The Blind Beer Test
New beers are flooding the New Zealand market offering lots of exciting options for kiwi beer drinkers. Would you like low carbohydrates in your beer? No preservatives? All natural ingredients? Low alcohol? Can you taste the difference, do you care and what will it cost you? In Unison asked some Unitec students to complete a “Blind Beer Test” to see if they could identify a low carbohydrate beer; preservative free beer, “regular” beer and a low alcohol beer. We told the panel which beers were in the test and asked them to identify which sample they thought was which. They also gave each sample a taste rating and told us what they thought about the flavour.
The Winner:
The panel rated Steinlager Pure as the best tasting option, although they gave a relatively low ranking in importance (10) to all natural/preservative free ingredients which is its point of difference. Steinlager Pure was the most expensive beer available in the test; it was also the most recognisable, with three of the six panel members correctly identifying it.
The Panel:
Sini Qwanel
Age: 18
Second year hairdressing student
Preferred alcoholic beverage: Jimmy’s
Preferred beer: Flame
Drinks beer around once a week.
Thoughts: “Beers are beers; of course they are going to have calories and carbohydrates in them.”
Sophie Rath
Age: 21
Third year architecture student
Preferred alcoholic beverage: wine or sometimes beer
Preferred beer: Heineken
Drinks beer around once a week.
Thoughts: “I don’t mind low calorie, low alcohol beers, but I personally prefer the regular alcoholic beer.”
Craig
Age: 23
Sports coach
Preferred alcoholic beverage: beer
Preferred beer: Tui
Drinks beer around three times a week.
Thoughts: “It doesn’t bother me what ingredients there are in beer, I don’t read the labels. If I want to read something I’ll read a book.
Philippa Brown
Age: 24
Travel agent and professional BBQ chef.
Preferred alcoholic beverage: wine
Preferred beer: Becks or Heineken
Drinks beer once a fortnight
Thoughts: “Low calorie is good; a bottle of beer is practically a meal. Preservative free is good because it means the beer is fresher and healthier. Low alcohol content is also good as the purpose of my drinking is more for refreshment rather than getting tipsy”
Will Edser
Age: 18
First year sports student
Preferred alcoholic beverage: Vodka
Preferred beer: Corona
Drinks beer once a month
Thoughts: “Low calorie is a waste of time, there is no real such thing. As for preservative free, well we don’t drink for health. Low alcohol content? Why drink at all?”
Rebecca Morrell
Age: 18
Second year hairdressing student
Preferred alcoholic beverage: wine
Preferred beer: NZ Pure
Drinks beer twice a week
Thoughts: “Good! Dunno what else to say”
With their ratings combined the panellists listed the following attributes in order of importance:
1. Taste of flavour
2. Temperature
3. High alcohol content
4. Low price
5. Strength of flavour
6. Country of origin
7. Lightness/heaviness
8. Good advertising
9. Bottle design
10. All natural ingredients/preservative free
11. How popular/socially accepted the beer is
12. Fizzyness
13. Low calorie/carbohydrate
14. Fair trade ingredients
15. Low alcohol content
Beers in the test:
Mac’s Gold
Mac’s Light
Mac’s Spring Tide
Steinlager
Steinlager Pure
Sample A: Mac’s Spring Tide
Five per cent alcohol content, lower carbohydrate
Overall taste rating 17/30
Foodtown price: six pack $14.99
None from the panel picked Mac’s Spring Tide correctly:
Here’s what the panel said about the Mac’s Spring Tide sample:
Philippa: thought it was Mac’s Gold “initially subtle, followed by a burst of bitterness”.
Craig: thought it was Steinlager “Mud”.
Sophie: thought it was Mac’s Gold “after taste is a bit heavy, but good. Fresh for the first few seconds then getting heavier. Smells like there’s not a lot of alcohol content”.
Rebecca: thought it was Mac’s Light “light, not very strong or fizzy, but all good.”
Sini: thought it was Mac’s Light “light, hardly any taste”.
Will: thought it was Steinlager pure: “very bitter”.
Sample B: Steinlager (regular):
Five per cent alcohol content
Overall taste rating 22/30
Foodtown price: six pack $14.99
Two of the panellists (Sini and Philippa) picked Steinlager correctly:
Here’s what the panel said about the sample:
Philippa: picked it correctly “An even flavour, not as strong as Sample A (Steinlager Pure).”
Craig: thought it was Mac’s Gold “not bad, smooth”.
Sophie: thought it was Mac’s Light “watery, not fresh or sparkling at all”.
Rebecca: thought it was Steinlager Pure “yum, one of the fizzier ones, tastes stronger than the others”.
Sini: picked it correctly “strong, heavy and high in carbohydrates”.
Will: thought it was Mac’s Gold, no description.
Sample C: Steinlager Pure
Five per cent alcohol content, no preservatives
Overall taste rating 23 /30
Foodtown price: six pack $15.99
Three from the panel (Philippa, Sophie and Craig) picked Steinlager Pure correctly:
Here’s what the panel said about the sample:
Philippa: picked it correctly “almost fruity”.
Craig: picked it correctly “easy to drink”.
Sophie: picked it correctly “not too heavy”
Rebecca: thought it was Steinlager (regular) “fizzy but an alright taste”.
Sini: thought it was Corona (not on the list) “light and a little bitter”.
Will: thought it was Mac’s Light: “not as strong but tastes better”.
Sample D: Mac’s Light
One per cent alcohol content
Overall taste rating 13 /30
Foodtown price: six pack $11.99
Two from the panel (Craig and Seni) picked Mac’s Light correctly:
Here’s what the panel said about the sample:
Phillipa: thought it was Mac’s Spring Tide “fizzy and light flavour”.
Craig: picked it correctly “it’s like it has honey in it”.
Sophie: thought it was Mac’s Spring Tide “doesn’t smell like alcohol at all, a watery taste, disgusting”.
Rebecca: thought it was Mac’s Spring Tide “tastes weird, like normal beer but watery, LOL”.
Sini: picked it correctly “no taste”.
Will: thought it was Mac’s Spring Tide: “tastes light, no fizzyness” .
Sample E: Mac’s Gold
Four per cent alcohol content
Overall taste rating 18 /30
Foodtown price: six pack $14.99
One from the panel (Rebecca) picked Mac’s Gold correctly:
Here’s what the panel said about the sample:
Philippa: thought it was Mac’s Light “like yellow coloured water, plus a bit of soda water”.
Craig: thought it was Mac’s Spring Tide “smooth”.
Sophie: thought it was Steinlager “strong aftertaste, a quite heavy taste”.
Rebecca: picked it correctly “tastes bland”.
Sini: Thought it was Flame (not on the list) “tasteless”.
Will: thought it was Steinlager “tastes like normal beer”.