Pale, Low ABV, Closely Related Styles
American Light Lager, American Lager, American Blonde Ale, International Pale Lager, Kölsch
Bud Light (US Light Lager), Budweiser (US Lager), Pabst Blue Ribbon (US Lager), Kona Big Wave (US Blonde), Corona (Intl Pale Lager), Heineken (Intl Pale Lager), Reissdorf Kolsch
American Light Lager vs American Lager: this was very hard, but after some experimenting I realized that the light lager had virtually no detectable bitterness, while the regular American lagers had a little (this was most evident using the nose plug method). Also, there was this tingly/carbonic acid thing going on with the light lager that I didn’t detect as strongly in the regular lagers.
Kona Big Wave: tons of US hop character on the nose, low perceived bitterness, but more bitter than the American lagers and light lager. Noticeably darker color (dark gold).
Heineken vs Reissdorf: malt dust/Cheerios/cereal on the nose in both with similar levels of bitterness. The bitterness in the Reissdorf was stronger and more upfront; bitterness also lingered after swallowing. The Heineken didn’t have a lot of upfront bitterness, but a similar level of lingering bitterness as Reissdorf. I detected some mint/hyssop/Chimay-type yeast character in the Heineken, where the Reissdorf led with strong notes of Vienna malt/hay/straw, especially on the nose.
Corona: similar levels of bitterness as the Heineken and most of the malt character was evident on the palate and not so much on the nose (Vienna/hay/straw). Color was similar to the Heineken and Reissdorf, which was lighter than the Kona, but darker than the American lagers.
