Belgian Brown Ale Homebrew Contest Category

The subject says it all!

I am entering a belgian style brown ale in a local homebrew competition, and would like some input from more experienced homebrewers as to what category I should enter it in.  The fruity esters and light body would seem to make it well out of style for any typical american and english brown ales, and it doesn’t have the big malt complexity of a dubbel.  Any thoughts?

Cheers
Luke

Either some sort of specialty or don’t enter.  Comps are all about fitting the style description, so if your beer doesn’t fit, it won’t do well no matter how good it is.

If it is an experimental beer and doesn’t otherwise fit a category, enter it as experimental and describe the things that should be noted by the judges for the unique nature presented.  Also, consider entering it in more than one category to see what feedback you get relative to the entered styles…you may be surprised and get some very helpful suggestions, even if it doesn’t score well.

Cheers

Thanks for the input.  I added dark brown sugar instead of dark candi sugar, so maybe alternative sugar beer?  Not that experimental has to be weird, but this is definitely not a weird beer so I wonder if it would be perceived as boring in that category.

Look up dunkelweizen and weizenbock, and see if either of those fit the flavor profile.  Oh… but you didn’t add any wheat?  Doesn’t matter.  Judges don’t know the recipe.  If it tastes like the style, then it IS the style.  This advice only applicable if it tastes like banana or clove, otherwise nevermind.