BJCP Competition Data Collection Project Analysis
BJCP Competition Data Collection Project Analysis
2013 saw a record number of entries in the NHC, and despite some of the problems with the competition format (e.g., limited
entries, not being able to enter in the regional competition nearest to your home) I think that it represents a very good snapshot of what
people are entering and brewing in competitions.
Methods
I first went through the beer names and special ingredients fields to catch miscategorized beer and to make a first pass at
classifying the beer entered in categories 20-23 as well as the specialty meads and ciders. This meant arbitrarily reassigning beers
which were obviously or probably entered in the wrong category into the right category. Then, I did a simple statistical analysis in
Excel. Results of my analysis are listed below.
Column 1 is Category, then subcategory. Column 2 is number of entries by category, then subcategory. The rest of the data headers
should be obvious.
Analysis
Overall: Traditional Perry (27E) was least popular with no entries. French Cider (27C) was the next least popular category, with
just one entry. After that, there are the English Ciders (27B) and Common Perries (27D) with just 11 entries each, and then Applewine
(28C) with just 12 entries (one miscategorized and originally in another category). This might be due the lack of cider quality apples
in much of the country, as well as a disastrous year for fruit growers in the Northeast and upper Midwest during the 2012 growing
season.
For beer styles, not surprisingly, Lite American Lager (1A) was least popular (although an entry in this category took Best of
Show), followed by Southern English Brown (11B) and Scottish Light 60/- Ale (9A).
By style, the 10 least popular categories were: Traditional Perry (27E), French Cider (27C), English Cider/Common Perry
(27B/27D) (tie), Applewine (28C), Lite American Lager (1A), Southern English Brown/Fruit Lambic (11B/17E) (tie), New England
Cider (28A) and Scottish Light 60/- Ale (9A).
The most popular category was Specialty (23A) with 420 entries, but this also includes an incredible 135 entries added to the
category because they were miscategorized. Ignoring miscategorizations, the most popular style (and second most popular overall)
was American IPA (14B) with 391 entries. Belgian Specialty Beer (16E) was in 3rd place with 340 entries, but this was due to a
massive 117 entries being miscategorized and originally entered in other categories. American Pale Ale (10A) was in 4th with 342
entries, and Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beers (21A) was 5th with 283 entries, although this includes a 79 miscategorized beers originally
entered in other categories.
Wood-Aged Beer (22C), Russian Imperial Stout (13F), Imperial IPA (14C), Saison (16C) and Robust Porter (12B) finished off
the top 10 most popular styles.
Belgian Specialty Beers: Many beers in the Belgian Specialty category are nothing more than “Belgian” styles (Categories, 16-
18) with added fruit, spice or barrel-aging. Of the total, at least 43 qualify as Fruit Beer, 35 qualify as some form of SHV and 16
qualify as barrel-aged/infused (i.e., with wine or spirits added). That accounts for nearly a third of all entries in the 16E category,
although these numbers are inflated by the fact that many of these beers were originally entered in categories 20-23, but where
inherently miscategorized because of their Belgian base styles.
As for actual styles, at least 51 are declared variants of Saison. This number is actually much higher, since there are 44 other
entries in the 16E category which declare Saison as a base style. That means that Saisons of various sorts account for about a 25-30%
of all entries in 16E.
Two other huge categories are Sour and Brett beers, which account for about 92 entries between them, representing another
quarter to third of the total.
The fourth big category is, of course, hoppy beers. There were 7 hoppy saisons, plus at least 23 beers which clearly fit into some
sort of IPA category - including “Belgian” interpretations of Rye IPA and Black IPA. This is an extension of homebrewers love of all
things hoppy, and many were miscategorized in Category 23A.
The final large category is “Quadrupel” beers, based mostly on Belgian Dark Strong Ale, with 25 entries.
There are few actual Belgian artisanal beers, with 12 Belgian stouts, 8 Tafelbiers (most based on 16B or 18A), 5 Orval clones
and a smattering of various “artisanal” blonde, amber and brown ales of various strengths.
Fruit Beers: I didn’t do a statistical analysis by specialty styles for fruit beer. Looking at the overall data, however, it appears
that old standbys such as apricot, blueberry, raspberry and cherry dominate.
Spice Herb Vegetable Beers: Not surprisingly, the most popular categories are variants on spices (mostly “sweet spices” like
cinnamon and ginger), coffee and chocolate, or variations of the three. But, both pumpkin beers and pepper beers (i.e., beers made
using chili or black peppers) were also fairly common, as were beers made using just vanilla.
Smoke Wood Aged Beers: Smoked porters dominated the Other Smoked Beer (22B) style. Infused beers, especially bourbon
barrel whiskey-barrel beers, form the overwhelming number of entries in category 22C.
Specialty Beer: IPA variants, and “mixed category 20-23” beers were most popular, with sour beers also making a strong
showing. There was also a smattering of historical styles, and “imperial” versions of a variety of styles - notably Robust Porter,
American Amber and American Brown, and to a lesser extent American Wheat/Rye and Roggenbier.
Discussion and Conclusions
Overall: The main lesson is that it is amazing how many brewers don't read or understand the style guidelines, even for a high
profile competition like the NHC. While I might have been overly aggressive in reassigning beers with terms like vanilla, chocolate,
fruit, Brettanomyces, barrel-aged or rye into categories 20-23, many brewers actually entered specialty ingredient information into
categories where such ingredients are easily detectable and throw the beer into a different category!
A secondary lesson is that even styles of beer that “nobody brews” - like Classic American Pilsner, Southern English Brown or
Fruit Lambic got decent representation in the competition. So, I see no reason to remove any styles from future versions of the
guidelines.
And, while I might be adding to much personal bias to my analysis, I think that a number of brewers are badly confused by what
exactly counts as a “Belgian Specialty” beer, hence the huge number of miscategorizations (many from categories 20-23, and vice-
versa). IMO, Belgian Specialty should be dropped as a category, and beers formerly entered in this category should be integrated into
categories 20-23.
Finally, it's interesting to see just how popular Saisons have gotten. By far, they are the single most popular Belgian style (after
Belgian specialty - which isn't actually a style, but an odd mash-up of sour beers of all styles, “Belgian IPA,” American-styles Saisons
and wood-aged Belgian style beers, as well as the more traditional Belgian specialties, such as Orval clones).
Belgian Specialty: There are some clear trends for new specialty style categories in Category 16E.
Saison: Based on the fact that Saison variants are by far the most popular type of Belgian Specialty ale, plus the fact that Saison
is by far the most popular category within Belgian Ales and one of the most popular styles overall, the BCJP could consider possibly
expanding the number of saison-based styles. Dark Saison, Hoppy Saison, Strong Saison and Wheat/Rye Saison are the most likely
candidates.
Sour/Brett Beer: Another category which is badly needed is Sour/Brett Beer. There is a lot of demand for this style and a lot of
confusion as to what category to enter sour or funky beers in. Many sour/brett beers in the 16E category were miscategorized beers
entered in Category 23A, but which had Belgian base styles. At the risk of making the category too large, it seems most logical to add
these styles to Category 17. One possibility could be an “Specialty Sour” category where relatively clean lactic/acetic character
dominates. It can include beers with fruit, spices and/or barrel character, Flanders Red/Brown with fruit and spices added, as well as
historical sour styles like Swankey, Kentucky Common or Northern German wheat beers like Munster Alt. Another possibility would
be a Specialty Brett Beer category where Brett and wild fermented funk dominate. In addition to including funky beers with fruit,
spices and/or barrel character, it could also cover historical styles like 18th or 19th century “stale vatted porter” and various lambic
variants (e.g., Faro, dark colored lambics) which don't fit into categories 17D-F.
Belgian IPA: A third category is needed for for American-Belgian IPA, which are either American IPA or Double IPA fermented
using Trappist yeast, or the occasional Belgian hopfenbier. (Note: You know that the BJCP Guidelines are badly behind the curve
when brewers can not only declare styles like “Rye IPA” or “Black IPA” and have a reasonable expectation for the judges to know
what they're talking about, but they can also declare styles like “Belgian Rye IPA” or “Belgian Black IPA” with equal confidence!).
This could easily be added to the IPA Category. Additionally, it might be useful to have Amber/Red/Brown IPA, Wheat/Rye IPA (to
cover things like Rye IPA and White IPA) as well as Belgian IPA. Of course, with the addition of Black IPA, that means that there
would be 7 different IPA styles in the guidelines!
For the sake of sanity, it might almost be worth creating a new category - Specialty IPA. This could cover Amber/Red/Brown
IPA, Wheat/Rye IPA, Black IPA, Belgian IPA and “Specialty Strong IPA” which covers Double IPA strength variants of all of these
things.
Quadrupel: Finally, Quadrupel needs its own category. One possibility is to add “Belgian Extreme Ale” category to category 18,
even though “Quads” aren't truly Belgian. Another possibility is to redefine Belgian Golden Strong and Belgian Dark Strong so that
there are no upper limits to ABV and OG, and so that the excessively chewy and alcoholic nature of Quads isn't punished. A third
possibility is “Specialty Strong Ale” added to category 19 or 23 which covers any high-octane beer which doesn't fall into any other
category. This would cover not only Quads, but also things like “Imperial” Pilsners, Wheat Wine, Rye Wine, Strong Robust Porters,
Strong Saisons and Strong Wits.
Beyond that, a strong argument could be made for eliminating Category 16E. It's confusing to brewers (it's one of the most
miscategorized categories), it practically begs “double-entering” certain beers in competition, and most of the beers “defined” by the
Belgian Specialty category aren't adequately discussed anywhere in the guidelines, making it difficult for all but most experienced
judges to adequately judge the category.
Spice, Herb, Vegetable Beers: The BJCP should give some thought to expanding and reworking Category 21 to include styles
besides the forthcoming pumpkin ale style. A good breakdown for contest organizers and judges might be:
Herb beers: Beers made using just garden herbs such as mint or rosemary, but not peppery plants such as chilis. Some spicy
character is allowed, but savory herbs should dominate.
Garden Beers: Beers made using non-sweet vegetables (including vegetables which are technically fruits, such as cucumbers), as
well as herbs and spices other than peppers.
Coffee, chocolate and vanilla beers: Beers made using one or more of coffee, chocolate or vanilla, possibly including herbs and
spices other than peppers or chilis which are reflective of spiced coffee or chocolate drinks or chocolate, coffee and/or vanilla-flavored
desserts.
Pumpkin Beers: Beers made using pumpkin and/or pie spices and vanilla, which are reminiscent of pumpkin pie.
Spice Beers: Beers made using hotter spices, such as cinnamon, ginger or clove which don't have the character of pumpkin ales.
Peppery character should not be significant or lingering, however.
Pepper Beers: Beers made using extremely hot spices, such as black pepper or chili peppers, where some degree of peppery
flavor and heat is evident in the beer.
Christmas/Holiday Beers: As written, but technically, they should be moved to Christmas/Holiday beers should be moved to
Category 23, since they are allowed to have specialty sugar or fruit character, although spice, herb or vegetable character is dominant.
Smoke and Wood-Aged Beers: It might be worth breaking Smoked Porter out into its own style. It would definitely be worth it
to add an “Infused beer” category to cover beers which have spirits or wine added, with or without wood aging. They are by far the
most popular style of wood-aged beer, and they are distinct enough from merely “wood-aged” beers, that they could be judged
separately by judges with better knowledge of wine and distilled spirits.
Oak (possibly light toasted) should be assumed as “barrel” or wood character unless the brewer specifies otherwise, since as far
as I know, they don't make cooperage for the wine or spirits trade out of anything else. The guidelines would benefit from a brief
discussion of different types of oak and toast character, or at least a pointer to the very good discussion of the topic in the BJCP Mead
Study Guide.
Specialty Beer: There are clear trends within the Specialty Beer Category.
Black IPA and Rye IPA: These styles drew more than enough entries to be styles in their own right. Due to the confusion about
what exactly these styles are, it makes sense to include Double Black IPA and Double Rye IPA as well although they aren't actually
popular enough to merit their own styles.
Brett/Sour Beer: As discussed for Belgian Specialty Beers.
Open Strong Ale Category: To include stronger versions of other styles (e.g., Wheat Wine, Rye Wine, Strong Amber Ale, Strong
Brown Ale, Strong Berlinerweisse, and even Strong Wits, Saisons and Quadrupels, if Belgian Specialty dies its richly deserved death).
Beers that might merit their own styles are:
Hoppy Wheat/Rye: Perhaps added to Category 6, this style could cover hoppier versions of 6D, as well as “rye pale ales” and
“wheat pale ales.”
Honey/Specialty Sugar Beer: To cover beers made using honey, maple sugar, piloncillo, agave nectar, etc.
Non-Traditional Grain Beers: To cover beers made using things like wheat, rye, oats, maize, etc. which don't fall into any other
style.
Non-Traditional Hop Beers: To cover beers made using non-traditional or higher hopping levels which aren't covered by other
styles (e.g., hoppy Tripel, hoppy hefeweizen, AIPA made using NZ hops).
Historical: To cover recreations of extinct styles. This would definitely be merited if you include Gose, Gratzer, Adambier and
Lichtenhainer in the mix.
Styles to watch, which might eventually merit their own categories in future versions of the guidelines include: Gluten-free
Beers, Strong Amber Ale, Strong Amber Ale, Strong Brown Ale (assuming that the Open Strong Ale Category idea isn’t used), Strong
Robust Porter - to cover porters with the strength of a Baltic porter, made using the grist, hops and yeast of a robust porter, but lacking
the “coffee and roast” elements that define stouts. There's a lot of unused terrain in category 23, so it would be easy to define new
styles there. Australasian IPA could cover AIPA made using just distinctly Southern Hemisphere hops from Australia and New
Zealand.