In some US homebrew competitions, yes. A lot of the time they aren't that official, and even a lot of the semi-official ones have problems filling all the slots, so there will be broader categories
No ! The only USA HB competitions I have ever seen where BJCP guidelines weren't used is in a "State Fair" type venue. Local clubs and groups use these exclusively for formal and informal competition. There never has been any requirement to "fill[ing] all the slots". Instead clubs will schedule a competition for a small range of styles - say only UK style ales or only dark lagers. You can't reasonably broaden the categories without producing meaningless results. It takes weeks, and often months to get HB into a finished state - so it's no great hardship to brew to the restricted range of an upcoming competition.
But, yes, notice that "Standard American Lager" is in there, and notice the type-description is basically, "tasteless swill." More formally,
You can only traslate "Very refreshing and thirst quenching" into "swill" by subjective measure.
If we want to demonstrate our subjective biases then how about this - nearly all commercial schwartzbier is bodyless charcoal flavored swill, berliner wiesse is only half a notch above lemonade-beer(shandy). Rauchbier is awful. Canadian megabrewers Molson, Labatt's & Moosehead are just a hairs breadth above the USA Mega's. The Japanese have perfected the art of removing all the good flavors from beer. There are no good Australian export beers. There are no good commercial Swedish beers outside of micros. I have no clue how anyone in their right mind can use RedStripe except as a hand sanitizer. About a third of commercial lambic beers would be better as salad dressing than in a glass. Anyone caught using vegetables, and especially hot peppers in beer should be executed on sight. Pumpkin beer recipes should avoid using pumpkin, as the pie spices are all the ends up in the beverage. UK ales often are fantastic, but sadly the QA is such that a lot are infected in production. A lot of high strength beers including things like Sierra Nevada Bigfoot have nauseating levels of fusel oils. Most brewpubs make a "blond ale" or "golden lager" beer meant to placate Coors drinkers - they succeed in making an inferior product.
So when you say that the description is "basically swill" it shows a lack of reading skills or an ignorance of beer styles. There are a lot of low-flavor styles, tho' A'Lagers are at the extreme. It is in fact a very difficult style to make well. It is not a style that I greatly appreciate, but it is not "swill" and the description says nothing of the sort. "Strong flavors are a fault" does not mean flavorless.
As I said, lots of terms get thrown about in the category; the one I see more than German pilsener is what the BJCP calls "European Amber," sometimes called "German amber" or simply "German lager."
Those guidelines are a rather precise document and terms are not "thrown around". Your point *SEEMED* to be that Classic Amer Pils style(CAP) was not as hoppy as the Czech style(bohemian pils), but neither is the German Pils, tho' all have an overlapping range. The Bohem has a range of 35-45 bittering units, the German 25-45 and the American 20-40. Besides it's rather unlikely you've even tasted a CAP.
If anyone is using terms loosely it's you. The document only uses "German lager" to refer to yeast varieties, and generically to any lager beer from Germany - not as a style. German amber includes Vienna & marzen/o'fest styles, and is certainly not the same concept as german lager.
Again, most competitions aren't official enough or large enough that they can get reasonable competition within all the micro-categories
.
And again - you seem incredibly ignorant about how competitions are organized, yet you continue to spout off. Here is a rather typical small but formal competition announcement:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id...g5ODYtMDg1ODRhZDQ5YTYw&hl=en&authkey=CMvQ-ukI
That competition is only for Porter styles 12A, 12B, 12C (or speciality porter group 23). Informal competitions are done the same way - one small se of styles per competition.
Here are results of a larger open style competition. Note that there is no "broadening" of categories as you suggest.
http://maltclub.org/MALT/Turkey_Shoot_2009_Results.html
But regarding American Pils : it's a good beer. And the key phrases there, of course, include "Pre-Prohibition," and more importantly, "resurrect." That's a craft beer style, and even today it's not commonly available commercially. ("Commercial Examples: Occasional brewpub and microbrewery specials.") Thirty years ago it wasn't available at all.
It's extremely rate to find it at micros. Further the style wasn't a recognized style till ~11 years ago, and had disappeared from commercial brewing perhaps at prohibition.
Even "Dark American Lager" (category 4A) is relatively new to the commercial scene; in the 1980s, if you wanted dark beer, you drank Beck's or Heineken Dark because American brewers didn't do it.
Baloney - Schmidt's dark, Hudepohl dark lager and Shiner bock made examples available at least since the early 1960s, perhaps as far back as early post-prohibition.
And notice that,... again, the Dark American Lager is defined as less flavorful than categories 4B and 4C.
No - it is NOT defined as you say. There is nothing in the description like that. In fact it is lighter in flavor than a dunkel but more body and flavor than a lot of schwartzbiers. Still - what exactly is your point here ?
Cainkane1 said:
Budweiser, Miller and Pabst use too much rice and corn in their beer brewing. It doesn't taste bad it just doesn't have that deep rich robust flavor of better brewed products. Of the beers I just mentioned Pabst is the best tasting although I seldom drink it.
You are missing the point - they are trying to make a very light tasting beer. I agree that it's not my preferred style, but that doesn't make the style illegitimate. Hey - I think MacDonalds is substantially inferior to several other fast-foods outlets, but that doesn't mean I would short their stock. Besides, since the micro-revolution there are lots of robust flavorful beers available. No one is forcing you to drink the light stuff.
I went to the terripin brewery in Athens Ga and they were experimenting with a beer that was brewed entirely from a "maize" or corn malt. It looked good and it was dark and much of the essence of the corn was still in the brew clouding the beer. It had good hops in the mixture. Sounds good?
Well it tasted mediocre. It beat Budweiser but overall the taste was disappointing.
They were pulling your leg, or else you misunderstood. Even a 50% corn/maize addition adds so much oil to the mash that the beer will never have any head/foam. also the mouthfeel is quite odd. Too much corn usually adds enough DMS (di-methyl sulfoxide, creamed corm aroma) to make beer unpalatable. There are native american corn alcohol beverages - but "beer" is not the first term you'd consider for a name.
I followed up on the taste test by sampling their Rye beer. Delicious. It was made using a German recipe for Roigan (sic) beer. As usual their barly based beer was outstanding
Yeah roggenbier is a great style - uses up to 50% dark kilned rye. Too much rye leaves a coarse phenolic flavor that is intolerable, too little and you miss that high pitched, almost minty rye flavor - so it's a balancing act. Hard to find good examples.
