IPA Blind Tasting

I would have booted out All Day IPA and put in Torpedo but have no beef with tasting otherwise. Would have rated Two Hearted #1 also.

 

He keeps using "we" throughout the article, but it appears to be just one guy.

 

If it was only one guy it wouldn't be blind right?

 

At least he got Two-Hearted right. I'd have put Two-Hearted, Jai Alai, and Sculpin' in the Top 3 pretty easily. After that not a huge preference.

 

Honestly |I guessed three of them just from the discriptions -
I can;t argue much with those descriptions, but my tastes are different so I would have ranked them differently.

 

I've had Two Hearted and Jai Alai on draught at Old Chicago and it was a tough decision but 2H won by a nose.

 

I have no beef with Two Hearted taking the crown but it’s kinda silly to do a blind IPA tsing when two of the beers aren’t even the same style as the rest.

 

Unless the author was a bad ass I don't see him being able to pour all those beers. It's possible those photos only show how much made it to the glass.

 

The All Day and the Goose Island. Goose Island IPA is an English style IPA, it doesn’t taste anything like the other, standard American IPAs that were used in the tasting. Even a fairly novice craft drinker would probably immediately recognize it as being distinctly different (as it’s intended to be) and thus unblind that one. Perhaps less of an argument for All Day but still, a Session IPA (which some would argue is a stupid sub style and that these are often just creatively marketed pale ales) would certainly stand out as being different because well it is different.

 

I am glad the article included pictures of his backwash - there was so little beer left in the glass!

I am not surprised that Two Hearted won this. It's been a while since I've had any of the others though.

 

Looking at the beers I’d think a fresh Stone IPA would be on top. You couldn’t fool me on Two Hearted Ale, the Centennial Hops are just too distinctive, and it’s a tremendous beer. I’ve trued to like Jai Alai, I’ve trued many times, it’s certainly a decent beer, but I can really pass on it.

 

Founders All day is a good session beer but to my unblind taste I couldn’t imagine it being better than sculpin or Stone IPA. It’s too watery when comparing it to a “regular” ipa.

the other rankings can go either way. For me TH and Union Jack would be my #1 and #2 as well.

 

I agree 100% here. I suspect that for the tiny pours used in the blind tasting the aspect of "watery" was obfuscated. The taste tester seemed to be mostly relying on sniffing the beer (i.e., aroma) and taking a small sip. The watery aspect is more noticeable when drinking 12 ounces of All Day.

Cheers!

 

But ya gotta admit - those pics added so much to the article.

I suspect that whoever "we" was, it didn't include an editor.