PASTE: Dark Lagers Blind-Tasted and Ranked

Nice try at emphasizing those important points about the Paste rankings. Probably a futile effort, though.

 

Pleased to see Union's Blackwing made the top 30! It's great to have a local black lager with year-round availability.

 

This list is bullshit! None of my favorite beers are in the top 10, these guys don't know what they're talking about.


Seriously though, as craft beer continues to grow, these Paste lists are starting to become meaningless to me. I started reading the list at number 1 and had to go all the way up to number 17 (Von Trapp Dunkel) to see a beer I'd even heard of, and the majority of the breweries in the top 16 before it were places I'd also never even heard of.

I will always like the Paste lists, but there's just so many breweries and beers today that it's hard to really take anything away from them anymore (for me at least).

 

Agreed, I'd like to see them do a bit more of a write up about the commonalities of the winners/losers. Turn out some more universally useful info if they told us "our blind tasters tended to enjoy the crisper bodies and roastier flavors" or something (obviously this particularly broad style category would make even that kind of write up only marginally useful). Its a real cool idea theyve hit on but I almost never see beers I have access to

 

FIFY

 

Article I'd really like to see: "25 of the Stupidest Paste Beer Lists, Blind-Tested and Ranked"

 

“Acceptable styles included dunkel, schwarzbier, Czech dark lager, bock and others,...”
“Entries were judged by how much we enjoyed them for whatever reason, not by how well they fit any kind of preconceived style guidelines.”

Just the first in a series.
Next month is
Straw colored lagers that taste pretty good
Followed by
We blind-tasted and ranked 50 carbonated beers

 

Was sad to see no Baltic Porters on the list until I realized the ABV constraints.



Where’s the love for Baltic Porters?!
Can I get a witness???!?

 

well said

 

Well, I find them somewhat entertaining . When I went to the link earlier today, I just knew that one of my favorite would be there and it was. Great Raft Reasonably Corrupt. Great beer to seek out if you find yourself in North Louisiana, Arkansas or East Texas.

 

Well, which was it?

 

I too am a fan of this beer and needless to say agree with your endorsement here.

Cheers!

 

As always, when in doubt, Paste simply makes shit up on the fly, and we don't expect them to stick to any designations of journalism.

Paste articles will be judged by how much we enjoyed them for whatever reason, not by whether they make any fucking sense.

 

I kinda remember one of those free give-away music magazines (loaded with ads and the articles almost always about a record or artist advertised in that issue...) that you could pick up in record stores that was also named Paste. I wonder if it's the same publication? The artists/albums covered where usually the blandest MOR/AOR "soft rock" music, and I recall thinking:

"WTF kinda name is Paste? Yeah, Paste is a good name for this rag. White, bland, harmless. Paste - like the stuff that one kid would eat in kindergarten..."

 

I'm shocked Schilling didn't make the top 30. Modernism is a great beer. Happy to see Von Trapp up there

 

Idle Hands Brunhilda was another one that didn't make top 30 and I think that's a great beer as well.