I was part of a group doing a blind tasting of Firestone Walker Anniversary beers recently. I have seen several threads related to blind tastings, but nothing that includes more than a few so I figured it would be interesting to combine them into one place. Feel free to include other tastings that are not blind, as long as there is some sort of numerical judging criteria. The results of the tasting were as follows, using a simple 1-5 scoring method with 5 being the best: January 2015 1. 17th Anniversary: 4-4-4-5-3 (20 points total) 1. 18th Anniversary: 3-3-5-4-5 (20) 3. 15th Anniversary: 5-2-3-3-4 (14) 4. 14th Anniversary: 2-5-1-2-2 (12) 5. 16th Anniversary: 1-1-2-1-1 (6) November 2013 1. 13th Anniversary: 3-5-5-5-3-4 (25 points total) 2. 14th Anniversary: 5-2-4-4-4-3 (22) 2. 15th Anniversary: 4-3-2-3-5-5 (22) 4. 17th Anniversary: 2-4-3-2-2-2 (15) 5. 16th Anniversary: 1-1-1-1-1-1 (6)
I started a thread in the Germany Forum to discuss a Blind Tasting of German Pils: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/blind-tasting-of-german-pils.249894/ Cheers!
Just a group of me and 3 friends. The other 3 are not near as much into craft beer as I am but these were a couple good IPAs I had on hand so we decided to do a blind tasting. The overall results were as follows... 1) Stone - Enjoy By 2) Russian River - Pliny the Elder 3) Bear Republic - Racer 5 (my winner actually) 4) Toppling Goliath - Golden Nugget
January 2016 Firestone Walker Anniversary Blind Tasting 1. 18th Anniversary: 5-4-5-5-5 (24 points total) 1. 19th Anniversary: 4-5-4-4-4 (21) 3. 17th Anniversary: 3-3-2-3-3 (14) 4. 16th Anniversary: 2-2-3-2-2 (11) 5. 15th Anniversary: 1-1-1-1-1 (5) Some notes from this year's tasting: 18th was the pretty clear winner here, with all but one person having it comfortably out in front. Several of us had a difficult time deciding between 17th and 19th. I thought they had similar characteristics and it was essentially a flip of the coin, with 19th getting the slight edge. In the end, each person decided on 19th, but nobody had strong opinions, so if those two were switched among a couple people, the result would have looked much closer. The 16th was OK, and actually seemed slightly better than the previous year, when it was far and away the worst. The 15th was a disappointment. There was a heavily oxidized flavor prevalent in this one. I feel like it peaked two or three years ago, was solid last year and is now a shell of what it once was.
At the end of this week, i am going to do a blind tasting of all the grapefruit ipas i managed to find since everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. The beers are..... Grapefruit Sculpin Schlafly Grapefruit IPA Sam Adams Rebel Grapefruit Victory Agave Grapefruit IPA I wish i could have found more but at least ill have a top 3 with a runner up. I may be able to pick out the agave right away but this will be a fun experiment. Ill be pouring a few ounces each into these small taster glasses (i do believe one broke the other day) if so then thry will all be a couple ounces in tumbler pints. Will post here and in WBAYDN when i do it. I have had grapefruit sculpin but it was 2 years ago so i have no memory of it. This will be completely blind with the help of my significant other and will be completely objective since these are all new to me.
Did an Imperial Coffee Stout tasting blind a few weeks ago: 1) Imperial Biscotti Break 2) Mega Blackhouse 3) Speedway 4) Drake's Jolly Rodger 5) Founder's Breakfast Stout I was really shocked how low I rated Founder's (I had guessed it was Mega) and how great Mega is. Everyone else rated Founder's third; I was the only one that liked Speedway blind. That Biscotti though.....goddamn. My first time having it and I'm dying to get it again.
Last year I did a blind tasting of "world class" DIPAs with two other people. They finished as follows: 1) Stone Enjoy By 12.25.2015 2) Carton 077XX 2) Neshaminy Creek The Shape Of Hops To Come (tied for 2nd) 4) Alchemist Heady Topper 5) Russian River Pliny The Elder (All 3 of us thought this was clearly the bottom. The other 4 were very close.)
Not sure if you can find this beer but it's the best grapefruit I've had to date. Absolutely crushable - https://untappd.com/b/crooked-tongue-brewing-woppyjamer/1009286
