I have a friend that occasionally hosts tasting parties where we do blind tasting of 10-20 different commercial beers of a given style. We've done IPA, Pale Ales, etc. When there is a BMC variant of the style, it usually gets worked into the mix. We do tasting by numbers, write out our tasting notes, and then vote for our 3 favorites.
Without fail, the BMC variant ends up being the bottom of the pack every time on everyone's list. It's always unanimous and not just the beer snobs in the group. My wife, who until recently actually preferred BMC stuff, still ranked their 'craft' beers in last place among the choices.
So, I'm starting to wonder if there's some kind of reason behind this. Is it due to the scale of the operation? Cost-cutting? Something inherent in the brewing process?
One would think that they would have done extensive test marketing before launching the product. Maybe they figured customer loyalty would be enough? e.g. The customer regularly buys Bud, so maybe if they were feeling adventurous they'd just pick up American Ale, retch, and then go back to good ol' regular Bud?
Without fail, the BMC variant ends up being the bottom of the pack every time on everyone's list. It's always unanimous and not just the beer snobs in the group. My wife, who until recently actually preferred BMC stuff, still ranked their 'craft' beers in last place among the choices.
So, I'm starting to wonder if there's some kind of reason behind this. Is it due to the scale of the operation? Cost-cutting? Something inherent in the brewing process?
One would think that they would have done extensive test marketing before launching the product. Maybe they figured customer loyalty would be enough? e.g. The customer regularly buys Bud, so maybe if they were feeling adventurous they'd just pick up American Ale, retch, and then go back to good ol' regular Bud?