Rye IPA... category??

[jimlin]

I consider this an American IPA, but the BJCP guidelines suggest I may need to go with Specialty category.

Basically I was attempting to clone Founder's "Red's RyePA". Its got about 16% rye (2 lb). Came in aroun 6.3% ABV (Founders is 6.6%), roughly 70 IBUs wth a ton of Amarillo late additions/dryhops.

We've got a local Massachusetts competition (http://www.mvhbc.com/competition/) which I am considering entering. Would be my first competition. Considering entering BCS's "Cowboy Alt", my robust porter, and the Rye IPA. Wondering though if something as "basic" as the Rye IPA would stand up in the Specialty category, which I would imagine would have all kinds of crazy brews

[MikeB]

I judged a competition as recently as last year where a Rye IPA took BOS as a 23a, Specialty Beer, so they do just fine in that category.

Make sure and taste the beer first, if the rye character really comes through then 23a. If it doesn't try one of the Cat 14 (IPA) styles that best fit your beer.

[BDawg]

What Mike said, plus don't mention Rye if you enter it in one of the regular 14's.
If you say it has rye, they may move it over to 23a for you.
Like Mike said, taste it and try to think like how the judges are going to react to it.

[spiderwrangler]

What Mike said, plus don't mention Rye if you enter it in one of the regular 14's.

What you claim it to be can affect perception... Same goes for putting it in 23a as a rye if there isn't noticeable rye character

[jimlin]

Thanks for the feedback. I believe there's enough rye coming through to be noticeable. It really reminded me of the flavor I get from the Founders RyePA. Most likely put it in the specialty category unless I get less of that flavor after they've carb'd up.

This conversation is also relevant to my altbier, which I am very happy with and think I will enter as well. It was based on JZ's "Cowboy Alt" which is his Dusseldorf altbier from BCS. Thing is, I'm finding with all my AG brews thus far, my bitterness is never as prominent or firm as I hope/expect it to be. I have yet to get a water test, but I believe the issue is that I have fairly soft water (private well). All I do it use a basic (Brita) carbon filter for my water. I only used some gypsum for the first time in my last batch (Tasty's Amber ale which is now dry-hopping). I'm hoping it will help firm up my bitterness going forward, but I do believe this caused my Dusseldorf alt to more resemble the Northern German altbier style. The recipe calulates 47 IBU (rager), and the BJCP style calls for "A very bitter beer with a pronounced Munich malt character". I get pronounced malt but not the firm bitterness. I think it actually falls much more into the Northern German alt description.

Not too many commercial examples to compare to. Long Trail Ale (Vermont) is supposedly based on the alt style, but I don't know if it really compares to true alts. Tuckerman's (NH) Alt is much more aggressive in flavor than mine. So, I think I'll shoot for the northern German alt category (BJCP 08-C) instead. I can say, it did finish very clean. The Wyeast 1007 German Ale yeast has collected nicely at the bottom of the bottles and I can basically pour the entire bottle w/o disturbing the yeast.

[spiderwrangler]

When in doubt, either run it by someone who you know is knowledgeable on the style and can give you good feedback on what sort of category it fits in. Chances are a local club has at least 1 BJCP judge who would be willing to taste your brew if you took it to a meeting. You can also enter it in any categories you think it might fit in and see how the judging panel finds it, as long as the comp doesn't have restrictions on entries...

[jimlin]

When in doubt, either run it by someone who you know is knowledgeable on the style and can give you good feedback on what sort of category it fits in. Chances are a local club has at least 1 BJCP judge who would be willing to taste your brew if you took it to a meeting. You can also enter it in any categories you think it might fit in and see how the judging panel finds it, as long as the comp doesn't have restrictions on entries...

Yup. My niece's boyfriend and his father have been brewing for a long time, entering competitions, etc. I gave him a sampler 6 pack not too long ago and am waiting on the feedback. Just fired off an email with questions more specific regarding competition. The sampler had the altbier, my robust porter, and a pale. The Pale Ale was Tasty's recipe, but I messed around with the hop additions. Not as happy with that result (plus I boiled off more than anticipated (mid winter outside air was cold and dry) so it ended up with a higher ABV than intended, and the bitterness got lost.

Not sure if he'll get one of the rye IPAs in time, but he can hopefully shed a little light on the others.

[Field]

Enter it in both, when I checked that comp's rules before they were only asking for 2 bottles/entry. So even if you enter in 2 categories you're only out 1 extra bottle compared to most comps (that ask for 3)