THE PROOF IS IN THE PILSNER (D34)

Could the malt beverage you choose to imbibe truely affect the economy in which you find yourself? Perhaps not, but select the right beer and it could help you package yourself as a more attractive and distinctive consumer with the side benefit of being really tasty.

It is sometimes difficult to pull this off quite the way you'd like if you live somewhere where beer varieties are few or alcohol is heavily taxed, but if you need some help, you could always consult ratebeer.com (the IMDB of beers, but without a trivia section).

One loyal reader recently sent in a number of rankings from ratebeer.com to empirically demonstrate the inferiority of Efes Pilsner:

Guiness Foreign Extra Stout!  97 out of 100! A ratebeer.com user writes: Bottle. Pours dark, dark crimson, very nearly opaque, with a 3-finger creamy and meringue-like light brown head. Long retention and blebby lacing. Aromas of toffee, raspberry, and caramel, with cream and mocha as well. The flavor is sweet toffee and burnt sugar, sugar cane, and roasty and bitter coffee in the finish. Medium carbonation, a bit prickly, with full body. NIce.

Leffe Brune! 92 out of 100! Another user writes: Aromas Frutales con final intenso a vainilla.... Color cafe intenso, obscuro con matices brillantes a la luz. Espuma abundante que perdura hasta el final Al rimer sorbo se siente una deliciosa cremosidad, quiza superior a lo esprado en una cerveza estilo abadia. Al trago la cremosidad cede para que se perciba un cierto sabor dulzon. En general es una muy buena cerveza estilo abadia, facil de tomar y sin tanta complejidad para entender.






And finally, scoring 6 out of a possible 100, and scoring better than 46% of beers of its kind, the pasha of beers, Efes Pilsen Fıçı! One user describes it as: Clear medium yellow colour with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, white head. Aroma is moderate malty, grain, hay, corn, sweet malt, vegetables, cardboard. Flavour is moderate sweet and light bitter with a average duration, sweet malt, cardboard. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft.