I am brand new to this competition thing and I had a couple questions about category:
Would a vanilla porter be 30A. Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer? Pretty standard base style that I flavored with vanilla bean in the secondary.
I also have a Peanut Butter Porter that vanilla bean was added to. Peanut butter is very prevalent and the vanilla is subtle but definitely there. Would this be 30A. Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer as well?
Thanks in advance!
30A specifies “anything with ‘nut’ in the name” so that’s my best guess for the Peanut Butter Porter.
For the straight Vanilla Porter, I’d say if it’s a subtle vanilla flavor just enter it in a porter category… if vanilla is a dominant I think it could go in either spice, herb, vegetable or specialty.
Ahhhh, I see that verbiage now. Thank you for that. I think I am going to enter them both in 30a. The vanilla is just not subtle enough to put it in the Porter category. I also found that in the 2008 guidelines they used a Vanilla Porter as one of the commercial examples for Spice, Herb, or Vegetable beer. Granted, those are the “old” guidelines, I feel comfortable with that decision.
Thanks again for the advice. Cheers!
Fwiw, many competition will limit entrants to one entry per substyle, so you may only be able to enter one beer in 30A. So, just make sure to check the rules. Good luck!
The key is whether you taste the vanilla…if you taste it, then the judges will definitely taste it, so you will not win a medal/ribbon. I read recently where someone asked this same question on a different forum and a judge responded that they were kind enough to score it well, as a vanilla porter, they refused to advance it to BOS round since it was out of style.