Might be time for another (personal) taste testing - Czech Pils

Well, I've done my little taste test.

First, some initial comments. I was able to find Pilsner Urquell in cans, stamped Aug 17 18 18:51. Not TOO bad, and the cans help. Czechvar (Budweiser Budvar) was in green bottles stamped 11.01.2018/B1. Again not horribly old, but the green bottles were in an open 6 pack, so... I opted for a 6 pack of Summit in brown bottles. It was stamped "Enjoy by 07/06/18". I couldn't find any date at all on the Utepils. Boo, Utepils!

All were well done, surprisingly (to me) even the green-bottled Czechvar. Due to me force-ranking rather than assigning rating points, the top to bottom is actually closer than it might appear from the overall score. For example, since I did not "dislike" any of these, having the last place beer get 4x the points of the first place beer is deceptive. But, it's my goofy system, so I'm sticking with it.

The reviews were done prior to the side-by-side tasting, with each beer by itself, tasted twice, and on separate days. This was completed 10 days or so ago. The side-by-side was this past Saturday, and I did not refer back to the review ratings or notes when doing the side-by-side.

The side-by-side, was NOT blind, so that may have benefited the MN beers since both Summit and Utepils are particular favorites of mine.

The Pilsner Urquell lived up to its reputation (for lovers of the style... a pox on all you who rate everything as if it was an IPA), and I felt pretty good assigning it the default #1 in the "to style" ranking.

I knocked the Utepils down to #4 in the "to style" ranking due to its different, strongly herbal, taste. Not being a qualified judge, I really have no idea if this is even a mild flaw in the style, but since none of the others exhibited that taste to that extreme, I knocked the Utepils down in the "to style". IOW, Utepils was noticeably different from the other three. I'm not saying it was an undesirable taste; in fact, I really enjoyed the Utepils.

In my individual reviews, the ranking was #1 Summit, #2 Pilsner Urquell, #3 Utepils, and #4 Czechvar.
In my "to style" ranking, it was #1 Pilsner Urquell, #2 Czchvar, #3 Summit, #4 Utepils
In my "like it" ranking, it was #1 Summit, #2 Utepils, #3 Pilsner Urquell, and #4 Czchvar.

Anyway, this gives the final ranking of
#1 Summit (5 points),
#2 Pilsner Urquell (6 points),
#3 Utepils (9 points) and
#4 Czechvar (10 points).

But, as I said in the beginning, it was really much closer than that. None got first in every list and none got last in every list. I have to believe the Minnesota beers benefited from freshness (and my bias). Hard to say how the Czech beers would have ranked had they been fresher (or the Czechvar not in a green bottle), but even so, they were all quite nice for lager lovers.

Some notes from the side-by-side tasting:
Summit Brewing Dakota Soul - weakest aroma, bready; color closest to PU; Nice feel, bready malty taste, hops present, only mildly bitter finish
PIlsner Urquell More hops in the aroma, also bready malts slightly darker color; nice feel, bready in middle, bitter finish
Utepils Pils paler yellow, much breadier aroma; lighter color than PU; Nice feel, somewhat off taste (herbal, different from the others), midly bitter finish
Budějovický Budvar, n.p. Czechvar (Budweiser Budvar) Breadier aroma; nearly identical color to PU; very mild taste, hardly any bittering at all

I'll be posting the actual reviews soon, if anyone cares.