Voting, I mean. I’ve finalized today’s July 4th Beer Tasting, and whipped up this handy ballot (download pdf) for participants.
As you can see above, I’m going to be pouring 8 flights of 2 beers each. In each flight, I’ll pour an example of a red state beer and a blue state beer and ask participants to vote for their favorite. Trick is, I won’t say which is which. Each flight will be a different style of beer, starting with a Pilsener and ending on a Red Ale. In selecting beers, my main purpose was representing as many states as possible, not neccessarily beers I thought would be good competitors, or even good beers, but there are some real gems in my fridge.
15 different states are represented for eight beer styles (due to limited red state beer availability, I doubled up on Alaska):
- Pilsener: Montana (Red) vs. Washington (Blue)
- Lager: Louisiana (Red) vs. New York (Blue)
- White Beer: Colorado (Red) vs. Massachusetts (Blue)
- Saison: Florida (Red) vs. California (Blue)
- Pale Ale: Idaho (Red) vs. Hawaii (Blue)
- ESB: Wyoming (Red) vs. Wisconsin (Blue)
- IPA: Alaska (Red) vs. Pennsylvania (Blue)
- Red: Alaska (Red) vs. Oregon (Blue)
I’ll post the actual beers later, as well as the results. My friends are mostly blue-staters politically, but do their beer tastes run more to red? Time will tell … Happy Fourth!
Chipper Dave Says:
July 4th, 2008 at 7:58 pmVisit Chipper Dave
Watch out for dangling chads. Could be real nasty in a recount.
amanda Says:
July 7th, 2008 at 8:41 amVisit amanda
This was a lot of fun — thanks Dave and Sarah! I have to say, I really enjoyed a lot of the Red State beers though, with a history of loving dirty, dive bars, that should really come as no surprise. Looking forward to seeing which was which as I was too schnockered at the end to pay attention properly.
Lennon Says:
July 7th, 2008 at 11:20 pmVisit Lennon
Thanks again for hosting. I had a good time…and am totally going to rip-off the pepperoncini pork marinade idea.
Got a couple of photos, too:
http://flickr.com/photos/rcoder/sets/72157606044248486/
Andy Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 11:13 amVisit Andy
I spent the 4th with the now improperly named “trinity” in Nebraska. Bud, Coors and Miller. Possibly related, I drank very little beer over the long weekend.
Bruce Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 4:00 pmVisit Bruce
Well, I was surprised that my beer tastes swung so far to the red states (7-1) but than after seeing the states, many are pretty good beer producing regions like Alaska and Colorado. Anyways, thanks for the 24 oz. can of Bud and the ham jerky.
Dave Says:
July 10th, 2008 at 10:54 pmVisit Dave
I believe you mean Jeff Foxworthy™ brand Ham Jerky.
July 4th Beer Tasting : BS Brewing’s The Champagne of Blogs Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 7:25 pmVisit July 4th Beer Tasting : BS Brewing’s The Champagne of Blogs
[...] 2008: Red States vs. Blue States [...]