These were all the questions my father-in-law, husband and I were pondering on our drive from Baltimore to Cleveland this past month. My father-in-law is an avid NA beer drinker and was sure that international NA beers were the best. My husband contended that NA beers taste nothing like regular beer and I was intrigued. What to do with all of these questions??? A taste testing of course!
Once we arrived in Cleveland, we went to all the stores we could to find as many NA beers. My mother-in-law set up a blind taste test for the three of us and to add a little bit of intrigue we added in one alcoholic beer. This was an absolutely fabulous activity. We all enjoyed learning a bit about ourselves and our preconceived notions about NA beers.
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| Let's Get Started!! |
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| All the beers in their own specialty glasses courtesy of my mother-in-law! |
What followed was a surprise to all three of us! My father-in-law found out that his top two favorite beers were domestic. My husband found out that he can't tell the difference between alcoholic and NA beers. I found my new favorite light beer!
Below are the beers ranked from best to worst. These obviously do not cover all NA beers but these were the only ones we could find under short notice. We summed the individual rankings for each of the beers. The lower the score, the better the beer. For example if I ranked it 1st, my husband 3rd and my father-in-law 5th, then the score would be 9.
1. O'Doul's Amber (9 points)
WHAT??? How can O'Doul's be the favorite? This was a slap across the face for everyone. In our family, O'Doul's was thought to be one of the worst beers and it came out to be great. It was slightly sweet and had hints of caramel. It also was pretty light. I ranked it 4th and the guys 2nd and 3rd.
2. Labatt (10 points)
This one was also a surprise. It was extra bubbly and very light. This was number two on my rankings and the guys ranked it 4th.
3 Tied. Becks (11 points)
Becks is one of my father-in-law's favorite beers. He was sure that Becks was going to win the title but it got dominated by the American made beer. Becks was really sweet and had hints of caramel. It was much too sweet for my taste but they guys seemed to enjoy it.
3 Tied. O'Doul's Regular (11 points)
This was my favorite beer. It was smooth, bubbly, and honey flavored. I have to say I actually prefer drinking this over drinking normal light beers. It was delicious! I ended up taking the leftover O'Doul's Regular from the taste testing back to Baltimore and had it with dinner one night. This beer actually tastes like beer versus many of the NA beers that taste much too sweet.
After telling some of our friends about this phenomenon of us picking two O'Doul's in the top three rankings, people started coming out of the woodwork and telling us that they actually enjoy O'Doul's. We had no idea but people do drink it when they want to have beer for the taste without the effects of alcohol.
Honorary Ranking of Modelo (12 points)
We picked a light beer that we had in the fridge for the alcoholic beer. Surprisingly, it came in 5th place. My husband also failed to name the only alcoholic beer in the bunch.
4. Coors (14 points)
This was slightly less sweet than Becks and had some honey flavors. My father-in-law ranked this as his favorite beer... debunking his own thesis that international NA beers are far superior.
5. Buckler (17 points)
No one really liked this beer. It was near the bottom of the list for everyone. It was pretty bitter and had hints of caramel (seeing a theme with caramel and NA beers).
6. Kaliber (24 points)
Disgusting. Here's actually a picture of my father-in-law drinking it.
This normally is one of his favorite beers and he was disgusted. We gave the benefit of the doubt to this thinking that it might be skunked. He stated that Kaliber is a hit or miss sometimes. Some bottles of it are really good and others are bad so we might have gotten a bad bottle. Either way, I'm not risking drinking this again!
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