Maybe you've seen the Miller Lite commercials, or the World Beer Cup label on the side of a Miller Lite case. I write of the commercials that boast Miller Lite's repeated victories in the category of "Best American-Style Light Lager" at the World Beer Cup, and show Miller brewers raising banners commemorating these awards in the brewery. This raised some eyebrows in my circle, because from repeated taste tests, we've determined that Miller Lite sucks.
Another beer that has apparently won awards at the World Beer Cup is J.W. Dundee's Honey Brown. This is a cheap beer that doesn't taste like honey. It's really not too good at all, in fact. I would go as far as to say that it sucks. And yet, it won "Best Honey-Flavored Beer" or something like that at the WBC.
Why do these sucky beers win awards? There is at least one better light lager than Miller Lite I can think of: Sam Adams Light. In fact, the only light beer worse than ML that comes to mind is Beck's Premier Light, which tastes a little something like club soda, except the flavor is less robust than that clean, smooth sodium-like flavor of club soda. A better honey beer than Honey Brown is Leinkugel's Honey Weiss.
Conclusion: the World Beer Cup gives phony awards for marketing/propagandizing purposes, and is likely staged by friends of the colossal Miller Brewing Company.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I like this post. I have some insight on this I'd like to share. The World Beer Cup is a real and very serious competition, with a few caveats. There are 85 categories of beer listed (far more than there are styles of beer a professed beer snob like I could name) in which brewers can enter their beers in competition. If you look through the winner's list nearly 80/85 categories have all or 2/3 winners that are legitimately good beer. I believe what the World Beer Cup does is create categories with stipulations that only brewers that brew above a certain volume per year can enter in order to attract Miller Brewing Company, etc as sponsors. This allows them to maintain sponsorship and award shitty beer, but to also allow serious competition amongst really great brew. Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss won the gold for "American-style Wheat Beer." Personally, I would have entered it in "Specialty Wheat Beer" but that is just me.
I shared this comments with you over instant message, but I feel the world could benefit from them as well. (http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/274673)
I found a thread discussing the World Beer Cup at length. Below are some highlights:
"how retarded is it that huge beer companies tout the fact that they win these ‘worldwide beer competitions’? I mean, I’ve drank Miller Lite on several occasions and last I checked, the taste of the stuff hasn’t changed much from the days of the ‘great taste/less filling’ ads. So what makes these ‘worldwide beer competitions’ suddenly decide that this year’s batch of Miller Lite is so much better than previous editions?"
Also, in looking over the results, they have 85 categories. That's so many that everyone can be a winner of something, particularly if they tailor the categories it to meet the needs of large sponsors.
In addition. One of the runners up in a category miller took gold for was king cobra
Thank you both for the insights. It's good to know that the World Beer Cup is legit. It's funny that King Cobra was involved. Are we soon to see that WBC gold shield on the side of a 40? It occurs to me that I've seen Miller Lite in 40s.
I'm suggesting a few other beer categories, and some nominees:
1) Best Yuppie Beer
Nominees: Corona, Heineken, Budweiser Select
2) Most Bong-able Beer
Nominees: Natural Light, Busch Light, Milwaukee's Best Light
3) Coldest-Tasting Beer in the World
Nominees: Coors Light, Busch Ice, Molson XXX
4) Best Post-Workout Beer
Nominees: Michelob Ultra, GatorBeer, vitaminbeer
5) Best NASCAR Beer
Nominees: Budweiser, Old Milwaukee, Pabst Blue Ribbon
I would like to add a category
Most Hipster Beer
Gold: Pabst Blue Ribbon
Silver: No entry
Bronze: No entry
I also would like to add a catagory:
Most consumed by High School Students.
Gold: Ice House
Silver: Red Dog
Bronze: Zima (honorable mention; though not a beer)
Post a Comment