I had a friend and his family over to watch the Super Bowl. At the last minute, I decided we should blind taste test some pale ales. So... I put all of the beers in "longneck" bottles if they weren't already in one, removed the labels, and capped with homebrbew caps, to make them TOTALLY nondescript.

We had the following beers, which my wife SECRETLY labeled with numbers, as follows:

1. Ithaca Pale Ale (we rated 7.5/10)
2. SN Torpedo (we rated 8/10)
3. HOMEBREW IPA (we rated 8/10)
4. Dogfish Head 90 Minute (we rates 7.5//10)
5. HOMEBREW DIPA (we rated 10/10)

We were shocked to find that I only had ONE beer correct, and he had only TWO beers correct.

We also rated the beers on a 1-10 scale. I rated DFH 90 minute the lowest, at 6/10, despite claiming before the BLIND test that DFH 90 was "one of my favorite beers of all time!"

I was sure that I had the Dogfish correct, and I did. But I was equally sure that we both had the Torpedo correct, but neither of us did. We ranted that beer #5 was easily the best of the bunch, and certainly was Torpedo, but were off by a MILE!!

This spur-of-the-moment BLIND taste test was alot of fun, and very interesting. We couldn't have been more sure of ourselves on the Torpedo, Dogfish, and my DIPA, but were dead wrong. The only beer that we both got right was the Dogfish90.

Anybody have any thoughts, or similar expreiences??

Denny CONN has suggested one do a triple blind taste. Load two of the bottles with the same beer.
Now see if those two bottles score the same.

I'm a bit surprised that DF 90 came in so low, but then again the other beers may have been truly superb.

I did the same with my brewing buddy a few years ago... we too were way off and our homebrews scored high

DogFish wouldn't score in my test cuz I don't like it.

Four of us did a blind taste test a couple of days ago to see if we could tell the difference between coors light, miller light, and bud light. It was inspired by the documentary Beer Wars. We were sure we would be able to tell the difference, but no one could. Two people got them all wrong, and the other two only got 1 out of the 3.

I was reading in Principles of Brewing Science that the yeast artifacts are the only reliable method of telling the difference between Bud & Coors.
The bud yeast leaves an apple taste, and the Coors yeast leaves a pineapple taste.
I've never tried it myself, because I haven't brought myself to spend on something like that.
Maybe, one day.

I'm not surprised the BMC all tasted the same considering they all taste like poorly flavored water.

That blind BMC test was probably my favorite part of that movie.

Matt,

I order to drink your homebrews from the bottle and not give away the yeast sediment, did you have them kegged and then tapped into the bottle like you would with a growler. Even if all of them were poured out int a glass, the homebrews would stand out with the yeast sediment.

No kegging. I just poured into a glass. Neither one of us felt the need to look inside of the bottle, as we deliberately wanted to keep this "experiment' blind.

But for argument's sake, couldn't you just pour 11.5 ounces into a clean bottle and recap, leaving the sediment behind?

Funny enough, the only beer of the 5 that was crystal clear was the Dogfish 90. I was surprised that the Ithaca and Torpedo weren't clearer.

The Dogfish result does not surprise me at all. I have not been impressed with the beers of theirs I've tasted. Some folks love em so each to his own. Not my thing.

Ya know, I live pretty close to DFH and hit the brewpub when we go to the beach and every time I leave unimpressed (prolly cause of the service). I like the 90, but that is about it. Oh yeah, the Indian Brown is tasty too, but the others are over-hyped.

"Four of us did a blind taste test a couple of days ago to see if we could tell the difference between coors light, miller light, and bud light. "

followed by vomiting and stomach pumping...

Hey Kurt, wanna Bud Light? No thanks, not that thirsty (nor will I ever be)

I entered a homebrewed brown ale into a blind beer tasting a friend of mine put on. The rest of the beers were commercial, and included Kona Brewery's Longboard Lager, Firestone Double Barrel Ale, and an organic IPA I can't recall the name of, as well as Coors Light and Miller, and, for kicks, Chelada and Mickey's. Mine tied with the Firestone for first. What was interesting was that Longboard did not do well- many couldn't distinguish it from the Light American Lagers (except the Chelada, which was easy because it was disgusting).

I normally like Longboard. I thought later that the order the beers were presented, which was totally random, could have had an impact on the results, and should be taken into consideration for future tastings (i.e. lightest to darkest/mildest to strongest). Hop-washed tastebuds aren't the best judges.

blind beer tasting: the art of drinking beer until you are blind drunk...

That is a fun idea. I like dfh, but I like a lot of other craft ipas better. Racer 5, darkhorse crooked tree-that is very much a hb richness. I also like lagunitas. I do like some of the modern hopbombs, but prefer the ones where I get a bit of malt.

I have,nt had enough yellabellies, but know I could pick bud vs mgd or highlife. I also know I could pick the lights. When forced to drink those, I prefer lite, then silverbullet(totally free of any flavor at all) then butt light. But I really find BL to be disgusting.

Oh p.s.

Does anyone else every have 2-3 representative styles of beer they are brewing? We do this and it is funny because the grist is already ground, hops weighed, yeast on starter, but we are tasting multiple beers as if it'll influence the outcome.