The Gump is always a curious cat. With all those choices in beer out there, how does one really know what beer is the best? Its really quiet simple; You put it to the test. The Gump conducted a blind taste test of 16 beers over the weekend, to discover what beer was more preferred by the participants. Getting together nearly twenty friends and serving cold beer in 7 ounce tasting glasses to separate the good beers from the better beers. Over five rounds we sampled various summer themed beers.
Round One: The Big Three
Coors, Miller, and Bud Lite are the most popular misspelled beverage on the market today. With one of those beers being on tap at almost every bar across America, it would be nice to know which was the best tasting. Interesting results came back with Coors Lite being the favorite of the men, and Miller Lite being the favorite of the women. Sorry Bud, but this tasting wasn�t for you. Surprisingly, not a single person properly identified which �lite� beer they were drinking, until it was revealed.
Winner: Tie between
Miller Lite and Coors Lite
(My �Secret� Hiding �Screen�)
Round Two: The Bad Three
Drank by poor college students everywhere, when you can�t afford the �good� light beer, you gotta reach down a shelf for Milwaukee�s Best ( the beast), Keystone Light, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Only made to be served in large quantities, the small sample never allowed our tasters never really considered one better than the other. Pabst was a heavier beer with a biting aftertaste, Beast won for best impersonation of Miller Lite, and Keystone Lite was a favorite of those who like alcoholic water.
Winner: Three way loss.
Round Three: The Fruit Flies
Boston Beer Works on Canal Street brew a year round Bunker Hill Blueberry, a seasonal watermelon Ale, and for the first time they brewed a Peach Fuzz beer to enjoy. The distinct flavor of the Peach Fuzz left drinkers liking it initially, but finding it too sweet at the end. The Blueberry was well received by the group, but the Watermelon Ale won out as the overwhelming group favorite.
Winner: Watermelon Ale
(Distributing The Beer in a Gump Like Fashion)
Round Four: Summer Loving
For main event, we had four beers to choose from: Sam Summer, Pete�s Rally Cap, Red Hook Sun Rye, and Harpoon Summer Ale. The Pete�s Wicked Rally Cap wasn�t hated, but was the least popular of the fours beers sampled. The Harpoon Summer didn�t finish much higher with a very wheaty aftertaste. The Red Hook Sun Rye, a recently released summer beer, was very well received by the group. However, the majority of the group chose the Sam Adams Summer Ale as the best summer offering.
Winner: Sam Summer
Round Five: Unfiltered Wonders
The final round, and most lively, consisted of unfiltered German wheat beers called �Hefeweizens,� which like most German is hard to spell. Hoegaarden (even harder to spell), Blue Moon, and Harpoon�s UFO were served to a mildly-intoxicated tasting crowd. Hoegaarden was recognized immediately for its taste and color, and while UFO faired better than the Blue Moon, neither came close to the widely touted Hoegaarden.
Winner: Hoegaarden
(Discussing and enjoying the results)
You can check out these North American Brew Sites, or perhaps get tickets to the New England Beer Fest in October. The Gump will also be holding an October tasting for those fall Oktoberfest beers, but this time we will try four rounds instead of five, to allow for coherent thoughts in the final round.
And a New Review
