Advanced Cicerone vs. Light Beers

Very pale, light beers are the toughest party trick in blind tasting. In this video I poured five of them for Matthew, who had no idea which was which. He had to match them to an answer key using only smell and taste. Matthew and I are both Advanced Cicerones. This is a semi-blind style discrimination test where all the beers look about the same, so can you tell them apart?

The lineup

• Reissdorf Kölsch
• Van Henion Helles
• Budweiser
• Pilsner Urquell
• Van Henion Pilsner

How Matthew works through them

First, appearance is no help. If you are taking a Cicerone exam tasting you should never rely on visual cues, since every style has a color range. All five are in that 4.5 to 5% alcohol range, with clean, subtle, well balanced profiles, so there is no big bitter, sweet or boozy cue.

His first impression of one beer was that it was not bitter, so it is probably the Helles, the Kölsch or the American lager. Another showed more hop aroma and no butter, which pointed him toward German pils. He notes that bitterness ramps up over time on the palate, so he does not lock it in until he has tasted them all.

The Kölsch is the tricky one. It is the only top-fermented beer in the set, so it can show some subtle fruity ester character, but it is cold-aged like a lager, which makes it present like a Helles or an American lager. These were imported, which can change or mute that character. Matthew's first guess on one beer was Kölsch.

For the Budweiser, Matthew's gut said Bud before he even tasted it. The telltale was the mouthfeel, which was like cotton candy on your palate, light, bubbly and gone, with little malt, hop or yeast character. I teach my students that American light lagers rely on cold temperature and high carbonation for balance because they have so little bitterness, which is why they are bad when they get warm or go flat.

Then came the one that looked a bit darker, a deeper gold. Matthew reminded us not to judge on color, but his training said it was darker for a reason. He suspected Pilsner Urquell, known for triple decoction. One sniff gave him pronounced diacetyl, the buttery note that is a hallmark of Czech lagers. He locked it in.

Another beer was not bitter enough to be a pils, so he went with the most bitter one as German pils. German pils should be the most bitter beer in the set by a decent margin, while the Czech version has more malt character and residual sugar and lacks the hard water that accentuates hops in Germany. Another showed a hint of sulfur, which is a normal volatile lager byproduct that blows off quickly. It should not linger. It is a bad sign in an ale.

The verdict and the takeaways

Matthew stuck with his picks. A scientist I did tasting courses with, who runs panels all the time, says that when you change your mind in this kind of scenario, you are wrong two out of three times. I won't give away the full reveal, but I will say Matthew nailed all five.

He also pointed out something useful for the exam. Tasting side by side gives you tons of context and clues. On the Advanced Cicerone exam you do not get that. There you get one beer and a list of possible styles. Watch the video above to see the process. Try it at home with a few pale lagers. Our weekly tastings in the Beer Scholar community on Skool are built for this kind of practice. The Advanced Cicerone course goes deeper.

Matthew also runs virtual beer tastings for date nights and corporate events. If that sounds like your kind of evening, email him at [email protected].

Cheers! –Chris