14/11/10 International Taste-off

This week we had some international beers to go head to head with Carlton Draught. We unanimously liked the Singha, especially with summer approaching. Corona was also thought to be a solid drinking beer. In the blind test, we had condemned one of the beers as being watery and bland. We were especially pleased when we found out that it was the Budweiser that we disliked so much. Finally we picked the Carlton as Carlton and moved on. The main result of the week was that Singha was added to the gold standard of beers. A welcome addition to a growing list.

More detailed tasting notes below:

Singha:

-Light

-Summer beer

-Liked all round

Corona:

- Slightly fuller

-Non-offensive

Bud:

-Watery

-Bland

-Pale

-BAD

Carlton:

-Full taste

-Bitter

-Drinkable

-Non-offensive

Gold standard to date:

-Coopers

-Bitburger

-Stella

-Singha

7/11/10 Belgian Beer

This week we decided to test three Belgian beers. There were some very surprising results and our master of tasting James left us completely stumped. During the blind test we rubbished two of the beers, and liked two. The rubbished beers turned out to be the Carlton and the Leffe. This led us to drop Carlton from the gold standard list. The Stella on the other hand, was unanimously voted the best drinking beer and will be a strong contender for the boat trip. The Grimbergen was a very different style beer and although it was nice to drink, we were unsure if it offered more than a standard style beer.

More in depth tasting notes below:

Carlton:

- Not much on the palette

- Slightly bitter after taste

- Very bland

Leffe:

- Frothy

- Honey

- Full taste

- Strong nose

- Medicinal after taste

Stella:

- Pleasant

- Light, good summer drinking

- Balanced

Grimbergen:

- Very dark
- Strong nose
- Very sweet
- Not sure when you would want to drink it


Gold standard to date:
Coopers
Bitburger
Stella