I love beer. Growing up, my parents never really drank much, but one time my dad let me have a sip of Bud Light and I swore it was the grossest thing I had ever tasted. Even in high school, when I went through my "let's be rebellious and get drunk" phase, I wouldn't touch the stuff. However, after college, I really began cultivating a taste for beer and now it is my favorite beverage.
A lot of my friends also really love beer, and so it was only a matter of time before someone suggested that we do a blind taste test of beers! Will gets credit for the idea, though there may have been co-conspirators. Will decided our first beer tasting test should compare and contrast different wheat beers. The participants in the taste test were:
Will, Colleen, Kevin, Josh M., other Josh, Jimmy, Tim, and me.
During the blind taste test, we evaluated the beers based on taste, aroma, and appearance, ranked them in order from most liked to least liked, then tried to guess which was which. Will then scrupulously tallied the results which are below. If you don't enjoy beer, you'll probably want to skip the rest of this post...although, you've probably already skipped it by now.
#1 Upland Wheat AleUpland Brewing Co. - Bloomington, IN
Score: 38 points
Taste: #1Aroma: #5
Appearance: #2
Who loves it (ranked it #1 or #2)? Carrie, Josh M., Jimmy, Will (we have local tastebuds)#2 Mothership Wit (Belgian White)
New Belgium Brewing Co. - Fort Collins, CO
Score: 37 points
Taste: #1
Aroma: #3
Appearance: #7
#3 312 Urban Wheat (Urban Wheat Ale)Goose Island Beer Co. - Chicago, IL
Score: 33 points
Taste: #4
Aroma: #2
Appearance: #3
Who loves it (ranked it #1 or #2)? Kevin
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. - Chico, CA
Score: 33 points
Taste: #5
Aroma: #7
Appearance: #6
Who loves it (ranked it #1 or #2)? Colleen, Carrie (must be girly)
#5 Gumball Head (American Wheat Ale)
Three Floyds Brewing Co.- Munster, IN
Score: 31 points
Taste: #3Aroma: #1
Appearance: #5
Who loves it (ranked it #1 or #2)? Kevin, Jimmy, Tim (must be a little bit gay)
#6 Blue Moon (Belgian White)
Blue Moon Brewing Co. - Denver, CO
Score: 31 points
Taste: #6
Aroma: #6Taste: #6
Apperance: #1
Who loves it (ranked it #1 or #2)? Josh M., other Josh (must be Joshy)
#7 Bud Light Golden Wheat
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. - St. Louis, MO
Score: 21 points
Taste: #7
Aroma: #4
Appearance: #4
Who loves it (ranked it #1 or #2)? other Josh
Will correctly identified 4 out of the 7 beers, which was the best of anyone. Although, I think we all agreed on was that it was very difficult to discern the subtle differences between the beers (especially since we administered this test during the Super Bowl during which we all had the taste of chili-cheese dip and bacon weave fresh on our tongues). Some of us were really surprised by our ranks and our guesses. Overall, it was a pretty interesting test and we'll probably do it again sometime.
That's all for now. Drink responsibly.
i would like to note that the originator of the idea for the taste taste was not, in fact, Will, but me. I had the idea for the taste test a few months ago and then said that the SB would be the perfect opportunity to carry it out.
ReplyDeleteit is important for people to know how cool and creative I am.
i think you drunkies belong in new orleans.
ReplyDeleteGIRL! you have got to make it out to the WEST coast if you want a beer-cation! we have the best breweries all local, organic, delicious. I am a big wheat beer drinker, oh yeah and there is wine out here too.
ReplyDelete