# Have beer snobs ever been put to the test in blind taste tests? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** beer\ **Created:** [December 21, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-beer-snobs-ever-been-put-to-the-test-in-blind-taste-tests/478221 "2008-12-21T20:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/put_down_the_sabre)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-beer-snobs-ever-been-put-to-the-test-in-blind-taste-tests/478221/21 "2008-12-24T13:12:59Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > As I said, the proper glasses enhance a beer tasting. If they are indistinguishable without decent glasses, then why buy more expensive been in an environment where there aren’t those glasses? ie, next time I’m in a non-specialty bar, should I get budweiser? pdts (who thinks the american obsession with ‘good beer’ is rather endearing) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-beer-snobs-ever-been-put-to-the-test-in-blind-taste-tests/478221/22 "2008-12-24T14:43:24Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I’ve related the story here before, but I once served a variety of cheap malt liquors to my beer club in a blind tasting. They all thought they were fine to excellent brews. They were rather pissed when I revealed their favorite: Olde English 800. Their palates are keen – but I guess they didn’t like what their palates were suggesting. 😃 I consider myself a beer snob, and I love the taste of cheap gas-station malt liquour. 8-ball (your beer club’s pick), King Cobra and St. Ides are all nice, sweetish beers. They’re all light on the hops, which is a quality I like in conventional beers anyway. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-beer-snobs-ever-been-put-to-the-test-in-blind-taste-tests/478221/23 "2008-12-24T14:48:41Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > A lot (most?) of the other posters were thinking like **Doctor J** ’s first post, with beers snobs who drink one of miller, coors or bud, and don’t like the others. FWIW, noted beer writer [Michael Jackson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_(writer))\*\* regularly rated Coors products two stars out of five, while Bud, Miller, and other American macros scored one star. IIRC, he cited the Colorado water as a big factor in the relative quality of the Coors line. \*\* \*wow, didn’t realize he passed away last year :\*\*\*_poursasamichlausintribute:_ ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-beer-snobs-ever-been-put-to-the-test-in-blind-taste-tests/478221/24 "2008-12-24T15:39:14Z")
> [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](#): > > If they are indistinguishable without decent glasses, then why buy more expensive been in an environment where there aren’t those glasses? > > ie, next time I’m in a non-specialty bar, should I get budweiser? If you are in a bar, swilling down longnecks, it very well may not matter whether you are downing Millers, Buds, DTs, Blackened Voodoos, or Turbodogs. But if you are paying for the DT, BV, TD, etc., IMO you are depriving yourself of some of the enjoyment by not enjoying it out of a glass. Of course, growing up and developing my beer drinking habits at the corner taps in Chicago, it was indeed an unusual bar where they would not accompany tour Old Style with a little 8 oz juice glass. When I was swilling beer to get drunk, I wouldn’t discriminate between drinking it out of a glass, bottle, can, old shoe … But as I piled on a couple of decades, I decided I could get just as buzzed, but take a little longer going about it and enjoy the trip considerably more. Just my opinion. I haven’t drunk for 4 or so years, so I am not in a position to test it today. But I would be astonished if I were unable to distinguish, say a Bud Light from a Honkers Ale, IPA, or even a Pilsner Urquell - even if drinking both from a bottle. That is not to say, however, that macrobrews have no place, or are always unwelcome. I always used to say that the best beer was beer that someone else was buying! 😉 And in situations such as a hot day after a round of golf, I would happlily pour Coors down my throat - if that is what was available. Many a year back, tho, my wife told me I made too much money to buy cheap beer. When I studiously tasted and compared beers, I was able to decide that I did have preferences. So it only makes sense to purchase beer consistent with those preferences when the opportunity arose. This morning my wife asked me what beer to buy for our guests tomorrow. I suggested she pick up a couple of cases of whatever is on sale between Goose Island, Sam Adams, and Leinie’s. IMO and to my taste, those are a step up from Bud/Miller products. And one of the 3 is always on sale at the local grocery. Funny how preferences go. Growing up in Chicago it was all Old Style. My one BIL was formerly a PBR man, grwoing up in a small town in southern IL. Would not drink anything else. Then he got a job at AB, and the whole family turned into AB drinkers. Well, he just got fired/early retired a week ago after 30 years, following the InBev purchase of AB. He hasn’t been exactly complimentary of his ex-employer lately, so I wonder what impact that has on his tastebuds?! 😉 Me, I’ll be putting away a few Buckler NAs. Woohoo! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-beer-snobs-ever-been-put-to-the-test-in-blind-taste-tests/478221/25 "2008-12-24T16:24:38Z")
A blind man with no sense of taste could tell an American Lager from Guiness just by the texture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-beer-snobs-ever-been-put-to-the-test-in-blind-taste-tests/478221.md?page=1)