ABSTRACT
A few years ago Consumer Reports sponsored blind taste tests in which a panel of seventeen knowledgeable tasters (ranging from brewmasters to brewing students) graded dozens of brands of beer on thirty beer qualities. 1 Among the sixteen brands of regular American lager tested (including Budweiser, Michelob, and Miller Genuine Draft), the top-ranked beer was the least expensive, Old Milwaukee, The second-ranked beer, Stroh's, was also relatively cheap. The two brands judged poorest in this class were pricey—Miller Genuine Draft ("cooked-vegetable off-flavor") and Rolling Rock ("sulfury off-flavor"). Overall, the prices of these sixteen American lagers and their taste-test quality ratings were not significantly correlated. Paying more does not necessarily get you more when it comes to beer.
