Beer (rec.drink.beer) Discussing various aspects of that fine beverage referred to as beer. Including interesting beers and beer styles, opinions on tastes and ingredients, reviews of brewpubs and breweries & suggestions about where to shop.

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PocketLobster
 
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Default Ratings of 18 beers in the Washingtonian's first annual beer tasting (June 1975)

Ratings of 18 beers in the Washingtonian's first annual beer tasting
(June 1975)

A panel of seven - two noted local beer experts, two former professional
athletes and three beer drinkers of some repute - conducted a taste test
of 18 popular beers for the Washingtonian Magazine. The beers were served
without labels in groups of three, with bread available between tastes to
reset the taste buds and a 10 minute break between groups. Panelists were
asked to score each beer from 1 (terrible) to 10 (excellent), with five
considered average. The results are as follows (maximum score 100)

1. Heineken 83.7
2. Old Milwaukee 71.5
3. Pabst Blue Ribbon 68.6
4. Schlitz 68.6
5. Miller High Life 67.2
6. Tuborg 61.5
7. Budweiser 60.8
8. Michelob 60.8
9. National Bohemian 57.9
10. Andecker 54.3
11. National Premium 52.2
12. Schmidt's 48.6
13. Yuengling 47.9
14. Coors 47.2
15. Rolling Rock 47.2
16. Lowenbrau Light 46.5
17. Black Label 43.6
18. Schaefer's 33.6

There was a surprising disparity in ratings for beer number 16, Lowenbrau
Light. The two experts rated this beer superior to all other brands, but
the non-experts, placed it at the bottom of the list.

Source: Washingtonian magazine (June 1975)
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Bruce
 
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Wow I'm glad I wasn't old enough to drink 30 years ago. Selection would
have been pretty boring. I probably would have had to move to another
country (England, Belgium or Germany).

Bruce
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Bruce
 
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Wow I'm glad I wasn't old enough to drink 30 years ago. Selection would
have been pretty boring. I probably would have had to move to another
country (England, Belgium or Germany).

Bruce
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Tom Wolper
 
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Bruce wrote:
> Wow I'm glad I wasn't old enough to drink 30 years ago. Selection would
> have been pretty boring. I probably would have had to move to another
> country (England, Belgium or Germany).


This gives you an idea of why the craft brewing movement is so important. I don't think Coors was available in the east
then and it surprises me to see it on the list at all. The Lowenbrau would have been brewed under license (with
adjuncts) by Miller.

Tom W
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HappyHourHotSpots.com
 
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Are there more recent results that i might be able to post to my web
site?



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Randal
 
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One can also see why homebrewing became a bigger deal asswell...

Wow, they must have had no IDEA what hops actually tasted like!

_Randal

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zeno
 
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In article . com>,
Randal > wrote:

> One can also see why homebrewing became a bigger deal asswell...
>
> Wow, they must have had no IDEA what hops actually tasted like!
>
> _Randal



....or Malt for that matter
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zeno
 
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In article . com>,
Randal > wrote:

> One can also see why homebrewing became a bigger deal asswell...
>
> Wow, they must have had no IDEA what hops actually tasted like!
>
> _Randal



....or Malt for that matter
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Dr. Cajones
 
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First, you can't compare today's versions of all of these brews to what we
drank back then. Some on the list were of better quality then, than where
they ended up years later. And there were many choices other than those on
the list, (which seem like a bit of a popularity(numbers) contest), like
Samuel Smith, St. Pauli Girl, as well as draught imports at quality German
or other "ethnic" establishments. In my hometown, a small city in western
Mass, we had a restaurant/bar which had fresh Spaten on tap all year long,
as well as an Irish social club which always had fresh Irish made Guinness,
until they started making it elsewhere for our market. Of course the brews
in Belgium, England, Germany and elsewhere were probably better then too! I
would love to live & quaff in Belgium! *g*

dj

"Bruce" > wrote in message
...
> Wow I'm glad I wasn't old enough to drink 30 years ago. Selection would
> have been pretty boring. I probably would have had to move to another
> country (England, Belgium or Germany).
>
> Bruce



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Dr. Cajones
 
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First, you can't compare today's versions of all of these brews to what we
drank back then. Some on the list were of better quality then, than where
they ended up years later. And there were many choices other than those on
the list, (which seem like a bit of a popularity(numbers) contest), like
Samuel Smith, St. Pauli Girl, as well as draught imports at quality German
or other "ethnic" establishments. In my hometown, a small city in western
Mass, we had a restaurant/bar which had fresh Spaten on tap all year long,
as well as an Irish social club which always had fresh Irish made Guinness,
until they started making it elsewhere for our market. Of course the brews
in Belgium, England, Germany and elsewhere were probably better then too! I
would love to live & quaff in Belgium! *g*

dj

"Bruce" > wrote in message
...
> Wow I'm glad I wasn't old enough to drink 30 years ago. Selection would
> have been pretty boring. I probably would have had to move to another
> country (England, Belgium or Germany).
>
> Bruce





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Lew Bryson
 
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"Dr. Cajones" > wrote in message
news:ghj4e.261
> or other "ethnic" establishments. In my hometown, a small city in western
> Mass, we had a restaurant/bar which had fresh Spaten on tap all year long,
> as well as an Irish social club which always had fresh Irish made
> Guinness,
> until they started making it elsewhere for our market. Of course the
> brews


Draft Guinness (tap and widget "draft") in the U.S. is all, and is still,
Irish-made. The bottled Guinness is currently brewed in Canada.

--
Lew Bryson

"GOOD or SHITE?" -- Michael Jackson, "Thriller", 1982
www.lewbryson.com


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Lew Bryson
 
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"Dr. Cajones" > wrote in message
news:ghj4e.261
> or other "ethnic" establishments. In my hometown, a small city in western
> Mass, we had a restaurant/bar which had fresh Spaten on tap all year long,
> as well as an Irish social club which always had fresh Irish made
> Guinness,
> until they started making it elsewhere for our market. Of course the
> brews


Draft Guinness (tap and widget "draft") in the U.S. is all, and is still,
Irish-made. The bottled Guinness is currently brewed in Canada.

--
Lew Bryson

"GOOD or SHITE?" -- Michael Jackson, "Thriller", 1982
www.lewbryson.com


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MikeMcG
 
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Just curious - does anyone know when did Sam Smiths started exporting
to US, I would have guessed it was after 1975?

& don't be *too* envious of us Brits back then - OK we had some v. good
beers, but CAMRA was still only very young & we were fighting off the
perils of both lager & tasteless keg beers ousting flavourful real ales
from the bar.

I was probably still in nappies (diapers) back then though, and more
inclined towards milk than milk stout :~)
cheers
MikeMcG

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MikeMcG
 
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Just curious - does anyone know when did Sam Smiths started exporting
to US, I would have guessed it was after 1975?

& don't be *too* envious of us Brits back then - OK we had some v. good
beers, but CAMRA was still only very young & we were fighting off the
perils of both lager & tasteless keg beers ousting flavourful real ales
from the bar.

I was probably still in nappies (diapers) back then though, and more
inclined towards milk than milk stout :~)
cheers
MikeMcG

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dgs
 
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MikeMcG wrote:

> Just curious - does anyone know when did Sam Smiths started exporting
> to US, I would have guessed it was after 1975?


Correct. It was around 1978, when Charles Finkel founded Merchant du
Vin, which despite its name is a beer importer, based in Seattle. MdV
brought in Samuel Smith's ales, and still does. MdV also brings in
Ayinger and Pinkus-Mueller beers from Germany, and Orval and Westmalle
Trappist ales from Belgium. Not too shabby of a portfolio.

> & don't be *too* envious of us Brits back then - OK we had some v. good
> beers, but CAMRA was still only very young & we were fighting off the
> perils of both lager & tasteless keg beers ousting flavourful real ales
> from the bar.


And in some ways, you lot still are! Now, it's "nitrokeg" or
"smoothflow" or whatever load of codswallop the brewery marketers are
coining this week.

> I was probably still in nappies (diapers) back then though, and more
> inclined towards milk than milk stout :~)


Milk!? Best if fermented. Then you get cheese, which goes quite well
with beer.
--
dgs



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dgs
 
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Dr. Cajones wrote:

> First, you can't compare today's versions of all of these brews to what we
> drank back then. Some on the list were of better quality then, than where
> they ended up years later. And there were many choices other than those on
> the list, (which seem like a bit of a popularity(numbers) contest), like
> Samuel Smith,


Samuel Smith beers didn't come into the USA until 1978. Back in 1975,
the most easily found British beers were the likes of bottled Watney's
Red Barrel or Bass.

> St. Pauli Girl,


Better known as "Beck's." St. Pauli Girl was an export label, but the
stuff in the bottles - and, in fact, the bottles themselves - all came
from Beck's Bierbrauerei in Bremen. Still do.

> as well as draught imports at quality German
> or other "ethnic" establishments. In my hometown, a small city in western
> Mass, we had a restaurant/bar which had fresh Spaten on tap all year long,
> as well as an Irish social club which always had fresh Irish made Guinness,
> until they started making it elsewhere for our market.


The only Guinness made "elsewhere for [your] market" is the bottled
stuff. Keg Guinness is still shipped over from Ireland.

> Of course the brews
> in Belgium, England, Germany and elsewhere were probably better then too! I
> would love to live & quaff in Belgium! *g*


Some brews were better, some weren't, and some didn't even exist yet;
there are new-breed microbreweries in Belgium and the UK that make some
good beers nowadays, and most of those didn't even exist in the 1970s.
--
dgs

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dgs
 
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Tom Wolper wrote:

> Bruce wrote:
>
>> Wow I'm glad I wasn't old enough to drink 30 years ago. Selection would
>> have been pretty boring. I probably would have had to move to another
>> country (England, Belgium or Germany).

>
> [...] The Lowenbrau would have been
> brewed under license (with adjuncts) by Miller.


In 1975, the agreement that gave Miller license to produce the Löwenbräu
brand in the USA was brand-spanking new; the ink was still wet on it.
For a while, you could still get German-brewed Löwenbräu, but by 1976,
the German stock was pretty much gone.

Things have come full circle, and now you can get German-brewed
Löwenbräu in the USA again. But now we have a significantly larger
selection of imports, so it's not the sort-of big deal it once was.
--
dgs

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dgs
 
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Bruce wrote:

> Wow I'm glad I wasn't old enough to drink 30 years ago. Selection would
> have been pretty boring. I probably would have had to move to another
> country (England, Belgium or Germany).


Things is, 30 years ago, you wouldn't really have been aware of the
difference. Most people weren't. The age of mass travel was under way,
and the baby boomers were taking trips to Europe and coming back
wondering why their local beers seemed so pale and flabby, and why the
imports didn't quite have the flavor they did overseas.

The learning process that has happened since then gave us both the
USA's domestic craft-brewing industry and a wider, fresher selection of
imports.
--
dgs

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