Oh yeah!!! (as "Macho Man" Randy Savage would say)

"A pint of bitter, please." This common request has been heard for decades, and will for plenty more. The panel tasted a collection of Bitters, ESB, and Amber ales, and despite some questionable looks about the combined tastings, there was little differentiation among the ales.



Ten entries came to compete, including one representative from England. Although those familiar with English brews may bristle at the representation of the entire country by Fullers' ESB alone, to be fair we included America's own questionable export, Budweiser's American Ale. Rogue had two entries, their Brutal Bitter & American Amber, along with another West Coaster, Stone's Levitation Ale. The East Coast presented the old standard, Red Hook ESB, the unknown Bitter End from Two Brothers of PA, and the green mountain state's Copper Ale from Otter Creek. Two homebrews came in to tangle with the big boys (and held their own thank you very much).



If nothing else, bitters did seem to loosen the panel's tongues, and they had plenty to say about what they tasted. A few gems were:

• Bitter End by Two Brothers: "Boring, like licking bread" Hmmm...so the win wasn't unanimous


• Budweiser American Ale received some praise: "Good, balanced, not bad," "Good, I like it!" (in the commenters' defence, it was a blind tasting). Another commented with "Mighty banana," which doesn't sound like a complement, but at that point in the tasting, it could have meant anything...


• Copper Ale:
  
  "Is this a beer?" Ouch.
  "English, need I say more?" Inaccurate, and yet not...


• Stone Levitation had the highest variance associated with it's scores, resulting in a panel that was...
  ...pleased "Hoppy! Yay! Finally, I'm home...",
  ...afraid "Fierce. The Tyra Banks of Beer",
  ...frugivorous "Holy Grapefruit, Batman!" For the record, we'll be tightening our screening process to prevent infiltration by non-Hominid tasters.

As shown below, Bitter End squeaked by the two Rogue entries to take the top spot and provide this post's title.



And for those goal-oriented folks waiting for their accolades:

• Rainbow is the biggest bitter lover (wow, that could be taken the wrong way), with an average score of 6.85. Although with one of his brews in the mix, does one have to wonder about his objectivity?
  
• Hater award is retained by Katy, who apparently does not like bitters (mean score of 4.35).
  
• Patrick's even-keel (variance of 1.67) is in contrast to Wild Man Chris' variance of 7.34 (how is that possible?).
  

Another round, please.