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19 years ago
Extreme Taste Test
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19 years ago
Almost? It wasn't blind, so has no credibility. People had their prejudices confirmed, is all.
It would've been much better and cheaper to simply get a couple kegs of Dublin-brewed Guinness and set up a blind tasting at the pub in England.
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19 years ago
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19 years ago
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19 years ago
That's like being almost pregnant or almost dead. It is or it isn't.
And this assuredly isn't. The most basic biases aren't even accounted for, most notably the one that makes it very, very difficult for human beings to admit they're wrong. The publican could have rigged the test so that he was serving Guinness straight from Dublin shipped in that morning to Norwich and served his normal Norwich stock in Dublin, and people would insist the Dublin stuff was better. It's human nature.
And it's usually bollocks. I've done many blind tastings with people who claim that Guinness is noticeably better than Beamish or Murphy's, or they could spot one over the other instantly. The people who make these claims always fail when faced with blind tests, and the incidences of guessing correctly are no higher than what can be accounted for in the probability of simply guessing.
-Steve
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19 years ago
agreed.
& we humans like the idea of a drink having a place it seems - eg the fairly common phenomenom of people hating the taste of wines/spirits they've brought back (which they enjoyed when on holiday - eg greek retsina & italian grappa)I don't agree with you on this though - I know that people with good well-trained palates can tell differences that my less sensitive palate can't. Similarly, I think I could tell the difference between some of the common keg stouts (Guinness tends to be roastier with a sour edge - the Cork stouts seem smoother/sweeter). cheers MikeMcG
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19 years ago
Draft (keg) Guinness in the United States is the same as in Ireland...although it is at least two weeks older, which can make a difference.
-- Lew Bryson
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19 years ago
That's been my perception, too.
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19 years ago
You've just reminded me of another funny thing about this (ahem) almost scientific exercise - despite UK being its biggest market for stout, Diageo is closing its London brewery next summer & shipping stout in from Dublin (which AFAIK it already does for all of the smallpack stuff anyway) so his discerning/deluded customers should be happy? (although if a pub landlord gave me a trip to dublin to drink beer, I'd be pretty happy already)
cheers MikeMcG