[Ace_Atlas]

This will be my first year entering competitions (I have been brewing for about 1.5 years). I was wondering if anyone had advice for entering competitions? Any advice at all will be helpful.

Also I am having some difficulties finding what category I should be in. I brewed a Wild Blackberry Blonde and used honey as my priming sugar. Would that put me into the 29C Specialty Fruit Beer or the 29A Fruit Beer Category.

Thanks in advance!

[udubdawg]

I assume the "wild" refers to the blackberries and not some kind of wild fermentation?

you enter it how it tastes. So if it tastes like a blonde ale with blackberries, that's what you write in Specialty Information for 29A. However that is a fairly flavorful fruit, and a fairly low character style. Is the base style overwhelmed by the fruit? Do they work well together? If you read the guidelines for Blonde ale, do you get the characters it is talking about under the fruit? If not, don't expect it to do that well. Just a warning and preparation for some frustration.
I wouldn't worry about the honey as you didn't add much and some to almost all of the character will ferment out, depending on the honey. It's not an unheard of flavor in blonde ale anyway.

good luck, and welcome to the madness.
--Michael

[Ace_Atlas]

Thanks for the advice!

The blackberries are wild yes and I pureed 2 lbs of them to fermenter. I will look over the style guide lines for blonde ales again and see what I can come up with.

Cheers!
Logan

[klickitat jim]

Of course you could always ship us each a sample

Then we could REALLY help

[santoch]

Mike's advice is dead on.

Fruit beers (or spice/herb/veg, or any other non-standard ingredient beers like wood aged, etc, as this applies to ALL non-base styles) should start with a really good base beer. The base beer should be good enough to medal on its own. Adding the specialty stuff should enhance the overall beer, but you should still be able to taste the underlying beer. I've had (as has Mike and Jim as well, as both are BJCP judges) many such specialty beers where either the special ingredient gets lost or it overwhelms everything else.

It should be notable but not overwhelming, the whole should be greater than the parts, the parts should not clash in any way, but rather harmonize.  After looking for the requisite properly fermented beer that meets the style, balance is the key that the judges will be looking for to separate the good ones from the great ones.

Hope this helps & GOOD LUCK!  Comps are a fun way to help you gain feedback and experience.  It helps make your beers get better and better-