I made a BoPils with Hersbrucker instead of Saaz for flavor. This beer is tasting very nice right now out of the keg. I was thinking of entering it into a competiton as a BoPils and was wondering if it would get dinged badly for not having Saaz flavor and aroma?
If it tastes like a BoPils, that’s what you should enter it as. The judges won’t know what’s in it.
If the judges are good enough to tell that it’s the wrong hop, you’ll probably get dinged. But badly? Probably only a few points. Style problems tend to be less harshly deducted than technical problems. And if it has no technical problems and everything else is to style, it may still be the best pilsner on the table. In other words, you may loose points, but it’s not going to automatically disqualify you from winning.
It’s also quite possible they won’t notice the wrong hop.
My problem is that I haven’t had too many examples of the stlye to really know if mine is a good example. I think I should maybe do a little research and buy some commercial samples. Any suggestions for some that I should try? I’ve already tried Pilsner Urquell and Czech Rebel.
Look for Czhechvar, sometimes called Budvar. It’s the original.