"Style bias" on ratebeer.com and elsewhere

[Babylon]

OK my first post..But I must say I can't stand the taste of most IPAs...and really hoppy beer makes me want to cry

I'm not a big fan of hops either. That may change eventually, but I kinda doubt it. People told me the same thing about dry wine, and while I can appreciate it I still prefer a semi-sweet after working as a wine bartender (and drinking wine pretty much daily) for several years. I have had enough IPA that I can tell a good one from a bad one, but I'd rather drink soda than either one.

 

[Casey27]

One day, when I have no dumb projects left to do, I'm going to pull all the beers and ratings from them, and find out what the correlations are for style, gravity, country of origin, etc, to score.

Awesome! A stats nerd! Will you be applying multivariate techniques then?

 

[Casey27]

i use BA to get a feel for new beers I randomly buy. I'm a noob brewer but i've always loved beer. Those reviews are mostly uselees. They make me laugh. so often there will be 25 flavored mentioned, some coming late, lingering blah blah blah, yeah right dude, you have a magic palate that can detect 35 flavors at once. mostly that place is for beer snobs who like to feel important by reviewing, the reviews are even more pointless because they already have a biased before the even take a sip(they know what they are drinking, brand, hype, rare, price all that sshhh). sorry rant over

Yeah, I agree, the written reviews are mostly useless! I mean two people tasting the same beer from the same type of bottle give it completely different reviews (I guess they just have wildly different palates). You have to read 10 or 20 reviews and then look for some kind of consensus.
I do put a fair amount of trust in the style-based score on ratebeer.com; I just wish that the style percentage was in huge font and the overall percentage was in small font. That way it would be less deceiving than it is now.

 

[MVKTR2]

I'm a casual member of RB. As was mentioned earlier it is not a style specific judging system. In this type of a judging system it's simply impossible for a good blonde or even kolsch to stand up or be considered as good as something like a good barleywine or belgian dark strong.

However I try to take the style into consideration a bit. For instance 2 of my highest rated brews are Anchor Porter and Rouge Choc. Stout. I seem to remember having Anchor Liberty ale ranked surprisingly close to Rochfort 10. It's absolutely subjective, but that's all it really can be. Take it for what it is, not an authority but as a guide.

On that note it seems the only people I see using BA or RB as an authority are mens magazines etc. that do 1 or 2 bier articles per year. Sadly this is probably reflective of a certain percentage of the population which are becomingly increasingly negative, censorious, and judgmental in their snobbery toward 'less exclusive' biers. This is covered quite well in the most recent episode of New Brew Thursday with Greg Koch & James Woods (a great craft bier podcast btw).

Schlante,
Phillip

 

[ajfranke]

One day, when I have no dumb projects left to do, I'm going to pull all the beers and ratings from them, and find out what the correlations are for style, gravity, country of origin, etc, to score.

Was this you?

http://tabimushi.blogspot.com/2011/08/zymermetrics-style-matters.html

 

[Steelers77]

i use BA to get a feel for new beers I randomly buy. I'm a noob brewer but i've always loved beer. Those reviews are mostly uselees. They make me laugh. so often there will be 25 flavored mentioned, some coming late, lingering blah blah blah, yeah right dude, you have a magic palate that can detect 35 flavors at once. mostly that place is for beer snobs who like to feel important by reviewing, the reviews are even more pointless because they already have a biased before the even take a sip(they know what they are drinking, brand, hype, rare, price all that sshhh). sorry rant over

This is why I can't review on these sites.

Me reviewing a beer:

Mmm that good!
Huh, this is a good dry stout.

or

Ahh not good!
Bad example of the style, too hoppy for a stout.

Me recommending a beer to a friend:

Tony, Drink this, its really f'in good!

Could I do the every adjective and flavor that comes to mind review? Yes, but then my wife might slap me and tell me I'm being a nerd again.

I must also say that BA is good for finding a place to drink or purchase beers when traveling, it has helped me out more than a few times.

Cheers

 

[Scooby_Brew]

I never use RB or BA. Too many people on there who don't know what they are talking about. I mean how many times can you read about "citrus hops" in Guinness ES or a "malty aroma" in Paulaner Hefe?

 

[ndsgr]

It probably got pulled, but I went on one of those sites and there was a review of Jolly Pumpkin La Roja. One of the knocks against it was that it was sour and the guy thought it may have gotten infected and gave it low marks. I wish I would have taken a screen shot.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I always get the feeling that the scores are a combination of how cool the style is supposed to be and how fierce the flavor or ABV is. It seems people just compare all beers against each other regardless of style. It doesn't really make sense to say a mediocre IIIIIIIIIIIIIIPA is a better quality beer than a well made blonde ale but it could be ranked higher because it has more IBUs and ABV.

I got a kick out of reading some of the reviews of Liefman Cuvee Brut saying it was too sweet to be a real lambic so it got docked for not having lambic qualities. Well an oud bruin probably shouldn't taste like a lambic...