Let’s take a break from all this eating…. and do some drinking! Occasionally, Chez Venza likes to participate in a little blind taste test action to see if preconceived notions or opinions hold up. This time, we did a two-man blind tasting of five India Pale Ales.
For those of you somehow not familiar with IPAs, they are a high-hop, higher-alcohol brew. They have a refreshing bitterness and almost a floral taste from the hops. As the story goes, IPAs were created with more hops and alcohol in order to preserve the beer longer so that it could last through the long trip from Britain to India.
The esteemed panel and their corresponding alcohol by volume:
Now, the tricky part. How to do a blind tasting when only two people are participating? We took paper cups, labeled them on the bottom. One filled the cups with the appropriate beer, while the other wasn’t present. Then the other came in, and randomly carried the two sets of cups to the tasting arena. Worked great!
Blind samples 1-5. We thought we’d try to ID certain metrics while we tasted: best, worst, hoppiest, and highest alcohol content (as the Hercules had far more alcohol, this was just a challenge to ID this beer.)
Results? A taste test that was surprisingly difficult and with shockingly consistent results. In our previous tastings of light beers, Mexican beers, malt liquors, Octoberfest beers, etc., there has been a greater variety of tastes between the competitors. Here, the similarity in flavor was incredible. I had to finish all of the samples before I had any real clues… and even then I was scratching my head a bit.
However, my compatriot and I reached the same results on all our metrics:
Highest Alcohol - We were both able to detect the Hercules and its 10%.
Best – Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA
Hoppiest – Stone IPA
Worst Least Favorite– St. Arnold’s Elissa IPA.
This last result kind of broke my heart. I am a big fan of the St. Arnold's brews. As a result, I renamed the metric. (Preconceived notion shattered.)
For those of you somehow not familiar with IPAs, they are a high-hop, higher-alcohol brew. They have a refreshing bitterness and almost a floral taste from the hops. As the story goes, IPAs were created with more hops and alcohol in order to preserve the beer longer so that it could last through the long trip from Britain to India.
The esteemed panel and their corresponding alcohol by volume:
| Beer | Alcohol by Volume |
| Hercules Double IPA | 10% |
| Stone IPA | 6.9% |
| Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA | 7.2% |
| Ranger IPA | 6.5% |
| St. Arnold’s Elissa IPA | 6.6% |
Now, the tricky part. How to do a blind tasting when only two people are participating? We took paper cups, labeled them on the bottom. One filled the cups with the appropriate beer, while the other wasn’t present. Then the other came in, and randomly carried the two sets of cups to the tasting arena. Worked great!
Blind samples 1-5. We thought we’d try to ID certain metrics while we tasted: best, worst, hoppiest, and highest alcohol content (as the Hercules had far more alcohol, this was just a challenge to ID this beer.)
Results? A taste test that was surprisingly difficult and with shockingly consistent results. In our previous tastings of light beers, Mexican beers, malt liquors, Octoberfest beers, etc., there has been a greater variety of tastes between the competitors. Here, the similarity in flavor was incredible. I had to finish all of the samples before I had any real clues… and even then I was scratching my head a bit.
However, my compatriot and I reached the same results on all our metrics:
Highest Alcohol - We were both able to detect the Hercules and its 10%.
Best – Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA
Hoppiest – Stone IPA
This last result kind of broke my heart. I am a big fan of the St. Arnold's brews. As a result, I renamed the metric. (Preconceived notion shattered.)
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