So I brewed a Pale Ale the other day, but it turned out darker than anticipated. I added a little caramel malt for depth…guess I added two much. So what is it? It isn’t Amber and it sure isn’t Brown. It tastes good and I’d like to enter it in a coming up contest.
Pale Ale Malt
Caramel Malt
Flaked Maize
Galena Hops
Cascade Hops
Wyeast American Ale Yeast
Forget about the ingredients. Sit down with the BJCP guidelines http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2008_Guidelines.pdf and a pint of your beer. Look at it and taste it. Look through the guidelines and see what it seems to resemble. Go by what your taste buds tell you it is.
Considering he wants to enter it in a contest, I think the BJCP guidelines are the appropriate why to decide how to enter it. If he was just serving it at home then I agree it doesn’t matter what he calls it.