BJCP Category Question. Brett IPA

Northern Brewer General
1

So I have been super into southern hemisphere hop IPAs. Recently, I have been using only Brett B. Trois for fermentation because it gives off a fantastic pineapple/mango ester which fits perfectly with all the guava, passionfruit, mango, pineapple flavors that come from Citra, Mosaic, Rakau etc. There is no hint of barnyard or funk nor is there any tartness. So this 6.5% IPA is a killer tropical fruit bomb. For drinking, this is awesome. For BJCP guidelines not so much.

Would you:
A. Submit it to 14B and risk getting dinged for not using American hops and also risk the judge picking up on the brett even though it is well hidden.

B. Submit it to 14C and risk getting dinged because it doesn’t have the maltiness component and also risk the brett being detected.

C. Submit it to 16E since the brett is Belgian but risk getting docked for the hops.

D. Submit it to 23 and join a ton of other beers that make no sense and have no effective judging criteria.

2

Technically 23 if you are compelled to pick one. You could always submit to all four and see where it scores best, although I would skip 16. Whatever you do, you’re going to be at the mercy of the collective perspective of the judges at the particular event on the particular day it’s being judged. Good luck.

This is one of the many cases where the proposed guidelines will be helpful when they go into effect.

3

If it doesn’t taste like Brett at all, then enter as a regular IPA, 14B.

Ignore the recipe and your inside scoop on how you got the beer to where it ended up. Enter it solely based on how it tastes. If it tastes like an IPA as we understand IPA to be in 2015, then enter it as an IPA.

4

I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but there appears to be strong evidence that Brett Trois isn’t brett but a sacc strain. Might make your decision easier.

See