Why do some bars call last call early, and why don’t they just do another round if people are still in the bar? I’m a paying customer, don’t they want my money?

First, yes we want your money – that’s the only reason that we open our doors everyday. However, maybe we call last call because of the type of liquor license we have. Or maybe we call last call because things are rowdy and no one needs to drink more, or maybe we call last call because it’s getting late, or maybe we call last call because it’s been a long hard night and we are just done. It doesn’t matter the reason behind calling last call, the important thing to remember is last call is last call. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve spent, who your friends are, or that you know the owner – when last call has been called, then you can order one more drink and then are you done drinking at this establishment. If it isn’t 2:30, go to another bar that does last call later. That’s how it works.

You only have Coors Light on draft, I only drink Bud in a bottle. Now I have to go someplace else.

You are welcome to go anywhere you want and certainly if the only thing you drink in this world is Budweiser in a bottle and I don’t have it, I find it completely legitimate for you to spend your money at a location that carries what you want. On the other hand, it’s a sad state of affairs that you will not branch out of your box. And even more sad is that I am positive in a blind taste test that you couldn’t taste the difference between Coors Light and Budweiser. I have met beer cicerones that couldn’t taste the difference (not that I think this is a particularly interesting topic to a cicerone). I have met third level sommeliers that will try Three Buck Chuck, but you aren’t willing to go from one yellow swill to a different yellow swill because you are so positive the flavor of it will be so despicable that you won’t be able to palette it? Ridiculous.

The biggest beer snobs are always domestic yellow-beer drinkers. I assure you that you can’t taste the difference, I know this as I spent one long winter working a ski area bar where we served Budweiser, Bud light, Coors, Coors Light, and MGD. We very rarely had all five beers on draft, as distribution was an issue at 11,000 feet. One day I had five guys who ordered one of each type of beer. I didn’t feel like having the yellow beer meltdown, so I brought them all MGD (the only yellow beer we had on draft). After two rounds where each thought they were drinking their brand of choice, they ordered another round and I informed the buy who was drinking Budweiser that we had ran out, but I had MGD. With a huff and a smirk he informed me that he would never drink such shit. I just smiled – proof positive he couldn’t taste any difference.

There were many days where we didn’t have all the beers on tap and I often substituted one for another without informing the guest, I never once had anyone tell me that they weren’t drinking the beer they ordered. (I don’t consider this good practice, but these were special circumstances as I worked for a very poorly ran, micro-managed, hole-in-the-wall ski area bar and I must admit – it was the perfect situation to test a theory I had always had.)

Check out this article, a good piece on Brand loyalty and the belief that you CAN taste the difference.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/virgin/321214_virgin26.html

A challenge to all yellow beer drinkers to do a truly blind taste test challenge. And a bigger challenge to expand your palette to darker beers or better yet, how about small batch bourbon.