Vice Post

Last night we got together to hang out with Bree for a bit before he flew back to Texas.  As an activity (that I had been itching to do for a while) we decided to conduct a blind beer taste testing.  It went over rather well.

Our format was as follows.  I wanted to see if we could easily identify the differences between all the “crap”/”light” beers.  We ended up purchasing Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Light as our first batch of competitors.  Our first group of testers included Mike, Jess and Bree.  We filled up nine cups with the 3 different types of beer and marked a number on the bottom of the cup.  Newbs and I made sure to record what number referred to what beer and then proceeded to hand out the samples.  The testers were instructed to try and identify a) what beer they were tasting and b) which of the 3 they liked the best.  Something we picked up on right away was that it would be best if you had something to wash/rinse your pallet out with something like pretzels and water.  Also, we found out half way through that you should leave some in your cup for the end so you can go back and re-sample to determine which you like best.

The problem we had with requiring tasters to identify which was their favorite, was people always have predispositions.  For example, of the 3 beers Coors was Mike’s favorite (before testing), so he’ll be more inclined to identify the best taste with whichever beer he things is Coors.  In the end, after the 3 of them, then Nick, Newbs and I had done all the samples,  we concluded that Coors by far had the most distinctive taste, with Miller and Bud Light tasting nearly identical.  No one was able to identify all 3 beers correctly (except for me )  It was a fun experience and something I’d definitely recommend if you enjoy a beverage or two.  In my opinion it showed that marketing can have a large influence on choice, even if taste is the same.  I’d like to try it again sometime with a larger selection of “bar” beers including maybe some Sam Adams, Rolling Rock, Corona, etc.

After the light beers we moved onto attempting to identify a Stout, an IPA and a Red Ale.  This was  little easier to pick out, but not easier to drink.  Going back and forth between the much heavier and tastier beers was a little overwhelming.

Tonight I’m planning on going to see 300.  I’m very excited for this movie.  It’s basically going to be a bunch of Spartan dudes kicking Persian ass for 2 hours.  There will be lots of gore, swearing and possibly dude-ity so if thats not your thing I would skip this one.  Along with the comic book/video game visual style, I’m expecting a cross between Gladiator and Sin City.  Even though I haven’t read Frank Miller’s 300, I heard that every panel was recreated during the film, which should make for an awesome comic to movie translation.