Commercial Beer Taste Off

[clarkey7]

One of my XMAS presents was a BWS 12-pack of international lagers + Willie Simpson book "The Beer Bible" + the bright orange cooler it all came in.

I was very excited on the day, but was reminded quickly why I make my own beer.

I only tasted 2 or three at any one sitting to give all beers a fair crack...

The results are in.....Beers were consumed in this order over a week, scores out of 10.

Budweiser = 5
Sol = 1
Lowenbrau = 6
Amsterdam lager = 4
Becks = 5
Carlsberg = 8
Peroni = 7
Bitburger = 3
Corona = 6
Stella Artois = 7
Heineken = 8
Pilsner Urquell = 8

Maybe it's old stock, not stored at the corect temperature, had a bad journey over here, been lightstruck ??????

Hang on - half the beers are brewed here under license anyway.....Maybe It's my taste???

Did I get it wrong?

What do you think?

PS - Each night after the commercial beer tasting, my wife and I tucked into a few homebrews. Aaaaaaaahhhh. :beerbang:

 

[0M39A]

if anything i think you have scored them too high

only decent one in that whole batch (imo) is pilsener urquell

 

[newguy]

A fresh Bitburger is perfection itself. Sorry to see yours wasn't up to snuff.

 

[clarkey7]

if anything i think you have scored them too high

only decent one in that whole batch (imo) is pilsener urquell

Yeah - There were a few surprises for me....

I tried to score them fairly on merit....but It's human nature to go in with pre-conceived ideas....

In hindsight I shoud have done blind tastings.....I wonder if that would have changed things?

They weren't that good, so I'm not in for another lot of that imported/international swill.

PB :unsure:

 

[goatherder]

Sometimes these are imported as packs and you get the real deal. I've had import Becks and Heineken from packs like these.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Let's face it. The best beer is the next beer.

If the Good Lord said " Son, yours time's up .. have a last beer .. even Birrell would taste like ambrosia !

 

[NRB]

A fresh Bitburger is perfection itself. Sorry to see yours wasn't up to snuff.

I'm quite partial to a Bitburger myself. I've noticed recently Pilsner Urquell is darker and less bitter than it used to be. At $39 a slab for Bitburger/Furstenberg, I can't understand why people purchase Melbourne Bitter/Victoria Bitter/Carlton Draught. I bought a slab of Furstenberg for New Years simply because I couldn't take any homies.

Import Stella/Becks and Heineken are definitely light years ahead of those brewed under licence.

 

[Jazman]

fresh bitburger and lowenbrau are good swillers better than aussie stuff i have noticed pu is not as good and rather budvar and furstenberg and memimerger fro, liquorland 1st choice are ok too when its hot and u aint got no beer

 

[petesbrew]

I'm quite partial to a Bitburger myself. I've noticed recently Pilsner Urquell is darker and less bitter than it used to be. At $39 a slab for Bitburger/Furstenberg, I can't understand why people purchase Melbourne Bitter/Victoria Bitter/Carlton Draught. I bought a slab of Furstenberg for New Years simply because I couldn't take any homies.

Import Stella/Becks and Heineken are definitely light years ahead of those brewed under licence.

I'd like to compare an import Heineken to a local Heineken, but can't stomach the taste of the local to do the test!
The local-Becks is drinkable...

 

[mika]

I'd like to compare an import Heineken to a local Heineken, but can't stomach the taste of the local to do the test!
The local-Becks is drinkable...

Done it, world's apart and I don't care if the imported one is old and stale, I must like it that way :huh:

It would be interesting to know whether they use the same ingredients, or whether the local boys have cobbled something together that get's it "pretty close". And yes I've heard of all the 'samples sent back to the brewery for evaluation' but are Heineken really going to care as long as they're recieving their royalty and the Brewery can demonstrate that sales haven't slipped ? Maybe I'm just cynical <_<

 

[tangent]

corona got a 6!!??? :huh:

 

[petesbrew]

corona got a 6!!??? :huh:

He must've put a lime wedge in it :icon_cheers:

 

[Lukes]

Over the holiday's and traveling, several times I was lucky enough to shell out $7-8 for a .3 serve of the above mentioned B.U.L.L.S (brewed under license lacking something).
As Mika outlined my first question in the comparison argument is do they use German malt for say a Aussie Becks and British malt for an Aussie Guinness?
As the profile must be close, but the ingredients would have to be local from a cost prospective or do they have to use malt from Europe?

- Luke

BTW: 5 beers at a cafe = a sack of Aussie malt

 

[tangent]

He must've put a lime wedge in it

Ahhh, lick the salt, suck the lime and throw the corona over your shoulder!

 

[2brothers]

One of my XMAS presents was a BWS 12-pack of international lagers + Willie Simpson book "The Beer Bible" + the bright orange cooler it all came in.

I was very excited on the day, but was reminded quickly why I make my own beer.

I only tasted 2 or three at any one sitting to give all beers a fair crack...

The results are in.....Beers were consumed in this order over a week, scores out of 10.

Budweiser = 5
Sol = 1
Lowenbrau = 6
Amsterdam lager = 4
Becks = 5
Carlsberg = 8
Peroni = 7
Bitburger = 3
Corona = 6
Stella Artois = 7
Heineken = 8
Pilsner Urquell = 8

Maybe it's old stock, not stored at the corect temperature, had a bad journey over here, been lightstruck ??????

Hang on - half the beers are brewed here under license anyway.....Maybe It's my taste???

Did I get it wrong?

What do you think?

PS - Each night after the commercial beer tasting, my wife and I tucked into a few homebrews. Aaaaaaaahhhh. :beerbang:

Nice work on the tasting! Not sure about the chances of them all being in tip-top shape ... but according to BJCP (plug ... www.bjcp.org) there are at least 4 different substyles of beer here: Standard American Lager, PRemium American Lager, German Pils and Bohemian Pils. You can geek over to the bjcp style guidelines which give good snapshots of how the beers should behave. It begins to sound like hard work when you get into the details, but to be fair, those beers were probably not meant to be created equal.

 

[PostModern]

corona got a 6!!??? :huh:

What am I missing here? He's scoring out of 50 isn't he?

 

[tangent]

that's still a little high isn't it PoMo? 6 out of 50?

 

[PostModern]

Heh, yeah. It would probably score pretty high as a soda water.

 

[barry2]

One of my XMAS presents was a BWS 12-pack of international lagers + Willie Simpson book "The Beer Bible" + the bright orange cooler it all came in.

I was very excited on the day, but was reminded quickly why I make my own beer.

I only tasted 2 or three at any one sitting to give all beers a fair crack...

The results are in.....Beers were consumed in this order over a week, scores out of 10.

Budweiser = 5
Sol = 1
Lowenbrau = 6
Amsterdam lager = 4
Becks = 5
Carlsberg = 8
Peroni = 7
Bitburger = 3
Corona = 6
Stella Artois = 7
Heineken = 8
Pilsner Urquell = 8

Maybe it's old stock, not stored at the corect temperature, had a bad journey over here, been lightstruck ??????

Hang on - half the beers are brewed here under license anyway.....Maybe It's my taste???

Did I get it wrong?

What do you think?

PS - Each night after the commercial beer tasting, my wife and I tucked into a few homebrews. Aaaaaaaahhhh. :beerbang:

Thanks Pocket Beers for the info.
I noticed the BWS deal advertised and considered buying it and then was reminded of my beer tasting experience around Christmas 2006.
I have been home brewing for almost two years.These days I buy a kit and add LDME,Dextrose and Maltodextrin.I boil hop pellets and usually use SAF yeasts.A typical brew costs me around $1 per 700 ml Coopers PET bottle.
In December 2006 Liquorland was offering Premium Imported(some brewed in Australia) and Premium Local Beers in 8 packs averaging about $3.20 a bottle.Sizes were between 375ml and 330ml although most were of the smaller size.Apparently "Premium" means a smaller bottle size.
My tastings consisted of two brews per day and I allocated up to 100 points for each brew.The 100 was made up 10 points each for -Carbonation,Clarity,Head,Lace,Aroma,Bitterness and 20 points each for Flavour and Fullness.
Before starting I decided any beer scoring over 80 would be a Great Beer,65-80 Good Beer,50-64 Beer,Under 50-For want of a better term-SLOPS.
As you will see from from the ratings I didn't find any Great Beers but plenty of slops.

Little Creatures Pale Ale.......79
James Squire Golden Ale......67
Becks Pilsener (Aust)...........66
Hahn Super Dry...................61
Stella Artois Lager................60
Crown Lager........................59
Corona Extra Cerzeva..........58
Konig Pilsener......................57
Heineken Lager (Aust)..........55
Tooheys Extra Dry...............46
Matilda Bay B.N.Honey Wheat.44
CUB Pure Blonde.................44
Boags St.George..................44
Kronenbourg 1664................44
Tiger Lager..........................41
Canlina Cerveza...................37

I was glad to get back to my homebrew
which I rated above 50 at the time and which I think has improved since then.(I'd have to say that wouldn't I?)
It seems to me that a lot of the "Premium" brews are outrageously overpriced for what you get.

 

[clarkey7]

corona got a 6!!??? :huh:

I think towards the end of the beers, I lightened up a little???

It was lime actually....and the lime was the only reason SOL didn't get a big fat zero.

IMHO any beer that requires a slice of lemon or lime jammed down the neck isn't beer.

It was a refreshing drop at the time and it made some of those other billion dollar companies beers look really ordinary.

PB :lol: