Customer Reviews

The Beer Trials

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I'm surprised it's taken so long for somebody to do a book like "The Beer Trials". It's the mainstream beer ratings guide that absolutely every beer drinker should own -- shockingly, the only book of its kind on the market.

Basically, the book rates and reviews the vast majority of beers (micro & macro) that you'd see at a pub or in the grocery/liquor store. The reviews are clever and engaging, and the ratings are rigorous. The authors aren't afraid to bring overrated mass market beers (e.g. Guinness, Heineken, Corona) down to size, but they also give high ratings to some surprisingly cheap beers (Kirin and even the lowly Steel Reserve). Mexican beers generally get slammed, as do many of the English ales. I think this is justified. I also agree with the authors' complaint that a lot of European samples are skunked/lightstruck on the hop across the pond, which is an important and underdiscussed point in the beer world.

The authors' tastes veer toward (1) classic styles of German pilsner (plus great US examples of the style, e.g. Victory Prima Pils); (2) Bavarian wheat beer (Ayinger, Aventinus); (3) complex Belgian ales (Rochefort, Chimay, Fin du Monde); and (4) balanced but bitter/hoppy American west coast craft brews (Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, Racer 5 IPA). Basically, they value balance (meaning plenty of bitterness to go along with malt character) and complexity (often meaning plenty of alcohol). The lead author is from Portland, and given the fact that the US west coast is the most exciting beer region in the world right now, the pro-Cali/Oregon slant is justifiable. But they also give props to Sam Adams, Dogfish Head, Goose Island, and other midwest and east coast beers.

My only real complaint is that Southern European beer (Spain, Italy, France) is pretty much ignored. These aren't the most noble beer regions, but there's some worthwhile stuff in the clean pale lager style coming from southern Europe. I'd also like to see more from Scandinavia (BT just covers Carlsberg), I hope to see more from Seamus Campbell, he seems like an undiscovered talent in the beer writing world (beer's next Michael Jackson?), and the collaboration with Robin Goldstein (Wine Trials author/Wine Spectator Award of Excellence hoaxster) seems to have worked well.

If you read and liked The Wine Trials (as I did), you'll love the consumer-advocate slant here, too. There's a beer experiment in the Wine Trials mold, where the authors show that people can't tell apart common brands of European mass market lager, showing that brand loyalty in that segment is largely due to marketing, not taste.

Tthe opening sections on beer styles, flavors, and regions are very helpful, especially for beer amateurs.

In short, what The Wine Trials did for cheap wine, The Beer Trials does for the entire range of beer: it's a great read and a necessary beer guide.

So many beers, so little time. I'm reading this side by side with 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die, but that book, a thirst-provoking, full color specimen of beer porn, is so bulky a reader could injure his wrist just picking it up; by contrast, THE BEER TRIALS is a straight-up consumer guide, covering 250 craft beers and industrial light lagers in alphabetical order, and rating them on a scale of 1 to 10. It's small enough to pop into your reusable shopping bag on the way to the liquor store (or supermarket, if you don't live in a state that still enforces blue laws).

Part one of the book covers beer terminology, appreciation, and styles (eleven broad styles, from amber lagers to wheat beers); part two briefly explains the methodology of the fifteen-member blind taste test panel, price categories, and rating system before getting to the good stuff: the reviews. These often made me laugh, especially when the editors tear into deserving targets, like Budweiser ("all the alcohol of beer with none of those pesky beer flavors") and Corona Light ("'Overcarbonated water,' opined one taster, and another was moved to imagine beer-flavored ChapStick"). The reviews are short and snappy and will hip you to many beer styles and brands you may have hesitated to try until reading about them. The simple black-and-white photos do their job and the editors even offer brief critiques of each label's design: the beer bottle (or can) as aesthetic object.

This is a gret book and I have loved reading it. It's a valuable reference and it will challenge your perceptions on certain beers - which is good. For instance, I agree that the Guinness Draught with the widget does taste a bit watery and I understand the rating of a 5. I still love to drink it and it's better in a pub.

I have two major criticisms that I hope will be addressed in a revised edition

1 - leave the mass market beers alone except for those that are mainstream drinking. Miller High Life, Miller Lite, Coors Light, Bud and Bud Light and even PBR are mainstream beers that deserve taste comparison. Miller Chill and all the wierd step children of mass produced beer do not need a mention. No one drinks them.

2 - How about giving the Southern breweries a little love? The book totally ignores some great Southern breweries that are making a name. To wit.... Terrapin Brewing (Athens, GA), Highland Brewing (Asheville, NC), Yazoo Brewing (Nashville, TN), Sweetwater Brewing (Atlanta, GA) and quite a few more. If Asheville is the craft beer capital of the South - why no Asheville breweries? I understand that Seamus is from Oregon and the Pacific West - so the bias for those beers is there. But please..if your goal is to expose beer drinkers to the good stuff out there include some of the Southern breweries.

Blind Tasting is the premise behind "The Beer Trials." The first 60 pages of the 312 page book describe the theory and the process behind the book. The second section offers a B&W photo of each beer accompanied by text describing the brewery, the taste and aroma of each beer, and the design of the bottle and label. Occasionally the author injects his own opinion on the beer and there can be a disconnect with the overall rating, but it's still enjoyable to read.

"Selling you beer" is the title of Chapter 1. The 1964 experiments of Ralph Allison and Kenneth Uhl from
Carling Beer are described, which, in a nutshell, concluded that, "product distinctions...arose primarily through receptiveness to the various firm's marketing efforts rather than through perceived physical product differences." The authors of "The Beer Trials" try to further this research. The attempted "to test whether regular beer drinkers in the United States could distinguish between major brands of similarly styled European pale lager." The result: "Tasters performed no better than chance at identifying two identical beers." This same experiment was repeated in Bavaria and college students there performed "dramatically" better in identifying the major Munich brands. Further, "most of the subjects...ranked their favorite brand (usually Augustiner) as the best beer in the blind tasting." During our Starkbierfest trip in March 2010, 12 of us conducted a blind taste of these same Munich beers on day 1 of our trip with similar results.

The authors chose 250 beers to review. Each beer chosen had to be available in at least 12 states and about half were "large production" and roughly a 1/3 from outside the US and Canada. Each beer was tasted by a rotating panel of 3-6 tasters with 3-9 beers per flight and of the same style when possible.

Of course I don't agree with some of the opinions, If you want to entertaining, quick read about beer, then you will enjoy this book. The fun is sharing this with your friends and debating the ratings while enjoying your favorite beer together!

I am a beer enthusiast (with beer snob tendencies). Actually, I appreciate the diversity of beer, and since the same beers are seemingly offered at every supermarket and restaurant, I only buy them if there is no other option. When there are options, I like to explore the beer frontier. That's why I loved this book, it has a diverse selection of beer reviews.
I like to compare beers and talk about them with my friends. This inevitably leads to beer ratings. This book does a thoughtful job of reviewing beers. Just because a beer is very hoppy or hard to find does not necessarily make that beer a great one. The problem with most beer ratings that I've encountered (magazines and online) are mere showcases for the reviewers to brag about how they've discovered some intense obscure beer. This book provides the only legitimate process for rating beer: blind taste tests.
Incidentally, most wine ratings are meaningless because the wines are reviewed with full knowledge of the wine's identity. There are more and more studies showing a correlation between appreciation of wine and the price and/or reputation of the wine.

This book has something to offer for everyone. Whether you're just getting into beer, or a longtime drinker, looking to expand your beer knowledge, this book is for you. Most drinking books are pretty predictable, the more expensive, the more they recommend it. This book has some surprising finds.

I'm a big beer drinker and brewer. I've probably tried nearly beer in this book, at some time or another. I would say 90% of their reviews are spot on. This is basically beer 201. I appreciate that they take the time to explain some of the beer tasting terms, before plunging into the reviews. The text itself is very short, probably under 100 pages, prior to the beer reviews. What's not surprising is that Bud and Coors are rated quite low. What is surprising is that Heineken and other popular 'premium' beers are also rated about the same.

I'd recommend dragging this book along on your next beer purchase. The book proves the point that you don't have to spend a lot to get some half decent brews. It is a beer buyers' guide, not bible, by any means. There's a lot of over usage of beer terminology that is just silly to most of us. For example they keep describing beer as roasty and corn flavored. Can't say what they mean by roasty and definitely cannot say I've ever tasted corn in my beer, even bad beer. The reviews were much better than the actual written text. A shocker for me. A very good refresher course for anyone who is interested in actually enjoying beer, not just pouring it down their neck.

It's easy to get ticked off at somebody else's reviews (of beer, as well as of books). Rochefort 8 scores only 6 out of 10! How dare they! But if you have the maturity to deal with different opinions, then this book is pretty good. The beers are rated to style, although the pale lagers still generally score lower than the Belgians. The reviews are fairly brief and unpretentious (no "quaffable without being transcendent"). I actually think the bottle design reviews are even better -- Bud Light "screams Nike focus group reject" -- although the accompanying black and white photos are a drawback here.