Tag Archives: lager

Double-Blind Lager Test

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So if you’re looking at my Twitter or Untappd feed and wondering if I’ve been replaced by aliens, or lost a bet, or something, I assure you there’s a more reasonable explanation.  No, instead we decided we should do a taste test of all the crap lager we could find at convenience stores.  For example, if I’m stuck at a party/restaurant/bar/whatever and they’ve only got Bud Light and Corona, which should I pick?  Probably neither, but if I really want a beer to go with those tacos, would it make any discernible difference which one I chose?  Inquiring minds want to know.

I know that brand perceptions and other biases play a big factor, so I knew that a regular tasting wouldn’t cut it.  So we decided to do a double-blind taste test so neither of us would know which beer was which when we were tasting them.

The Lineup

I started with a list of the top 20 best-selling beers (sorry, it’s a slideshow, but that’s the list I used).  Then I went to a couple of local convenience stores to see which ones I could actually find in single cans (I cheated a little and bought a 4-pack of PBR because of the hipster factor).  And for good measure, I included Cigar City’s Hotter Than Helles as a “control” beer that I have actually drunk on purpose, and found decent.  So I wound up with all of the top 6 beers, plus a smattering of other top 20 beers — I’ve added their sales ranking and brewery ownership:

  • Bud Light (#1, AB-InBev)
  • Coors Light (#2, MillerCoors)
  • Budweiser (#3, AB-InBev)
  • Miller Lite (#4, MillerCoors)
  • Natural Light (#5, AB-InBev)
  • Corona Extra (#6, AB-InBev/Constellation)
  • Heineken (#10, Heineken)
  • Miller High Life (#11, MillerCoors)
  • Natural Ice (#14, AB-InBev)
  • Pabst Blue Ribbon (#17, Pabst)
  • Cigar City Hotter Than Helles (unranked, Cigar City)

Price is not a big factor for me when I choose my beer.  But I found it interesting to see the price differentiation.  The beer cost about $28 total.  At the high end, a 6-pack of Hotter Than Helles cost $11 ($1.83/can), the singles cost $13.50 ($1.50/can most of them were $1.19/can, and a few were $2/can because they were 24 oz.), and a 4-pack of PBR cost $3.60 (90¢/can).  And the Hotter Than Helles cans were 12 oz., as opposed to the 16-24 oz. cans at the convenience stores.  The PBR would probably be closer to the other singles if it wasn’t in a multi-pack.

Methodology

I had two main goals for the tasting process: taste a lot of beers to get a broad sample, and avoid knowing which ones were which.  I also wanted Wind and I to be tasting the same beers at the same time, so we could discuss them as we went.  So we came up with this process:

  1. We rounded up all the taster and juice glasses in the house.  We had 11 beers, so we had to dig into the high cabinets to get 22 small glasses.
  2. Wind left the room while I gave each beer a number (the slips of paper in the photo above), poured two glasses, and wrote down the beer-to-number mapping.
  3. I left the room and Wind replaced the numbers with randomized letters, wrote down the number-to-letter mapping, and rearranged the beers in order by their letter.
  4. We tasted the beers and rated/ranked them.
  5. We then consulted our mappings to figure out which beer was which.

Findings

The first thing we noticed was the color, or rather lack thereof.  Looking at the table full of tasting glasses, the color differences were minimal, and mostly attributable to the glasses or lighting.  So we’re definitely talking about pale yellow fizzy stuff.

The second thing we noticed was that there were actually differences between the beers.  Some had a very pronounced lager twang, but others didn’t.  Some of them had a little aroma, but others had absolutely none.  Some had honey-like sweetness or even a touch of maltiness, while others had basically no taste at all.  Some were very highly-carbonated or astringent like wheat, while others were smooth and clean.

By the time we were half-way through, it was obvious we were not going to agree on ranking the beers.  In particular, I rather liked the beer that wound up being PBR and found Bud Light to be middling, but Wind hated both of them.

That said, we were in complete agreement that Heineken was clearly the worst (which is pretty amusing since back in the days when we didn’t particularly like beer, Heineken was the main beer we did drink).  We also agreed on most of the bottom tier, too: Natural Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Light.

We also mostly agreed on the top of our rankings: 4 of our top 5 were the same, though in different orders: Corona, Budweiser, Hotter Than Helles, and, surprisingly, Natural Ice.  It was somewhat reassuring that we both included Hotter Than Helles in our favorites, though it’s worth noting that neither of us could pick it out of the lineup, and neither of us ranked it higher than third place.  This definitely confirmed my suspicion that a blind tasting was needed here.

Dutch Lager Tasting

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I was in the mood for something new, but Bert’s in Utrecht was closed, and we’ve had a few bottles from our local beer shop that seemed off (pouring Trappist quad down the drain is pretty painful).  So on a lark, I picked up some half liter cans of the popular Dutch lagers at the grocery store, and we did a tasting (in order of cost):

Albert Heijn Pilsener: This store-brand pilsener was the cheapest of the batch (€0.57/can).  Also the most different from the pack.  It had more color and body than I expected from cheap lager.

Bavaria Pilsener: Not really much “there” there, for this mid-range (€0.67/can) lager.

Amstel Lager: Not Amstel Light (commonly available in the US), but Heineken’s mid-market lager.  A little grassy, and something elusive in the aroma.

Heineken Lager: This is the main premium (€0.91/can) lager here, and obviously the most famous worldwide.  Much more inoffensive in cans, since it’s not lighstruck and skunky as is typical with their trademark green bottles.

Grolsch Premium Lager: Probably my favorite of the bunch, but still pretty bland.

Hertog Jan Naturzuiver: This is the “ultra-premium” (€1.23/can) lager, which we often see at nicer restaurants.  Not noticeably better than Heineken and Grolsch.

So, I think my main conclusion from the tasting is that I’m an ale snob, spoiled by an ample supply of strong, interesting, artisanal beer, and the mild, mass-produced lagers just can’t keep up.  But I was also surprised at how much more I liked Heineken from the can than from bottles.  Although I’m generally a big fan of bottles, this makes we think I should go for cans over at least green and clear bottles.

First Week in the Netherlands

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We’ve been in the Netherlands a week, and we have a few bottles to show for it.  The family we traded houses with thoughtfully left a few bottles for us, and our local grocery store also has a handful of Belgian beers.  We have found a wine shop up the road that has a somewhat wider selection, so we’ll be checking those out soon.

We mostly enjoyed the Belgian dubbels and tripels from Westmalle, Leffe, La Trappe, and Duvel.  We hadn’t had any lager in ages, so it was interesting to try Heineken, Grolsch, etc. again.  A few of the lagers were surprisingly good: Grolsch’s Herfstbok and Kanon were both pretty drinkable, and Brand’s Sylvester winter beer was good, too.  But most of them were the same old lager I don’t like much these days (though I did manage to choke them down somehow).  The only total loss was Heineken’s Oude Bruin — I don’t know if it was spoiled or if it was supposed to taste like cough syrup, but it was our first drainpour in some time.

What’s the difference?

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Stewardess: What would you like to drink?
Guy in 23A: Beer.
Stewardess: Beer, or lager?
Guy in 23A: What’s the difference?
Stewardess: We have Heineken or Grolsch lager, and London Pride beer.

It would have been much better if the stewardess had asked “Ale or lager?” instead.  Though frankly, since they only had three kinds, I’m not sure why she didn’t just list them to start with.

Sigh…