Which BJCP style would this fall under?

Northern Brewer General
1

I need some help deciding the category to enter this beer into the Brewers Cup.

My original goal was to brew something close to GLBC Edmund Fitzgerald. I had some issues with my mashtun and i ended up only getting about 60% efficiency on this. My IBU’s according to beersmith should have been MUCH higher than my perception of the bitterness by taste. Not sure if it was a measurement error or just really crappy hop utilization for one reason or another.

I tasted it side by side with Eddy Fitz (EF) and here is how it compared:

Bitterness of my beer was about half of EF. I would estimate IBU in the mid 20’s. Gives it a slight sweetness due to the lower BU:GU ratio. Malt flavor shows up a bit and has a nice roasty/chocolatey flavor to it. Very smooth drinking and not overly complex. Carbonation was pretty close to the same as EF but the mouthfeel was very thin. Not quite “watery” but definitely not what you’d expect from a robust porter. Despite the hint of sweetness there is quite a dry finish. Color was quite a bit darker than EF and almost completely opaque.

Here is the recipe:

10lbs Pale 2 row
1.25 lbs C80
10oz English Chocolate
10oz English roasted barley
0.75 oz Magnum (60 min)
1 oz Cascade (15 min)
1 oz Willamette (15 min)

mashed at 154 for 60 minutes.
OG:1.054
FG:1.010

fermented with WLP007 at 66*. raised the temp on the 3rd day to 69* to finish it out.

I was thinking that this would probably do better in the comp as a dry irish stout. Just looking for other peoples opinions on this.

2

Wow, no one with any advice?

3

I’d go with 10.C American Brown, that or you might consider if it fits as 11.C Northern English brown. Depending on the depth of color, 12.A brown porter might be appropriate.

I’d really have to taste it to give you a definitive answer. Maybe even a sixer.

4

Hey good opinions cost!

5

Haha I would totally be willing to ship you guys some of my brews for advice. Though the beer needs to be in the mail by early next week to make the deadline for submission.

It’s way too dark to be an english brown. I’d say its probably too dark to be classified as any “brown” as its almost black. This was why I thought a stout as it’s a little safer i think.

6

I don’t know…it sounds like Porter to me.
Then again, I sometimes find the guideline categorizations (especially when it comes to the subdivisions) rather odd at best, and downright goofy at worst. :evil:

But given the color, the presence of a somewhat malty character, and the roast, I’d go with Porter based on the description and not having the opportunity to taste it.
Good luck with the comp…do let us know what you end up entering it as, and how it fares in the judging!

7

I sat down with a pint and the BJCP guidelines and i really think I’ll just go with robust porter. It seemed to fit that style the best according to the descriptions in the guildlines. Part of the problem was I was comparing it side by side to Eddy Fitz which really is at the extreme end of the style for a number of the characteristics.