Cycle 12 – Item 165

19 (Sat) June 2021

Chadol Ssam

3.0

by me

at home

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with the Family

As far as I can recall, this was the first time that I’ve grilled chadolbagi at home, à la Korean BBQ, ostensibly the way the cut is intended to be used, rather than as a component in soup dishes (see for example 12.130 Shabu Shabu, 12.138 Battle: Comfort!).

The meat was topped with kimchi + ssamjang, wrapped (ssam) in romaine from the garden at our cabin.

GMTD World Series of Pilsner (5 of 7) (see also WSP)

This project is to taste-test pilsner-style lagers from around the world, mass-market brands widely available in Korea.  16 contenders: 4 from Korea (none really worthy, but anyway), 4 from Europe, 5 from Asia, 3 from the Americas (would’ve preferred an even 4×4 regional spread, but only 3 contenders were deemed worthy from the Americas, so I included a 5th from Asia).  4 finalists have already been determined from the initial quarterfinal round of 16.

In the interest of parity, and in case some beers had been unfairly eliminated due to what might’ve been a poorly designed testing system, the 6 highest-scoring contenders from the quarterfinals will be retested.  They were split into 2 groups of 3 beers (Group E, Group F), blind-tasted on a 4-point scale, repeated, tallied to a maxim score of 8 points.  The winning beer will move on to the semifinal round, along with winners from the other testing groups

During the quarterfinals, I had tested 4 beers in one sitting, without rinsing in between, testing the group twice back-to-back, which seemed to result in palate fatigue, skewing the results in the second test.  So this time, I limited the group to 3 beers, rinsed with water between each tasting, and took a long break in between the two tests.  This time, the results were consistent across the two tests.

GROUP E

• Asahi Super Dry (prior score 10.5): “hoppy + bitter, full long finish, but strangely sour in the second tasting – solid performance, even if it came in last.”
• Kloud (prior score 11.0): “honey + hoppy, tangy aftertaste – the highest score of all Korean beers tested, though in retrospect I wonder if I was a bit generous in the numbers.”
• San Miguel (prior score 10.0): “full flavor, solid finish – proud runner up.”

RESULTS

• San Miguel (7.0): rich, well-balanced, suave.
• Asahi Super Dry (6.0): flat flavor but balanced, austere.
• Kloud (5.0): aggressively hoppy, sweetish, playful.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)