Beer Champions League night 1 results

April 14th, 2005

Bottle tops from the Beer Champions LeagueTuesday night saw the first round of the Beers Champions League, my project to determine which is the finest bottled lager (see here). With football, beers and intense statistical analysis colliding in an orgy of self-indulgent maleness, what could possibly go wrong?

Lessons learned

  • It’s easy to distinguish between flavours of two beers but it’s much harder than you think to objectively rate one as better or worse than the other. Another way of saying this is that brand perception arguably counts for more than taste.
  • Don’t feed the participants gum-meltingly hot, palette destroying pepperoni pizza prior to taste-offs.
  • Prepare for some wastage. Drinking glasses dry is a bad idea and will result in enthusiasm evaporating as bloat sets in.
  • Two bottles is enough for at least 6, if not 7 participants. You might as well get this many friends around, as it won’t cost you any extra beer

Results

Beers were tested blind with identities revealed only after the results were in. Groups were randomly drawn with one seed* per group. Win=3pts; draw=1pt. Top 2 beers in each group qualify for the final.

Group A

  Stef Dave Lee Rob Dan total
Heineken* 9 1 9 3 7 29
Chang 6 9 2 7 3 27
Singha 1 2 4 0 7 14
Oranjeboom 1 4 1 7 0 13

Group B

  Stef Dave Lee Rob Dan total
Löwenbräu 9 5 9 6 3 32
Kronenbourg* 3 5 3 6 9 26
Tiger 6 5 6 3 0 20
Kirin 0 0 0 3 6 9

Group C

  Stef Dave Lee Rob Dan total
Becks* 1 4 6 6 9 26
Rolling Rock 7 9 3 3 0 22**
Tsingtao 3 1 9 3 6 22**
Cisk 4 2 0 6 3 15

**Rolling Rock defeated Tsingtao in a penalty drink-off.

Group D

  Stef Dave Lee Rob Dan total
Nastro 7 5 6 6 4 28
Budvar* 5 4 6 6 2 23
Budweiser 1 2 6 0 9 18
Red Stripe 2 4 0 6 1 13

BeersSo there it is. All the seeds qualified, although the unseeded Löwenbräu rated most highly of all. Sighs of relief all-round as Budweiser failed to qualify, but frowns at Tiger’s failure to get through and Kirin’s poor performance as lowest scoring beer overall.

Round 2: Tuesday 3 May. Come on!!!

2 Responses to “Beer Champions League night 1 results”

  1. Robotperson » Blog Archive » Beer Champions League night 2 results Says:

    […] If you don’t know the story, see here for more on the Beer Champions League. […]

  2. Robotperson » Blog Archive » Beer Champions League Final Says:

    [markup=][…] Wednesday night saw the momentous completion of my project to find the best bottled lager. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a Beer Champions League™ 2005 Champion. […]

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