rDev based on in state reviewers

Thoughts? Think freshness and distance beer is transported from brewery to customer.

 

Could be but before we can be sure the effects of those have to be accounted for. For example, I've lost track of times on here I've heard people downplay the quality of beer X who wind up having had it 3 mos old rather than 3 days old, or locally on tap. Similarly, the effects of vibration on a beer trasnsported across even a few hundred miles seems to be small but some pretty experienced people claim to have detected it.

 

When I write reviews now adays, I try to always include the date information (best by or brewed on) and price of beer and location of purchase. I just think all of that is valuable information to both myself and to other people.

 

The metric you are looking for here is called "homerism".

 

Certainly. I find this apparent in the southern and midwestern states especially. The fans out there seem to find a brewery and defend it to no end. There's little objectivity when reviewing one's own state's brews.

 

I will never forget trying Huma-Lupa-Licious on-draft in Detroit. It was so fresh that it was shocking. I could literally tell the keg was only a few days old, if no more than a week. All the bottles of it I had after that were nowhere near the same. So, based on personal experience, I agree with this statement. The vibration bit is new to me though.

 

People are going to rate beers higher when they know the people who make it or feel some sort of connection to them. This isn't a news flash, this is human nature.

The freshness factor, though, cannot be downplayed (especially for ipas). Probably as big a factor, if not bigger, than the first thing I mentioned.

 

Yep. Homerism and the fact that said homers are getting the beer fresh. add that to the fact that the majority of BAs are from the east coast, no surprise here

 

I won't lie, lots of Homers on the East Coast, buy look at a beer like Jai Alai: same concept applies.

 

Re Vibration, no hard data but some pretty strong evidence.

First, see best answer here:

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060918191126AAkxDgP

Even light to moderate vibration during transit of beer causes some CO2 to come out of solution. Increased pressure in head space can result in some very slight leakage around the crown since the seal may be pretty damn good but is not necessarily 100% at the higher pressures. (One of the first things I learned about bottled carbonated beverages was that leaving the bottle sit a few days before opening allows the CO2 to be re-dissolved, reducing the possibility of gushers on opening.). Meanwhile the crown seal is not 100% perfect and with enough vibration both CO2 and some volatiles escape.

What we smell plays a role in what flavor we pick up. Small effect, but in a post I can't find right now @sierranevadabill reports that they flew some freshly bottled beer from CA to NYC(?), opened it, sampled it, and thought there was a detectable decrease in the beer over what it had been like just hours earlier.

Like you I've had the same beer both fresh on tap not far from the brewery and freshly bottled but several hundred miles from the brewery. So I'm willing to believe that putting a case of beer on a truck at the brewery, then transporting it 2000 miles or so across country (whether refrigerated or not ), then unloading it to the distributor's warehouse where it sits at least a day or more, then reloading it to an un-refrigerated truck that drives it stop and go over local potholes, etc. to a retailer where it is unloaded signed for and then eventually relocated to the display location where it is sitting when I buy it and finally load it into the car for my drive home, can create a slight reduction in flavor experience when I finally get to drink the beer here.

 

I'm no scientist (self-professed idiot here) but this makes sense to me. Kudos, too, for the longest sentence of the year. Cheers!