Love is blind: Finally, an IPA tasting that makes sense.

(Last year I wrote about this same general topic here, as pertaining to a blind taste test of Indiana beers)

Dibbs Harting may have taught me to be a beer judge, BJCP-style, but in all honesty, it's something I don't do very often. Once or twice a year is enough for me.

Effective judging in itself hardly is simple, and yet certain elements can be grasped by anyone. Axiomatic among these is the anonymity of the process. I pour a sample of a particular style, not knowing who brewed it, and I judge accordingly against the stylistic yardstick.

Just like this fellow at Paste. Kudos to the "blind judging" process, which involved objectively (gasp) considering IPAs, and not incessantly snapping selfies. It appears this group has followed this route before. Good for them. More should.

Blind-Tasting 116 of the Best American IPAs: We Have a Winner, by Jim Vorel (Paste)

The top American India pale ale has been chosen

... Yes, there were surprises on all fronts, both in the beers we loved and the beers that didn’t speak to us as we expected. That’s why we committed so fully to the blind-tasting method.

Shock and awe: "Blind taste test: Indiana's best beers might surprise."

Love it.

Just plain love it.

Oaken Barrel is one of the oldest breweries in the state of Indiana, and because of its proximity in Greenwood, south of Indianapolis on the way home, I manage to stop in a couple times a year. Everything about Oaken Barrel is first-rate, and yet any poll of expert "beer geek" opinion as to the relative merits of Indiana beer probably would exclude it.

That's because Oaken Barrel isn't chic and fashionable. It's beers aren't rated highly enough at RateAdvocate. The beers aren't shipped halfway across the country by a boutique wholesaler.

And yet, when a true blind taste test of hoppier pale ales and IPAs is organized by the Indy Star's Neal Taflinger, Oaken Barrel's dowdy, available-for-years Gnaw Bone Pale Ale is the winner.

Louisvillians, note that by "true," I mean just that.

Unless institutional bias, pre-conceived notions and built-in prejudices are stripped away, the taste test is not really blind.

I'm happy that Oaken Barrel (and the venerable Mad Anthony) get recognition normally withheld from them by the usual trend-chasing arbiters. It's also confirmation that a newbie like Daredevil can hit the quality mark right out of the box ... and that all of this goodness can be affirmed in a remotely objective measure. Imagine that.

Blind taste test: Indiana's best beers might surprise

... I know which beers get the most buzz, but brand loyalty has as much to do with sense memory, marketing and peer behavior as the product itself. I wanted to know how casual craft beer drinkers would rate Hoosier Pale Ales and India Pale Ales (IPA) in a blind tasting.