I brewed up a standard strength, pale saison and added some lemon zest to the it. Currently, it is fairly prominant not only in the aroma, but in the flavor and finish. Can I enter it as a fruit beer in an upcoming comp?
It might need to be entered into the Specialty category because fruit beers typically have whole or purée added. Then again if it tastes like whole fruit then go ahead.
Yes, enter it as a fruit beer.
It should be in category 30, spiced beer of BJCP 2015. To quote the description of category: “This category explicitly includes all culinary spices, herbs, and vegetables, as well as … fruit peels/zest (but not juice), rhubarb, and the like.”
Lots of conflicting replies here. I did check the S/H/V 2015 guidelines and I did not see that mentioned about the zest. I will go check again.
SHV also excludes culinary fruit. Lemon zest comes from culinary fruit.
Yet another SNAFU from the 2015 Guidelines. Wish I could say I was shocked. :
I think I am leaning towards agreement with Dave. If the lemon character is strong enough to call it a lemon saison, enter as fruit beer.
I don’t agree with the fruit beer has whole or puree argument. Plenty of beers, for better or worse, use extract.
SHV would be more like Major’s beer made with kaffir lime leaves.
If you are concerned, just a couple drops of lemon juice “to drop the pH” and your conscience will let you sleep soundly if you enter it as a fruit beer.
Don’t sweat it.
Ignore Dave and his continual need to trash the guidelines. It’s not lemon, it’s lemon zest.
It goes in SHV
- SPICED BEER
We use the common or culinary definitions of spices, herbs, and vegetables, not botanical or scientific ones. In general, spices are the
dried seeds, seed pods, fruit, roots, bark, etc. of plants used for flavoring food. Herbs are leafy plants or parts of plants (leaves,
flowers, petals, stalks) used for flavoring foods. Vegetables are savory or less sweet edible plant products, used primarily for cooking
or sometimes eating raw. Vegetables can include some botanical fruit. This category explicitly includes all culinary spices, herbs, and
vegetables, as well as nuts (anything with ‘nut’ in the name, including coconut), chile peppers, coffee, chocolate, spruce tips, rose hips,
hibiscus, fruit peels/zest (but not juice), rhubarb, and the like. It does not include culinary fruit or grains. Flavorful fermentable
sugars and syrups (agave nectar, maple syrup, molasses, sorghum, treacle, honey, etc.) can be included only in combination with
other allowable ingredients, and should not have a dominant character. Any combination of allowable ingredients may also be
entered. See Category 29 for a definition and examples of fruit.
I think Dave may be right here. Gordon?
yes the guidelines are a bit confusing here
(FWIW, I’m slightly sorry I’m such a dick all the time. I’m a man, but I can change, If I have to, I guess.)
If it said “It does not include culinary fruit (other than the fruit peels/zest) and grains.” that would lead me to think that the zest and pulp are treated like spices and even culinary fruit peels/zest can be allowed. Confusing, indeed.
I ended up entering as fruit beer (saison with lemon) . I highly doubt one will really be able to tell the difference between lemon zest and straight lemon in a somewhat already tart saison. We shall see how the judges percieve it.
My thoughts exactly.
Yes, I gathered that as well. No to culinary fruits in the S/H/V category, but the zest and peels of those fruits are acceptable. Learning, learning, learning.
Don’t change from being a man, Dave. Bruce Jenner did that and she isn’t much of a brewer now.
sigh it says zest = SHV and Fruit Juice = Fruit. I don’t see the problem.
…it’s like the more effort is expended to clarify the more stubborn people have gotten in arguing about it. As someone even slightly involved in the process it’s maddening.
Perhaps it would be enlightening to think of debates such as these in a political fashion. Consider that for most major elections over the past many years, ignoring all the small third parties, the popular vote is almost always split almost exactly 50/50 between one side or the other, and even with all the polling in the world, we can never know for sure which side is going to win. Each side also tends to think that the other side is comprised of complete idiots. So then, can one side truly be right and one side be wrong? The truth perhaps is that both sides can be both right and wrong at the same time, if we consider that there may in fact be only one universal truth: we are ALL idiots. 
Moderators, please forgive the suggestion of a political discussion, and delete this post if you must. I am simply trying to illustrate a point that might be related in some fashion to this thread.
In this case, I feel, there should be no declaration of winners or losers. Neither position is perfect, and never could be, so I’m sure there’s little use in trying or even in too much complaining over it. I’m as guilty as anyone else of this.
And there is some room for variation within the rules, especially in these “exotic” categories. I judged two weeks ago and a coconut cream ale was entered in the fruit beer category - that was technically incorrect (SHV per the rules) and had it been a beer to move onto mini-BOS, I would have had to DQ it from winning, but I simply judged it as entered. And hopefully gave some constructive feedback about balance.