Wall Street Journal tastes lagers
The Wall Street Journal’s wine columnists are on vacation this week, so Travels with Barley author Ken Wells filled in by conducting a blind tasting of lagers. He writes:
I decided to organize a lager tasting, in part to answer a burning question I’ve long had: Could a group of beer drinkers of average sophistication, met with a blind tasting, really tell the difference between different kinds of lagers — the mass-produced U.S. brands such as Budweiser and Miller, the European lager brands including Heineken and Beck’s, and the lagers made by a new wave of smaller U.S. brewers? And which would they prefer?
The panel was made up of members of his monthly Friday-night poker group. The results:
- Their favorite beer was Heineken, followed by Pilsner Urquell and Samuel Adams Boston Lager.
- The bottom four beers were Beck’s, Budweiser, Coors and Miller High Life.
- Victory Prima Pils, recently ranked the No. 1 pilsner in the world and best beer in America by Men’s Journal, tied with Brooklyn for fifth.
Assessing the results, one panelist said: “What this tells me is that we are a middlebrow crowd who want beer that is a little special - but not too special.”
September 16th, 2005 at 4:20 am
Always new that Heineken was the number one! Definitly my favourite beer!