Blind as a Bat – does knowing what you’re drinking matter?
It’s not often that you have to queue at a bar for glassware. At Edinburgh’s Hanging Bat last week, such was the success of an event they were hosting that I had to place my order and wait patiently for the dishwasher to complete its load – such was the turnover of third-pint glasses at the bar (we became part of the problem later, as the picture above attests). The wait was only a couple of minutes though, so it gave me a chance to peruse the beer board – as it was this that had caused the shortage. The Hanging Bat were running a night which has become increasingly more prevalent these days, revolving around the concept of blind tasting. Following on from events like the Bow’s IPA and Dark Beer Challenges, Lothian Rd’s beer centrepiece put on something similar but over the course of a single evening – every single tap they owned (even the gravity dispense) was pouring beer listed only by style, abv and price.
Monday's Draught List pic.twitter.com/woM8aei6mA
— The Bat Taps (@TheBatTaps) May 18, 2015
As befits their standing, the Bat attempted to get as many new beers in the mystery lineup as they could, whilst also ensuring they were of a high standard that people wouldn’t object to not knowing what they were paying for. This raises the first interesting premise – the fact that the multiple drinkers who turned out on a Monday evening implicitly trusted the Bat to deliver amazing beer. They would, of course – it’s that kind of place – but there must have been a temptation to slip something more common in (such as back in our podcast days when a certain BeerCaster added Special Brew to a blind barley wine tasting)*
*And a certain other BeerCaster not only didn’t realise but declared it to be pretty good.
The second fascinating thing about the event was what it says about the people I do my drinking with (I’m not going to extrapolate too far into the ‘beer drinking mainstream’ – but more and more people are getting into our discerning beer fan bracket these days). We’ll pretty much take a punt on anything. If it’s served in a great bar that you trust – it doesn’t really matter that you don’t know who brews the beer. And this is the fact that I took home from the night. It levels everything off; the work of the brewer isn’t appreciated any less – more so, in fact – but not knowing who mashed in or kegged up matters a lot less than people actually realise.
I guess Good Beer is Good Beer. But there is a flipside to that; if you curate a beer list and pluck new and amazing beers out from various conditioning tanks or whisky barrels, and then put them on the bar behind an anonymised beer board – does its impact reduce? To us, not really. But if you put something that unique on without naming it, does it become less important? We’re verging into the craft tree falling in the woods a bit here, but whilst I was at the bar getting the occasional round of thirds, I overheard plenty of people looking at the board in the photo above and asking for “an IPA please”.
That’s not a problem, of course – maybe it’s more of a comment on the fractured – and let’s face it, beer fans – impenetrable mountain of beer styles that exist within our bubble. Those three letters are our modern crutch. A very lovely crutch, of course – as it turned out, that mystery IPA was the brand new Salopian Bulletproof – and it was great, so hopefully those who made a quick bar-based judgement left happy, once they had that all-important tentative first sip.
I guess the bottom line then is that these kind of blind-tasting events are so fascinating because they are interesting to different people for many different reasons. Even around our table, some were straight out trying to guess what the beers were; trying to see if their skills of analysis or recognition were up to the task. Others were operating slightly further out in beery orbit, just attempting to work out the breweries involved, from signature yeast character or other distinctive tells. There was also a fair bit of discussion as to what particular style was best suited to the blind-test – which made you look at it differently, see the style in a new light – and which disappointed.
Finally, there were those who simply noted which was the best beer they had on the night (which for me was either the marzen or the framboise, which turned out to be a Camden/Cloudwater collaboration and a beer from Six°North). Not that I knew this at the time, of course. When you remove any knowledge of what beer you are drinking, it removes the considerable influence that conveys. The subjective becomes objective.
And in my defence, Special Brew is under-rated…
15 Comments
Robin Felton
May 26, 2015I’m afraid that I like to know what I’m drinking! Our annual December trip to Edinburgh usually coincides with a similar event at the Bow Bar and I’m afraid that, although it’s one of my favourite bars, they get very little of our custom that weekend. I also like the Hanging Bat but I’d be likely to walk straight back out if one of these events was on. Fortunately there is so much choice in Edinburgh that I can always find somewhere to spend my beer money! If I’m going to a blind tasting I like it to be my decision and at a specially arranged event and not something that takes a whole bar out of commission for the duration of the event.
Richard
May 26, 2015That’s really interesting Robin – so even if you know that you’ll find out in a couple of days (the Hanging Bat published the revealed tap list later), it would still put you off from drinking there if you didn’t know at that moment? So you can’t fully appreciate a beer if you don’t know what it is?
Robin Felton
May 26, 2015I’m afraid so! In the same way that if I go into a restaurant for a meal I expect to be given a menu to choose from!
Richard
May 26, 2015Now there’s an analogy! I take your point. I guess playing devil’s advocate I’d say restaurant menus effectively list the equivalent of beer style – i.e. steak and kidney pie equates to brown ale, but only because they can’t list WHO made the steak pie as it was presumably the kitchen next to where you are sitting. Interesting stuff, though…
Tom Hogg
May 26, 2015“If I’m going to a blind tasting I like it to be my decision and at a specially arranged event…” Errr… 😉
All very interesting though, since I’m pretty certain that all of us will admit to a bit of pump-clip prejudice based on what we have drunk before from the same brewer.
Robin Felton
May 26, 2015And of course there are beers that I just do not like so why would I want to run the risk of wasting time and money on getting one of those?
Jimmy
May 26, 2015I really enjoy these blind tasting events. I generally don’t care what I’m drinking these days anyway (stopped logging beers a year ago) as long as it’s well made, and I think you need to trust your bar enough to go with their selection. If you don’t then maybe you are in the wrong bar.
Then again I usually don’t even choose my own beers. Rather let the bartender do it for me, as they should know what the best beers are at any given time. If they don’t (or look at you in a confused manner) you are again probably in the wrong bar.
From what I heard from the Hanging Bat staff no one had problems with the blind aspect of the tap list (and that included all the randoms walking in from the street without realising the event was on).
Also check out Aizle; an Edinburgh restaurant without a menu, just a list of ingredients.
Graham
May 26, 2015I’m with Robin on this
John M. Priddy
May 26, 2015Hard to attach a taste to a name and get that flavor again when the name comes out hours or days after the taste. Want to be able to attach my 5-8usd to a repeatable experience.
John M. Priddy
May 26, 2015Good way though to determine if your palate is as descriminating as you thought it was… can I tell a west coast IPA from a pale with out a program?
Chris
May 26, 2015Interesting analogy with the menu.. I know a few restaurants that don’t give you a menu, or give you a Hobsons Choice of one.. That said, we gave style and abv, which is as good as a restaurant menu. Although you might see ‘fries’ on the menu of three restaurants, there is a good chance all three will make very different fries. Mao really, even though you know what ‘fries’ are, if you’re eating somewhere you’ve never eaten before, you are in effect ordering blind, to a certain extent.
The reason we did this on a Monday and for one night only was for exactly that reason though, we appreciate that some people don’t want a lucky dip beer board. They want to know what they’re drinking.
Of course, we filled this board with either new beers or one offs, meaning there would be little or no opportunity for repeatable experiences of those beers. That for us made it more interesting. We’ll do it again, my plan is to out the most outrageous beer board up each year. That’s more for my own enjoyment than anyone else’s mind you.
Tomi
May 27, 2015I will have to defend the event.
I like numbers and statistics so it is not a surprise I rate and log my beers. I want to know what I am drinking and almost always take something new to get a new item to my list. However, I still found this blind board very fascinating (and went through almost the whole list). I see it as challenging myself, my palate and my prejudices. This was the first such an event for me, and as new things usually are, it was in a way teaching experience. I will join if/when it happens again. But not too often.
And to people who are worried of spending their money on bad beers without knowing it – I would not take an expensive pint of unknown beer either. But that is why they have thirds (and why they ran out of glassware). As a beer geek I am also used to ordering something new as I try to do it every time I order a beer. Yes, you can trust that certain brewers produce quality brews to some extent but still nowadays they experiment a lot and you get weird and “bad” stuff even from known brewers. And it is part of tasting beers. Your steak is not always perfect either. Beers you can still taste before buying.
Richard
May 27, 2015Tomi – I didn’t see you, otherwise I’d have said hello! That’s a good point about the tasters – I guess it does mitigate buying a beer that you don’t like from a blind board, although it would spoil the ‘surprise’ to some extent 😉
John M. Priddy
May 27, 2015It’s a great idea – I’d like the challenge to my palate to know if I could truely identify differences in the blind…
Tomi
May 29, 2015Richard, next time! And I know – I do not do tasters in general. Third of a pint is a perfect taster 🙂