You know that guy, the one who swears by the beer he drinks so much so that he scoffs at you for drinking, “that piss.” The problem is that their piss, ahem beer, looks and taste pretty much the same as any other beer. Truth be told most of these beer are all the same, and all but one of the beers in my taste test are a product of either Anheuser-Busch or the now merged MillerCoors. In fact these two companies produce nearly 100 different beers between the names (Michelobe, Coors, Rolling Rock, etc.) and the style (Light, Ice, Dark, etc.), chances are you are drinking one of their beers.
Back to my point, I gathered up my friends and family and we had a light beer taste challenge, most of which were light lagers.
The Challenge:
We selected 6 different beers: Natural Light, Miller Light, Coors Light, Busch Light, Genny Light, and Bud Light. Each beer was placed into a specific lettered cup by my wife ( <– hehe first time I got to write that) and the rest of us wandered about to make sure we couldn’t see or cheat. When we returned we each selected a cup, A-F, and then tried to guess which letter matched which beer.
The Results:
There were 7 taste testers, when they attempted to pair up their drink with the correct brand:
- 2 people got 0 correct
- 2 people got 1 correct
- 2 people got 2 correct
- 1 person got 4 correct
Overall their were 32 incorrect guesses and 10 correct guesses, that is a 23% all in all which is not a passing grade my friend. The only person who scored 4 was my mother, who would rather drink a Natural Light over any other beer. She likes, among other things that it is cheaper. Others say that it tastes watered down, but from these results only the Natty Light drinker could taste the difference among the other beers, do you think you can?
I stand by my initial hypothesis, you can’t tell the difference. If you want a beer that tastes like anything choose a microbrew or brewpub, otherwise it’s all the same so you might as well save a few extra dollars and buy the cheaper version. Just be careful because these megabrewaries are now producing beers that look like craft beers like Shock Top, Beach Bum, Hop Hound, Jack’s Pumpkin Spice, Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale, Ziegen Bock, Skip Jack, Leinenkugel, Blue Moon, and Henry Weinhard’s. Heck they have even taken over many imports, such as Cerveza Cristal, Molson Canada, Pilsner Urquell, Cusqueña, Stella Artois, Kirin, Hoegaarden and Czechvar. Sneaky little bastards aren’t they?
Check out this great movie about microbreweries fighting against the major beer companies.
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From Bluegreen Kirk:
I am a BlueMoon andHoegaarden fan myself. Not really with the other beers unless majority rules and its really the only thing to drink.
From Jack and Jill:
We found a favorite beer from our local Trader Joe’s — called ‘Simpler Times’ ( I don’t know if it’s from a microbrewery, I hope so). At 50 cents a can it’s probably as cheap as the domestic (aka watery) beer but it’s so flavorful.
From Cornelius Aesop:
Hey if it is inexpensive, flavorful and local you can’t go wrong.
From yTravelBlog:
I love Shock Top and Blue Moon!! I agree that all the beers you tried taste the same-like watery p***
From Cornelius Aesop:
It’s been a while since I’ve tried Blue Moon, I thought they were an independent brewery, but they could have just been bought out like Rolling Rock.