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WORCESTER INCORPORATED ZYMURGISTS ADVANCING REAL DRAUGHTS |
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The Wizard's first ever Swill-Off was held in conjunction with the club's 2000 summer picnic. The idea was simple - compare and contrast some of the most popular commercial beers of today.
Judging was done in a blind tasting by six different judges. AHA scroce sheets were used as a means of guiding the tasting and were used to collect comments about the indiviudal beers. The overall score is the summation of the six judge's ordinal rankings.
The Gold Medal went to Ballantine Ale, the silver medal to Moslon Canadian and the bronze went to Budweiser. It is most interesting the Gold Medal beer, Ballantine Ale, was an ale while all the other beers sampled were lagers. Was the club showing a preference for ales or was it just a better beer? After a brief discussion the judges concluded it was, in fact, the best of the lot.
Finally, our apologies to those who didn't scorce as well as they might have. Better luck next time.
Gold Medal | Silver Medal | Bronze Medal | ||||||
Brew | Ballantine Ale | Molson Canadian | Budweiser | Golden Anniversary Beer | Hamms | Utica Club | Labatts Blue Light | Old Milwaukee |
Score | 48 | 42 | 26 | 25 | 21 | 19 | 18 | 17 |
Cost/12 oz bottle | $0.75 | $1.15 | $0.83 | $0.45 | $0.39 | $0.50 | $1.20 | $0.79 |
Aroma | Slight malt and hop aroma | Slight malt aroma; no hop aroma | None | None | None | No hop aroma | None | Very low hop aroma; no malt aroma |
Appearance - color | Dark straw | Dark straw | Light straw | Dark straw | Dark straw | Straw | Light straw | Light straw |
Appearance - head | Least head retention | Best head retention - better than expected | Excellent head retention (best of them all) | Middle of the pack | Middle of the pack | Middle of the pack | Middle of the pack | Head dissipates per style |
Flavor | Strongest hop flavor of them all | Slight hop taste; slight malt sweetness | Very slight malt/hop flavor | Bitterness but no hop flavor; slight diacetyl | Very little flavor; slight sweetness; unspecified adjunct (rice/corn?) flavor | More flavor than others but a pleasant flavor | Missing | Low to no malt taste; clean with no aftertaste |
Mouthfeel | Some residual sweetness and bitterness | Nice, creamy, smooth mouthfeel | Well carbonated; not as watery as some others | Adequate - neither too thin or too full | Not very crisp | Watery over thin; carbonic bite in finish | Dry; body ok for style but lacks crispness | |
Overall Impression | Good balance | Nice balance | Dry; not as refreshing as expected |
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