by ajoleary » Sunday Jul 22, 2007 2:03 pm
Just found this on NEWS.com.au. The must have found some of these taste testers, in some of Australia's beer bogan capitals!
The top 10 beers in Australia, as rated by a recent test by consumer advocate magazine Choice.
1. VB
2. Toohey's New
3. XXXX Gold
4. Carlton Draught
5. Carlton Mid
6. Carlton Cold
7. Toohey's Extra Dry
8. Hahn Premium Light
9. Cascade Premium Light
10. Crown Lager
Taste test rated 47 beers from around world
VB and Tooheys both rate ahead of Crown Lager
Experts and lay panel in agreement
IT'S the kind of news on brews that will have front-bar drinkers croaking a deep "I told you so" in pubs around the country: VB and Toohey's New have beaten a florid field of imported beers in a Choice magazine taste test.
Two testing panels - one of experts and another of lay drinkers - both rated our budget, blokey beers ahead of such big names as Carlsberg, Grolsch, Heineken, Tiger and Corona.
Taste test: The ultimate Aussie best beer list
The experts, who were assembled for the onerous task of tasting and rating 47 beers - out of a staggering 700-plus available locally - had New and VB tied on a score of 15.5 out of 20.
Incredibly, that also put them both well ahead of VB's golden-boy stablemate, Crown Lager, which scored a paltry 14.
The top-rated lagers were Kokanee Glacier, from Canada, and Hahn Premium, which both scored 16.5.
The big advantage the locals had was freshness, with even the Beck's imported from Germany scoring less than the stuff bottled here under licence.
VB - Australia's biggest-selling beer - would certainly have an advantage there.
It's hard for beer to go stale when it's being sold at a rate of one case every single second of the day.
Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said the tasting was done blind: the testers were given beers with no labels and asked to rate them purely on taste.
"New and VB hold their heads up well with the premium products, which is good news for the average drinker," he said.
"And the expert survey was backed up by the lay panel survey, which means that the experts weren't just in a bubble of their own."
Ryan Haynes, 23, of Gordon, has been a VB man for his entire drinking career.
"I guess I drink it out of habit. It's just what I've always drunk, but I do think Australian beers are the best in the world because drinking beer is part of our culture," he said.
"I'll occasionally have a bottle of something like Nastro Azzuro or Kronenbourg, but I always come back to the VB."