Eating Crow
From what I can find, you can take a cleaned crow and lightly sautee it in butter and garlic, then add a heavy cream and truffle sauce and it will taste like... shit. So it is always a goal of mine to not have to eat crow. But I consider myself a man of honor and would willingly eat that crow if I were to find that something I have stated publicly is proven to be false. So when I found out that Shiner had won 3 gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival I began to wonder if I had gotten too snobbish for my own good. Maybe, just maybe, I have been drinking these high brow beers too long and have forgotten my roots. But how to test whether or not my arrogance has gotten in the way of my adventurous palate.
I decided to test the beers on my fellow snobs at our monthly beer swap night. I know what you are thinking, perhaps their tastes were too highfalutin' too. So I also invited a few unsusptecting victims who have never been to the swap meet and had relatively simple tastes in beer along with the regular snob crew. The blind taste test was done so that everyone tasted each of the 3 beers without knowing what they were being served, they were only told that they were tasting gold medal winners from the GABF. Here are their comments (with aliases of their chosing).
Shiner Bock - Winner of the best Amber Lager category.
4 Squares per Inch - "Not much flavor to make it memorable".
The Architect - "Somewhat herbal finish, but generally not much character. Very average beer".
St. Bernardus - "Boring with little flavor".
1 Pale Hokie - "Generally unimpressive with little flavor".
Hopober Husker - "Smooth, average in flavor".
Matato - "Flavorless, no hops at all".
Shiner Oktoberfest - Winner of the Ockoberfest (Marzen) category
St. Bernardus - "Can live without it. Soapy aftertaste. Tastes like an old Fat Tire".
Workaholic - "Not much flavor. Rather bland with a watery taste".
Mrs. Vivant - "Yuck. No taste character. Watery and a bit bitter".
4 Squares per Inch - "Blah".
Matato - "Slightly sweet, effervescent, similar to an Amber. Mild hops".
1 Pale Hokie - "Slightly sweet with a crisp finish. Light on flavor but a decent Marzen style."
Hoptober Husker - "Easy to drink, slight nutty/pumpkin spice flavor".
Shiner Bohemian Black Lager - Winner Black German Lager category
The Architect - "Blah. A little bit toasty, but like the marzen in lacks depth and complexity".
Hoptober Husker - "Light for a dark beer. Roasty, chocolatley after taste".
Mrs. Vivant - "Smooth".
St. Bernardus - "Over carbonated charcoal. Watered down, uninspired stout. The color fools you into thinking flavor, of which is has little".
1 Pale Hokie - "Toasted Almond and cocoa notes. Finish is more smooth than typical dark beers".
4 Squares per Inch - "Folgers coffee mixes with Bud Light".
Matato - "Sort of had hints of black. Watered down flavor".
Workaholic - "No aroma at all. Not terrible, but not nearly as much flavor as you would expect from a black lager".
There you go. Real opinions from real non-snobs. Can I go have a steak now?
How about eating some crow on that Royal Scandal review? I got a kick our of that review this morning as it was twice referenced as specifically not an English Pale Ale. Thank goodness you didn't judge the GABF, who found it to be a world class example of the style. Ha.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying that Royal Scandal was a bad beer, I just found that it is unlike the English Pale Ales that I have had in England. However, the majority wins and thus I must admit that I was wrr ..... I was wrrro .... I was wrrrrr ... damnit, it's a damn fine beer.
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