On the commute home, I heard this story on NPR, and it made me think of beer. How many craft beer fans can truly tell their favorite beer from another similar beer? But until there are more widespread blind taste tests with Cicerones that will have to wait.
But what really caught my attention was this end quote: “Sometimes when you debunk a myth, you realize part of you kind of liked the myth.” And that to me, is almost more interesting than any blind taste test could be because it really gets to the core of how we relate to the beer we are drinking.
The taste of the beer is one element of our enjoyment but it is tied up with many other emotions. Did you have the beer after a long, stressful day of work? Do you know and like the brewer? Is it rated highly by online beer “experts”?
When you strip all of those things away and just drink your beer in a soundproof white walled room with no Untappd on your phone and your buddy outside, you may get a truer impression of the beer but even then you are still bringing your pre-conceived notions to the table.
You can’t escape using your own personal judgements to review a beer. And whatever back story is stuck in your mind will take a major force to dislodge. Just think how much news had to leak out before people turned against Lance Armstrong. And that is because we want to believe the story. Be it a myth or not.
And with craft beer being so subjective, it can be even harder to make a well-loved beer lose a grade. When Goose Island was bought by Anheuser-Busch, Bourbon County Stout could have taken a hit. But the lowest rated variant of BCS that I have seen is 94 out of 100. Hardly a myth being busted.
Honestly, I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Loyalty is good but a dollop of realism couldn’t hurt to hold breweries more accountable for their beers.