07.01.09
Cheap Beer Taste Test
Given that I’m not exactly a person who is awash with cash, I have to find ways to save money on a regular basis. Since I don’t like to cut corners on the ingredients I use in my cooking, one of the places I have found I save a few bucks is in the world of my drinking. Again, since I have a palate that can taste the difference between good and bad wine, I know what I prefer, but I can also taste a good value.
My times at Rustico taught me about the joys of very good beer as well. The resident beer snobs were amazingly knowledgeable, and I learned a ton. But what I also learned was that for personal consumption, while these assorted brews from around the world were indeed preferable, they were not exactly affordable.
So it is left to me to find beers that are affordable enough for drinking in the mass quantities I enjoy, while at the same time being drinkable enough to actually swallow without vomiting. And over the years, I have narrowed it down to three beers that are not only way down on the cheap end of the spectrum, but are also quite drinkable:
 Miller High Life (The Low Life) |
 National Bohemian (Natty Boh) |
 Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) |
While Natty Boh is one of the harder ones to come by as its distribution is basically only in parts of Maryland these days, it is one that I had a long and lingering love affair with in college, so whenever I have the means, I usually buy it.
But the question is: which of these really is the BEST? For this, we are going to need a blind taste test!
The method was quite simple. I had my assistant pour each of these beers into a similar glass, and had him keep track of which was which for me. Meanwhile I tasted away and determined which was the winner. Hardly the stuff of higher science, but still, it looked professional enough.
 Maybe not scientific, but at least it looks professional! |
Well, the tasting commenced, and armed with a series of sourdough pretzels to keep all the (lack of) flavor from blending together, I embarked on a tasting tour de force. I fully expected Natty Boh to be the hands-down winner followed by the Low Life, followed by PBR.
The results:
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3rd Place: National Bohemian
This was a shock to me. I expected it to be the winner, and to win by a long shot. It was comparatively flat, thin and lacking in flavor that I would consider to be “beer-like”. I have always thought it was my favorite of the cheap beers, but in a side-by-side taste test, it really was not up to the challenge.
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2nd Place: Miller High Life
This was not a surprise, I expected this one to be second place. Only, it came in second behind the one I expected to come in third! Anyway, there was a smooth, clean finish to this beer that I expected to find, but the really impressive thing about this beer was it had a head that persisted through the testing process. Hell, there’s still a head on what’s left in the glass as I type these results out.
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The Winner: Pabst Blue Ribbon
I know, I’m as shocked as you. But really, with a name like “blue ribbon” how could it lose? (It was actually given it’s “Blue Ribbon” name after winning the title of “America’s Best Beer” at the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago. To be fair, that was in 1893…) But there was no question that the biggest hops flavor and best “beer-like” taste was in this glass. It really was a run-away win. I confirmed this with other tasters I had on hand just to make sure I hadn’t accidentally gotten drunk in the testing process…
But it’s not fair for me to hand down the definitive answer, is it? Let me give you a chance to chime in. Here’s a list of cheap beers, feel free to vote on your favorite, or throw in some other nominations in the comments.
None of this will serve as the ultimate answer to this heated debate of course. But for my money, it looks like I’m personally going to heretofore relax with a Pabst.
Scooped! I know, it’s hard to believe, but the same day I work on this blog post, the Washington Post does the same thing on one of their blogs. And their results came out in the order I expected! (1. Natty Boh, 2. High Life, 3. PBR…) Though to be fair, at least my post gives you the chance to post your vote…
