KOTBR #26 - The Retro Beer Challenge Round One (Mike's Review)

Last night four of the six Knights of the Beer Roundtable converged at Indianapolis' legendary Melody Inn for round one of a different kind of beer tasting - a tasting of the common beer heavy hitters. We did this tasting blind, because this is a contest. Over the course of the next couple months we'll be reviewing all the "regular" beer we can get our hands on, in a tournament bracket sort of format to find out which readily available beer lives up to the true title of Blue Ribbon winner - who is the real King of Beers?

All the beers were served cold, in clear plastic cups.

In cup "A" we had a lager, with a clear, lemonade-like appearance, and a bit of lacing. It had a sweet nose, and a extremely light and agreeable taste, with hints of rubber (I actually get this with a lot of light beers and don't consider it a bad thing - I'm not sure what it is I'm picking up, but I suspect it's a characteristic of the malt). Not a bad start to the night. A perfectly reasonable beer. 2.0 points.

In cup "B" we had a beer that looked exactly like the first, but with a slightly "off" nose that reminded me of Fat Tire. It tasted pretty much exactly like cup "A", but the nose caused a slight deduction in points. I gave this one 1.75 points.

Cup "C" was a different beast than the first two. A bar-room-floor-like nose gave way to a flavor not too much unlike the others. But this beer seemed to have more "front" to it, and was slightly bitter. Not IPA bitter, just a hint. I gave it 1.0 points.

After drinking all three we reweighed the ratings, giving 3 points to our favorite, 2 to our second, and 1 to our least favorite. Here's my final rankings:

Cup A - 3 points
Cup B - 2 points
Cup C - 1 point

All in all, the beers weren't nearly as horrible as we expected. We're not revealing the beers just yet - that will come with the final Knight's review. But in the meantime, you're welcome to take guesses. Stay tuned...

If we have any readers that can get us some Yuengling ... please drop us an email or leave a comment. It's my understanding that Yuengling is one of the cheap beers of choice on the east coast. If you have any other suggestions for the Retro Beer Challenge, please leave a comment. Thanks.