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Beer Man: Pabst lived up to its Blue Ribbon slogan in this taste test

I continually receive e-mails asking me which beer is best: Miller, Bud, Coors, Pabst, etc.?

To me, that’s like asking what kind of torture I would prefer. After sampling the world’s best beers and styles, these mass-produced beers, referred to as American-style lagers, all seem cookie-cutter to me — watery, thin, and lacking in the tastes and aromas of fresh grains and hops. Rice and corn are usually added, which does nothing to improve the flavor but does make it much cheaper for the brewery to produce.

Recently, nine intrepid beer drinkers gathered at Van Dyke’s Tavern in Scandinavia, Wis., to put these beverages to a blind taste test — the beers were poured into pitchers out of sight of the tasters. I was the only home brewer of the bunch; most of the others have mass-produced favorites that they regularly drink.

The beers sampled were Miller, Miller Lite, Budweiser, Bud Light, Pabst, Coors Light, Busch Light, Point, Leinenkugel’s and Old Style. These were all American Top 10-selling beers, except for Leinie’s and Point, which were included because of their local popularity.

One result that did not surprise me was that only one person could guess which of the beers was their everyday favorite. That reflects a similar tasting I took part in years ago when only one of 20 people could pick out their usual beer of choice.

One thing almost all of the beers had in common was a strong crispness on the tongue and a very slight sweet aftertaste. Another is that they all tasted best ice cold — even a few-degrees rise in temperature brought out nasty flavors. I also noticed most of them had an unpleasant popcorn aftertaste, though that is likely because I’m used to drinking all-barley malt beers.

The big winner in our taste test was Pabst, receiving a total of 31 points out of a possible 45. Following it were Old Style (also a Pabst brand), Budweiser, Leinenkugel, Miller, Point, Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite and Busch Light.

The most surprising result to me was that the very popular Miller Lite barely avoided last place, finishing ahead of only Busch Light, described by one taster as “stomach acid in a can.”

It’s amusing to me that the winning beer comes from a company consisting of an office suite in Illinois — Pabst has no brewery and Miller makes its beers. Also of interest is Pabst’s business model. Pabst’s senior brand manager Bryan Clarke said the former owner died and left the company to a charitable trust, so whenever you drink a Pabst, most of the money goes to charities instead of shareholders.