What’s the difference between lagers? The label, apparently

A trial, conducted in Portland, OR, USA and recently reported under the title “Hide the Label, Hide the Difference?” suggested that, when tasting blind, beer drinkers were unable to distinguish between three different well-known European lager brands.

A total of 138 tasters, aged 21 to 70, took part in the trial which used standard triangular taste tests involving Budějovický Budvar (sold in the U.S. as Czechvar), Heineken and Stella Artois.

The authors concluded that consumer loyalty to specific brands is thus unlikely to be due to the sensory properties of the beers themselves, a more likely explanation for such loyalty being that product differentiation in the market-place primarily reflected marketing efforts by breweries and/or packaging differences between products.

The research was published as Working Paper #165 by the American Association of Wine Economists, August 2014.