This tasting was definitely one of the weirdest events I think I’ve ever done. While I thought I had prepared myself for this one the best I could have, I can’t remember the last time I’d had so many mediocre beers in one sitting. As you can see we did come up with a winner, however the highest score in the entire event was just below a 6. I had a feeling when we originally planned this event that Budweiser aka The King of Beers would not score very high (and it almost lost the entire event). From what I gather on the scores, the beers in this style that our judges enjoyed the most had a more pronounced hop profile than the others. According to BJCP’s flavor description by style for Classic American Pilsner and Lite, Standard, and Premium American Lager, these beers all have hop profiles that range from none to low. Are we tired of drinking American Lagers in America, or do we just need a break from this mild, slightly malty libation? American Lagers/Pilsners used to be the beer of choice in this country (or should I say the only available choice), but as you can see from this tasting this has changed. While macrobrewed beer had it’s place (and some would say necessity during the years of World War II) in history, micro-brewed beer tends to be the preferred option. Support your local breweries so that we can avoid macro-brewed beer from taking away your choices. Just try to imagine a world without beer caves… I’m getting nervous just thinking about it 🙂
I am surprised that Bell’s did so poorly. They are normally a crowd pleaser.
There were 8 beers that scored within 1 point of each other this go round. I thought Bell’s would have done better as well. The winner was an Imperial Pils (Heavy Seas) which had the most flavor out of all of them. Professional beer judges at the Great American Beer Festival scored Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller Lite, and Keystone Light as their top three for the American-Style Lager style this year. Haha, when you are used to drinking darker/more flavorful beer these beers all tastes watery. I can see why people from other countries used to think our beer tasted like pee. I’d have to say that with the growth of microbreweries in the past 15 years that sentiment may have completely changed. Hooray beer!
I wonder how much the serving size affected this tasting as well. Lighter lagers don’t seem to really “get their point across” unless you can take a big gulp of it, utilizing all of your tastebuds.
I also think some prejudices probably also went into the lower overall scores.
Just my opinion…
I couldn’t imagine passing out larger samples of Busch Light 🙂 Some of the beers we had weren’t that bad. I was suprised that Schlitz did as good as it did. It obviously didn’t win, but it did do better than most of the entries.