7 Beers, 6 Tasters (Part 1)

Hello World!

I was supposed to have a review for you to read on Sunday, but I ended up seeing a movie instead of going out to get a beers. I know shame on me, but "Kick-Ass" was definitely worth it. If you haven't seen it, I recommend that you do. Okay, enough of that, now onto the beer tasting.

I decided that I'd select 7 beers for tasting and have 7 testers, with myself included. Well, one of my tasters did not end up showing because and this is directly from his text "Goin home dude beat tell everyone am a pussy". Took me a few seconds to comprehend what he was texting. 6 tasters 7 beers, can't be to sad, means there is more beer for sampling.

The tasters:
Jay "I really don't like beer, because it fills me up"

Rothy "You bring it, we'll drink it"
Chris "I can have a few beers"
The Lady "I'll give it a try, but I like liquor better"
Boozer X "You had me at beer"

Dan A.K.A. Beer Dawg "Yes, I love beer"

Zywiec is a Polish Pilsner. It has a ABV. of 5.6%. The general consensus on this beer was that it was that it was light, smooth, a little sweet, and a nice bitter taste. There was a little nip in the after taste, but not bad at all. We all agreed that it had a little funk nose on it, but I think I'll contribute that to the improper storage of the beer at my local distributor. This beer I would consider to be the Budweiser of Poland. On the 1 thru 7 scale that I catch a lot of criticism for, it falls in the 3.5 to 4 range. Basically a good beer to pick up from time to time, if you want something light. I'd say its an everyday type of dinner beer. I wouldn't pair this with some strongly flavored food. Heavy foods like stews and pot roast would be the only thing I could think to pair with this beer. I did try to find a website for this beer, but they do not have one. They have a Fan Face Book page and a Wiki page, but not really worth posting.

Tyskie is a Polish Lager. It has a ABV. of 5.6%. Everyone of the tasters agreed that there was not to much difference between Zywiec and this beer. Taster Boozer X said that it had a little more going on, with a cleaner taste and a little more hint of a fruit flavor. I myself picked up a little more of a Carmel flavor then fruit. Once again it wasn't spectacular, but not a bad tasting beer in its own right. Worth a try if you want something a little different for a change. Very clean, a nice bitter, not to filling, and a good beer for a hot summer day. After adding up the totals from each of the tasters the average for this beer was a solid 4.5. Some time in the future I'll have to get my hands on some Polish Porters for everyone to try. Being Polish myself I have to say that I wasn't disappointed in the quality of these two beers, but, and there is always a "but", I kind of expected a little more. Guess I've just been ruined by have many really great beers. Once again no website. I know that there must be a Polish joke in there somewhere. A food pairing for this just like the Zywiec, heavy food like stews and pot roast.

Our next beer, wasn't a beer, but a cider. I thought I would throw this into the mix so we didn't blast our tasted buds away. Original Sin Hard Cider. ABV. of 6%. Everyone thought this was a great cider. The Lady said "I could drink this all night". Which I wouldn't suggest unless you wanted to be hammered, but to each there own. So its a plus in my book if women like it, so you might want to keep a few of these in the fridge if your entertaining some lady friends. Chris thought it was nice but a little sweet. No more then a couple of them in a night if he was drinking. It had a crisp, clean, bite into an apple taste, with a little hint of mustiness in the after taste. Nicely balanced sweetness to it. I would definitely suggest this as a nice staple for a gathering or a BBQ. Food pairing for this would be something meaty like a steak, pork chops, and spicy sausage. I would even cook with this in a marinade for the grill. Adding this to candied sweet potatoes or yams, just to give it that little extra zing. Even would venture to guess that this would be nice to add to an apple cake batter or an apple pie to give it a little extra apple flavor. Sorry kind of went off on a little tangent there about the food stuff. So after adding up the ratings for this we came out with a really strong 5.5 rating. I love the artwork for this cider. They have many vintage posters on their site. http://www.origsin.com/

Our next beer was Singha which is a Thailand Pale Lager. ABV. of 6%. Out of all the beers we tried this was the most poor performer in the group. Rothy put it simply that is was way to hoppy and that he would give it a negative million on the rating. Jay said that he needed to stop drinking after this one. It put him off. I felt that he was a little over zealous, but I did not to much care for it either. It was a little sharp, but clean. A little to hoppy for my tastes as well. It did finish up nicely, with no lingering after taste. If I had to pair it up with anything I would have to say it would work well with Satay, noodles, and pretty much any curry dish. So after I counted up the scores on this beer, it received a 2.5 rating. Which means if your hard up and its the only thing around to drink, you would. I myself would not take a trip to the beer distributor for this beer. I will say this they have a really nice website. http://www.singhabeer.com/Evening/index.html

So this will conclude the first part of the beer tasting that we did. I'll have Part 2 up in about a day or two. Enjoy and "Cheers"!