Should brewers read BeerAdvocate reviews?

It really depends on the goal of the brewery. People should do what they want when they brew beer.

BA ratings are not the end all be all, but having tried so many brews, I do find there is a correlation of likelihood of finding a great beer with a higher rating. Simply a likelihood, but certainly without certainty.

I personally would love the feedback if I were a commercial brewer. As craft beer gets so darn extremely competitive, ratings do matter. They cause hype and help sales. I would always want to perfect my brews. When a beer receives only decent ratings (and sales), but doesn't stand out on my line up of brews, then I'd want cut it and brew a new recipe.

(I can't promise that's what Firestone Walker did with its Reserve Porter being ended, but I imagine it affected their decision.
Founders Pale Ale is another one I could imagine deserving the axe for a great brewery.)

 

So you're saying that brewers don't care for feedback? Or a brewery should go under before people see that they were on to something? Or you took my post too serious? Post this in my hate mail.

 

Isn't feedback desired by all brewers or any craftsman for that matter? Seems like this would be a pretty good place to go for said feedback.

 

An Artist makes art for the beauty.

A commercial brewer makes beer to make money. It is a business. Sure they will look at reviews.

If BA was the only way to judge the artistic merit of the beers made in the brewers brewery, they would only make IPA and RIS, and BBA everything.

I know some who are making very good lagers. Are they poor artists, as lagers are poorly rated on here? Or are they Vincents marching to their own drummer's beat?

 

First I would like to say it took that much time and effort to respond, I appreciate that. Second, Craft beer is both art and business. Sorry to burst that bubble. Now wouldn't you as an artist like feedback both positive or negative?

 

They would be crazy not to.

 

Yes, but only with a grain of salt (and a very small one at that). For the most part this site is filled with fan boys and strongly opinionated non-experts, so taking anything too seriously from such a small and biased sample size would just not make good business sense (or practical sense for that matter). Overall this is a good source for information (beers, place, etc.) but by no mean do I take a lot of the reviews and opinions on here very seriously.

Sorry just my brutally honest opinion

 

Yes, but reviews can be misleading (ie homerism).

 

I don't see why they wouldn't... it's an extra quality check. It's free.

 

no way. a real brewer should be making beers that are true to his vision, not trying to please some dork with an internet connection.

 

The vision might become tainted whether they mean to or not. That which has been seen cannot be unseen.

 

Sure, they should read them. And take them for what little value they have. In the end, sales will tell a brewer what beers work and what don't, and opinions on how to improve their beers are probably not too difficult to obtain from other industry professionals.

 

brewers logically should see what people think, but I could understand if they have the stance of not letting reviews heavily influence their own creative process for making the beers that they make. as stone seems to imply when they say things like "it wasn't made for you", some breweries may be able to ignore negative reviews so long as they fall into the minority and their overall scores come out positive, but yea, that's to be expected. Its hard to find a beer that's is universally praised. everyone has different opinions on things, and some people will just not like what it is you where going for.

 

Of course they should read them. But I'm sure any brewer worth his or her salt has already grown a very thick skin. That said, IMHO, they should read mine first and hold that up as the standard to measure all other opinions posted by my brethren. (end sarcasm)

 

I'm on here pretty much everyday and always check to see if there are new reviews/ratings of my beers. I'm always curious to know what my fellow BA's think. Good or bad, I want to know how they are received (obviously hoping that people enjoy them).

 

Of course! I think any artisan or craftsman likes to know what folks who respect the "genre" think of their work.

Chris