In Search of the Greatest Cheap Beer
Tom Wheeler considers a brew
by Keith Drinkwine
One evening, some of the most accredited beer connoisseurs of Green Mountain College gathered to discover which of the cheapest beers was the best. What originally was an attempt to combat the short, gloomy days quickly turned into a very serious and critical sud sucking inquiry. The only qualification for the beer was that it be cheap, and available at the Poultney Gulf gas station. 18 varieties of beers, which are often the choice of the dollar strapping college student, were included. Most could be bought for less than a washer and dryer load. Budweiser, Bud Light Bud Ice, Pabst Blue Ribbon (in bottle and can), Miller Light, Miller High Life, Molson Canadian, Molson Ice, Labatt Blue, Labatt Ice, Keystone Ice, Natural Ice, Natural Light, Foster’s, Coors Light, Ice House, Colt 45, and Steel Reserve were all up for critique. Each beer was evaluated in a variety of categories: Look, Smell, Taste, Feel and Drink-ability.
As the tasting and evaluating began, it became clear that this would be no easy task. It was quickly understood why most people do not take the time to smell their cheap beers. Some of the comments regarding the smell, which was pretty universal across most of the varieties, were beers smelling like, “Moldy FermenClothespines” and “100% piss.”
Noses aside, here is how the beers stacked up. For “smell,” Natural Light and Budweiser ranked at the top, while Bud Light and Icehouse were at the very bottom. In the purely “taste” category, PBR ranked at the top followed by Budweiser, while Ice House and Natural Ice were absolutely horrible. However, when all the points were added Budweiser was the king, closely followed by PBR and then Labatt Ice. In the “Best Bang For Your Buck” tabulation, Steel Reserve is the drink of choice if you are looking to be silly before realizing the taste of what you are drinking.
Probably the most telling outcome of this event was that a few of those involved complained of “hangover” type symptoms before the tasting had ended. Of course, if you’re going to drink, please do so responsibly, and for me, I’ll stick with paying a bit more for a decent beer.
Special thanks to Nina Lankin for the quantitative statistical analysis, as well as Michelle Erhard and Tom Wheeler for organizing the event.
Short URL: http://www.themountaineer.org/?p=1365
Posted by GMC Voices
on Feb 23, 2010 Filed under First-Person.
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