Beer Advocate

Hey guys just wondering how many of you know about these guys. Im from MA, right outside of Boston. Beer Advocate is from Boston (Cambridge MA). These guys are great and have a great website and usually some amazing beerfests (Extreme Beerfest, Belgian Beerfest, St Patricks Day beercrawl, ect...). Do any of you subscribe to the magazine??? I do and love it every month. The website and magazine they run is great as you can find out about all kinds of beer you have never tried or want to try and read other peoples opinions on the brew. Plus on the website you can give your opinion on any beer you have ever tried.

Two brothers run Beer Advocate. They are great guys as I met them once on their St Patricks day beercrawl in Cambridge MA.

Check the website out:
BeerAdvocate - Respect Beer.

Actually when I lived back east I would go on frequently. I haven't been on in a while. I do think they have something going and put out some good stuff.

I use it quite often when I'm at the store and trying to decide on what type of beer to buy. I whip out my phone and read the reviews of what I'm looking at.

I like their site and I volunteer at their festivals, the festivals are a very good time.

I started in the BA forums prior to stumbling upon HBT (was actually invited to it). Personally, I think BA.com is too rigorusly about beer. I have seen way too many threads nixed because of their lack of beer related content, even tho' they were major traffic generators.

As to the Olstroms, I am sure they are great guys but they have a severe lack of tact on their forum. almost to the point that they strive to insult.

And god forbid that a single reader has a differing opinion from yours and makes a complaint your thread gets modded out. Now, I am a sarcastic bastid to be sure but, I am rarely insultingly beligerant and there is a lot more of that going on there than there is here. IMO. YOMV. TAIHTSAT.

I'm on the site, I just like to write reviews of beers to appreciate them more (not that I couldn't just write them down on some paper or something, but oh well), and write reviews of the local joints.

The forums are ok and some of the reviews are useful. However, I feel a lot of the people who write them are either ass-tards or a little too beer-snobby and need to not be writing reviews. The Alstrom bro's seem to be pretty knowledgeable as far as tasting goes and I don't read the forums enough to see any of the stuff said above. So, I guess it's a good site for me!

My biggest complaint is the lack of objectivity, especially from the Alstrom bros. I do believe the beers should be rated based on the criteria listed and not off of some pre-conceived notion of what you are drinking, how good it is, how great the brewers are, etc. I think the beer should be poured into the proper glassware by someone else and presented to the reviewer and told only the style, and the name revealed afterwards, like a real tasting review.

I'm on the site, I write reviews of beers on there as well as Danny. I also use it to research a beer I've never heard of...

(I'm probably one of the beer snobs danny's referring to...I try for good practice to write reviews following the bjcp format for judging, as well as try to be as detailed and creative as possible in my descriptions of flavor and aroma.)

Yep, been on there longer than I've been here.

About 3-4 years ago I found my account on there canceled and my email address blocked. I never got an explanation why and have avoided the site ever since. For awhile there it seemed there was this strong rivalry between BA members and ratebeer.com members although I never understood why since both were doing the same thing. I maintain a presence at ratebeer as I find the overall presentation of the site, not to mention the demeanor, much more pleasing.

Just my .02

I use the site as a reference when seeking comments about beers I've never tried before. I don't post there.

Revvy said:

I'm on the site, I write reviews of beers on there as well as Danny. I also use it to research a beer I've never heard of...

(I'm probably one of the beer snobs danny's referring to...I try for good practice to write reviews following the bjcp format for judging, as well as try to be as detailed and creative as possible in my descriptions of flavor and aroma.)

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Oh, not at all! I try to be as descriptive as possible in my reviews as well, and try and pick out all the little flavors and small transitions, etc. I try to write a review that someone would read and be like, "hey, that's helpful" and knows what to expect. I won't say my reviews great, though; still working on picking out/identifying flavors and aromas.... I was referring to the 'snobs' who give beers a bad review simply because they are not as good as their favorite local micro or the people who give stouts a bad review because they are "too burnt" or bitter or the English-IPA they are reviewing doesn't taste like a "normal" IPA.

PWalk said:

About 3-4 years ago I found my account on there canceled and my email address blocked. I never got an explanation why and have avoided the site ever since. For awhile there it seemed there was this strong rivalry between BA members and ratebeer.com members although I never understood why since both were doing the same thing. I maintain a presence at ratebeer as I find the overall presentation of the site, not to mention the demeanor, much more pleasing.

Just my .02

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RateBeer. Now that's a group that takes their beers waaaaaaay to seriously.

For the rater, sure there is a lot there. But the mood of that site is more about the stats than individual perception. Which is a good part of what rating beer is about. Yes, yes, yes, the rater needs to be focused on comparing the beers conformance to style sure but there is still a lot of personal prefernce that goes into a well written rateing. Sure, Orval may exemplify that style but it still taste like an assmouse rolled in hay.

God forbid someone actually doesn't like a beer and rates it poorly but describes it accurately,fairly, even eloquently. Next thing you know the brewer is emailing threatening to hold your grandmother hostage (mine has been dead for a decade) until you try the beer again and rate it more in kind with the community.

Because ya' know, the world will end if Westy 12 drops out of the top 10.

Honestly even though I signed up at BA, I didn't realize they had other stuff besides the reviews. I never go directly to their site because they want you to log in to read the review. Instead I'll just Google the beer name and add Beer Advocate at the end so I can go straight to the review.

I compare other peoples reviews to mine and 8/10 times my perceptions track well with the average.

BeerAdvocate is fine, but I personally grew tired of seeing the same threads month after month and year after year. I still use it for beermailing and reading reviews, but not much posting. Even the reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt. They tend to favor strong/extreme beers on the site. The new fad though is balanced/sessionable beers, so maybe things will even out. I also can't handle the geeking out about beer. Some people are more into obtaining and hording beer, more than drinking and enjoying it. As far as forums go, this one is definitely better...

I've been on BA for a bit now and enjoy reviewing beers but I've found that I only review like one in every 20 new beers I try if that.

I started a group here on HBT to connect with other BA's but it went dead right after launch:

HomeBrewTalk Groups - BeerAdvocates

GilaMinumBeer said:

RateBeer. Now that's a group that takes their beers waaaaaaay to seriously.

Next thing you know the brewer is emailing threatening to hold your grandmother hostage (mine has been dead for a decade) until you try the beer again and rate it more in kind with the community.

Because ya' know, the world will end if Westy 12 drops out of the top 10.

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LOL it's hilarious because I have gotten those beermails where people chide me for a poor rating of a beer there. In fact I've gotten dozens of them. I've been offered beers to "re-rate" them and have never changed my mind. I'm surprised just how many industry professionals read them.

My choice of ratebeer over BA stems more from the general design of the site itself. A personal annoyance is sites with dark backgrounds with lighter text. Just crappy for the eyes.

I've been to the tastings where I'm the only guy there without a pen and notepad. I know "the looks" your talking about when everyone is sitting there writing nonstop and all you can do is wait around for them to finish so you can try something else. I think I've rated 20 beers in the last 1 and 1/2. I drink beer because I like it and not to bump up my ever increasing beer rating count. If thats why your drinking it then whats the point?

Ya I dont post in the threads at BA.com
I just check reviews out about a few beers I have not tried yet.

GilaMinumBeer said:

As to the Olstroms, I am sure they are great guys but they have a severe lack of tact on their forum. almost to the point that they strive to insult.

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THIS. Started on there about 5 years ago, left for that reason. I go to RateBeer as well. **** them.

Everyone in my HB club is on there. I read the magazine but mostly just go to the site for "beer mail"

IMHO one of the best things about BA is the regional forums that make it really easy to stay in the loop with all of the craft beer related things going on around you. I've found some really great places my region that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

brewt00l said:

IMHO one of the best things about BA is the regional forums that make it really easy to stay in the loop with all of the craft beer related things going on around you. I've found some really great places my region that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

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True this. I think there are about 3 southern-end distributors who are members in the South Forum. One is a direct Nashville distributor who always posts when they are thinking about getting new products and they sometimes post when they restock the product.

But yeah, I know reviews are necessary, but I don't personally get any enjoyment out of a beer when I have to pine over a pen to put unnecessarily long adjectives on something that can be said simplistically. Some of those reviewers think they're the next Ernest Hemingway.

McKBrew said:

Honestly even though I signed up at BA, I didn't realize they had other stuff besides the reviews. I never go directly to their site because they want you to log in to read the review. Instead I'll just Google the beer name and add Beer Advocate at the end so I can go straight to the review.

I compare other peoples reviews to mine and 8/10 times my perceptions track well with the average.

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I use the same method to find beer ratings. Frequently, I have to search through the reviews to find one worth reading, though. A lot of them are clearly written by guys who have very limited palates and knowledge. However, the overall rating for any given beer is usually pretty close to my perception of that beer.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Personally, I think BA.com is too rigorusly about beer. I have seen way too many threads nixed because of their lack of beer related content, even tho' they were major traffic generators.

As to the Olstroms, I am sure they are great guys but they have a severe lack of tact on their forum. almost to the point that they strive to insult.

And god forbid that a single reader has a differing opinion from yours and makes a complaint your thread gets modded out.

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I agree with you, didn't see many homebrewers either. It's like a bunch of french people talking who only drink fine wine.........except they are talking about beer.