The Tale of ‘The Bergeron Scale’

By Drew Johnson (@doobshmoob)

It was all thanks to the slogan on a beer I drank at Fenway one evening. As I began heading back to my seat, a middle-aged woman, clearly hammered, whined “Ooooh you look like such a baby.” 

By the way - this was after she said I looked too young to be buying beer and I told her I was 23. I guess that’s some important context.

As I smoothly exited that situation which consisted of simply walking away, I spotted the slogan on the two beers I had in my hands: “A Drinkable Beer You Can Taste.”

“From now on,” I declared on Season 1, Episode 31: A Drinkable Podcast You Can Taste.  “We have to review our beers each week based on drinkability and taste.”

“Scale of 1 to 37,” said Chris Gere, for obvious reasons that I did not pick up on. You see, I went on to suggest “1 to whatever episode we’re on.” Chris explained it to me, and I said “Oh, true yeah.”

Cam Hasbrouck and Chris took on the first review together, both drinking PBRs. Cam dubbed it “a team taste test,” but I believe a brotherhood saw dawn that evening as they strode forth into the cruel weather of the uncharted.

‘The Bergeron Scale’ was born that very night.

Chris went to bat first, giving his PBR a 30-out-of-37 drinkability rating. Cam went off the tracks a bit. It was a solid effort but it was kind of like a popup that sparks the infield fly rule: He went with an 8-out-of-10 rating on drinkability before explaining “you certainly can taste it but it’s not overpowering,” and gave tastability a 5-out-of-10. Chris got us back on track with a 10-out-of-37 tastability rating.

It was just two minutes of an episode released in September of 2020 that blossomed into a beautiful beer garden doused in Miller Lite. It’s a tradition we’ve begun over 200 episodes with, as of the 16th of December, 2022. 

Imagine if we used the scale I suggested?

Want to contribute to Brews News? Click here to learn more!