Mindless drinking: The label can fool you

Your beer choiceThe authors of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think also have a little bit to say about mindless drinking – in this case wine. And it seems like the results of one study could be relevant to beer.

The recent story:

Forty-one diners at the Spice Box restaurant in Urbana, Illinois were given a free glass of Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany a $24 prix-fixe French meal. Half the bottles claimed to be from Noah’s Winery in California. The labels on the other half claimed to be from Noah’s Winery in North Dakota. In both cases, the wine was an inexpensive Charles Shaw wine.

Those drinking what they thought was California wine, rated the wine and food as tasting better, and ate 11% more of their food. They were also more likely to make return reservations.

It comes down to expectations. If you think a wine will taste good, it will taste better than if you think it will taste bad. People didn’t believe North Dakota wine would taste good, so it had a double curse – it hurt both the wine and the entire meal. “Wine labels can throw both a halo or a shadow over the entire dining experience,” according to Cornell Professor Brian Wansink (Ph.D.)

Wansink is Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, where they do all sorts of these fun studies, including one that shows which glass shapes make us drink too much.

Think this couldn’t happen with beer?

In 1968 J. Douglas McConnell had consumers evaluate the quality of three bottles of beer over two months. Each bottle contained the same brand but drinkers were told there were three different ones priced at 99 cents, $1.20 and $1.30 per six-pack (the good old days). After repeated taste tests, consumers evaluated the highest-price brand to be of highest quality by a wide margin.

In a similar study one brand of beer was falsely labeled as four different brands, but the researches found that “all the subjects believed that the brands were different and that they could tell the difference between them.” Additionally most of the 250 participants “felt that at least one of the four brands was not fit for human consumption.”

[Both studies are cited in The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis , which is about as light-hearted a read as the title would imply.]

That research is from the 1960s and ’70s reflect the beer monoculture that prevailed when you could pick up a case of Stroh returnables for $1.99. These days we’ve got a tad more choices, but I’d still suggest you give it a little thought before grabbing your next six-pack or 750ml bottle.

More on the power of the label.

The Session #7: The Brew Zoo

The SessionRick Lyke has chosen the theme for the seventh round of The Session in September. In short, Welcome to the Brew Zoo.

Have you ever noticed how many animals show up on beer labels? We have lions and tigers and bears, plus various birds, reptiles, fish, assorted domesticated and wild animals, plus a few mythical creatures. For whatever reason brewers have a tradition of branding their beers using everything from pets to predators. The Brew Zoo will celebrate these lagers and ales.

What’s the over/under on Moose Drool Brown?

Beer visits the American Cheese Society

Cheese, beer and cheese, and more cheese today in the Boston Globe.

The paper reports on the 24th annual American Cheese Society conference in Burlington, Vt. You may have to register to read the stories, and the main story doesn’t seem to be online, but here goes:

– Some say beer beats wine in this pairs competition. Ann Cortissoz reports on a presentation by Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver. Matt Jennings, co-owner of Farmstead cheese shop and La Laiterie gastropub in Providence, says: “It (beer and cheese) is the only way to go. It’s a much more natural fit.”

I also learned that a “Cheese Wars” clip from The American Brew – one of the outtakes I think, I don’t have the DVD with me – is on YouTube:

– What’s on cheesemakers’ minds. A quick looks at issues like values, mentorship and growth. What other up-and-coming artisan product might that be relevant to?

“So much is done by touch, feel, and sight,” said Rachel Cohen, a distributor for Cowgril Creamery in California. “You can’t get it from a book.”

Don’t drink the Mild Kool-Aid

Brace yourself now that Hobsons Mild, at 3.2% a session beer if there ever was one, has won Champion Beer of Britain.

We’ll be reading about how great Milds are. Same with session beers. And so on.

Take it all with a grain of salt. This is not a Turning Point. It will not change what we drink in America one bit.

The American beer revolution has been powered by what Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey Brewing fondly calls flavor-driven beers. They don’t have to be 12% abv, but generally they are stronger than 3.2%.

Consider these top sellers: Samuel Adams Boston Lager (4.9% abv), Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (5.6%), Blue Moon Belgian White (5.4%), and New Belgium Fat Tire (5.3%).

Not extreme, not low alcohol. Seems to be working pretty well.

Hard as it is, I’ll stop there.

The Session #6 roundup now available

The SessionGreg Clow has posted his roundup for The Session #6 (fruit beers for those who have forgotten).

Looks like we’re closing in on three dozen contributors, which could soon make the bloggers involved a buying force that the bigger brewers will have to sit up and pay attention to. (OK, scratch that, silly idea.)

Look for Rick Lyke’s upcoming announcement of the theme for Session #7. If he sticks with the idea he was thinking about then it’s one we all can (and should) have fun with.