[mav603]

I did enter this in a small local competition last year in the 33B, and got a 35 score. The notes provided did mention there was no hint of wood.

From tasting POV it has a nice strong porter taste with the touch of bourbon flavoring.

thanks for the feedback.

[klickitat jim]

No hint of wood... It seems to me that if you detect bourbon then you are detecting wood. Wood doesn't have to mean tasting actual wood in my personal opinion. Sometimes I think we go too far with stuff. I believe  the idea of putting beer in barrels is to pickup what was originally in the barrel, not... stick.

Reminds me of some earlier beer lit that claimed they corked some beers to get cork flavor in the beer. Nonsense!