need recipe ideas

this coming July my brew club is having a brew comp. that will be judged by about 45 amateurs. Its a open style comp.  anything goes.  I was kicking around a schwartzbier because it would catch the amateur judges off guard thinking "another heavy ale".    Then I started looking through radical brewing that gave me a ton of over the top ideas.  peppers, mushrooms, salt, herbs, coffee, chocolate.  I still keep coming back to the black lager but my mind is not made up.   

Make a creative beer that you think would be tasty to drink.

Going for a "wow factor" just to impress judges is a tough call. The best specialty beers make direct connections between the base beer and the specialty ingredients. Coffee Porter/Stout, Hazelnut Brown, Black Pepper Pilsner, etc.

Two years ago, I had my first Grapefruit IPA. There weren't any commercial examples and this was incredible. It was a direct connection that took it to BOS. Now there are at least 6 breweries I know of making one.

Going too far can confuse judges. Last Summer, I had a Peanut Butter and Jelly beer. It was really good (tasted like a PB&J on wheat toast) and missed being BOS because we judges couldn't fully wrap our heads around it. There were enough things going on that could have been off flavors that just turned out right that we had to set it aside. It turns out that the beer was exactly as planned, made by a very good brewer.

black pepper pilsner sounds interesting.  I have a Southern English Brown comp next month and made a really nice brew for it.    I took a cup of black walnuts, roasted them in the oven and add them to my mash.  I took a 1st with this same idea for a American Brown a couple of years ago. 

brewfun said:

Going too far can confuse judges. Last Summer, I had a Peanut Butter and Jelly beer. It was really good (tasted like a PB&J on wheat toast) and missed being BOS because we judges couldn't fully wrap our heads around it. There were enough things going on that could have been off flavors that just turned out right that we had to set it aside. It turns out that the beer was exactly as planned, made by a very good brewer.

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For future judges /events what do you think the lesson is in that? Jz has commented over and over about "just judge the beer in front of you. Don't try  to guess hhow it was made. If it's good, then it's good."  knowing what you know now... Do you think the panel got that wrong?

tom_hampton said:

For future judges /events what do you think the lesson is in that? Jz has commented over and over about "just judge the beer in front of you. Don't try  to guess hhow it was made. If it's good, then it's good."  knowing what you know now... Do you think the panel got that wrong?

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I think the whole quote is, "Any judge can evaluate any style, if they just describe the beer in the glass. Nevermind expectations of style. Just describe what's in the glass." Because that's me talking, starting in about 2006. I pulled the above from a 2010 post in the BJCP forum.

What I was referencing was a BOS evaluation for a Pro-Am. In the end, did we think the beer was commercially viable (yes) and did we think it was duplicable (doubtful).  It lost to a beer that got two "yes" nods.

In the primary level of judging, it did get a fair and complete evaluation (I judged it), coming in first for it's category. That's why it was on the BOS table.

Did the panel "get it wrong?" well, no... and yes.... Since I'm not likely to be outranked on any panel, I suppose I bear the burden of that decision. Given the goals of that panel, we gave a recommendation to the brewery (their Brewmaster was on the BOS panel, too) and got that right.

We failed to pick the most interesting beer on the table, though. However, that is almost never the goal of a BOS panel. The goal is to find the beer that is the MOST accurate example of style from among a large group of well made beers. It becomes a beauty contest.

I think a tasty coca late and coffee would be good.

I made a schwartzbier for a GABF Pro-Am comp and sent it to Puget Sound in Washington. We got 1st place in our category and best of show but, they didn't choose us to brew with them for GABF because we live in Iowa. They didn't think we would come out to brew with them. Anyway, it was a great beer. We used nothing but raush malt in it. 100% of the grain bill. I don't recall what hops we used but I am sure they were German nobles. Give it a shot.

Freak said:

I made a schwartzbier for a GABF Pro-Am comp <snip> it was a great beer. We used nothing but raush malt in it. 100% of the grain bill.

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Raush? Do you mean Rauchmalz? As in Bamberg smoked malt? For a Schwarzbier? The way you're describing it, this does not sound like a beer I'd like to encounter. Evil Twin makes a rather nice smoked Pilsner but it's nowhere near 100% smoked malt.  Yours HAD to be better than it sounds.

Rauchbier is built on amber lager, like Oktoberfest. Schwarzbier is blackened Pilsner without prominent roast character.

My bad. Rauchbier. Not Schwartz.

The guy I brew with won a bag of Rauch malt at a beer club event. We didn't know what to do with it so, in typical Freak fashion we just brewed a lager with nothing but that malt. We thought it would be way too smoky but, it wasn't. It was perfect. We almost got to brew it for the GABF Pro-Am comp. If not for our geographical location.

Freak said:

so, in typical Freak fashion we just brewed a lager with nothing but that malt. We thought it would be way too smoky but, it wasn't.

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Ah! I've had a couple of 100% Rauchmalz beers and they were tasty. I think there's a point at which the smoke saturates the palate and then other flavors take over.

Heres a porter, on the lighter side of the style body wise.  Tasty and easy drinking. I added Belgian Candi sugar dark ( homemade), coffee, pure dutch cocoa, a few boil hop pellets for dry hop and Jack daniels whiskey barrel chunks to simulate whiskey barrel aging to half the batch. The first half batch was delicious in it's own right. The "adulterated" version is flavourful and unique to say the least. Close to 8 % abv.
Look for Tom's Baltic Porter on the cloud.