Constructing a Binary Beer Relation

If preferences are transitive (and how could they NOT be?), then the result of all pairwise comparisons of a set of alternatives should return a (possibly weak) preference order over those alternatives.

So....I bought the following four low carb beers:

1. Amstel Light
2. Aspen Edge
3. Michelob Ultra
4. Rolling Rock Green Light

First, the tale of the tape:
1. Amstel Light 5 g carbs, 95 calories, 3.5% alch
2. Aspen Edge 2.6 g carbs, 94 calories, 4.13% alch
3. Michelob Ultra 2.6 g carbs, 95 calories, 4.2% alch
4. Rolling Rock Green Light 2.6, 91.4 calories, 4% alch

Then, the results, from worst to first....

4. Green Light--Nearly undrinkable. This is awful. Reminds me of the joke: guy sent his beer to a chemist to be analyzed. Letter comes back from the chemist: "I'm sorry; your horse has a serious kidney infection."

3. Michelob Ultra--Okay. Qualitatively different from the Rock. If you want to drink a low carb beer, this works.

Tied 1-2. Aspen Edge--Better than okay. In fact, surprisingly good. Nice color, reminded me of beer.

Tied 1-2. Amstel Light--Again, tasted just fine. Amstel is what I often drink if I am having more than one. So I threw it in as a ringer. It is not really a low carb beer, of course. Further, the taste test was blind, and was conducted over a period of a week (there are six pairs in the "four choose two" combinations problem)

So, if you care about carbs....I would recommend Aspen Light. It has about half the carbs of Amstel, and nearly 20% more alchohol. Amstel and Aspen Light are NOT indistinguishable; they taste fairly different, in fact. I just could not say that I liked one better than the other.

I was surprised at the outcome. I thought I liked Mich Ultra. But the blind thing doesn't lie.

Finally: it is surprising how good a real beer tastes if you have been drinking this low carb stuff. So, conduct your own taste test on the low carb beers, and then have a pitcher of Anchor Steam and a deep dish pizza to celebrate your scientific contribution.