Advice on Beer Reviews

Here ya go; have fun:

http://beeradvocate.com/articles/637

 

You're also going to have to review the beer you add, btw.

 

Make sure to use terms like horse blanket, cat piss, not as good as last year, infected. Some of the reviews on here I swear they Mad Libbed them.

 

Saying it's overrated is also helpful.

 

Kind of a side point, but maybe just let the 20 rack up naturally over time and add the beer later? How soon does the beer need to be added to BeerAdvocate? If soon for some reason... get drinking!

And, to answer your question... I don't usually write my reviews like this, but I think this style is fine:

A - Pale straw color with 2 finger white foam. Good retention, some lacing.
S - Wonderful hop aroma, some diacetyl notes. Overall citrusy.
T - Malt forward, hints of cherry. Surprising hop bitterness.
M - Crisp, refreshing, great aftertaste.
O - Wow, this Cherry DIPA was great. Could have done without the diacetyl, but overall delicious. Recommend it to anyone.

Bada bing bada boom. Quick, easy, detailed enough to be useful.

But, please actually review 20 beers. And good luck!

 

Don't over think it.

Find some reviews you like. Then do what you want. They're really for you, not other people. If anybody else gets something out of it, that's a bonus.

 

I suggest writing them for yourself, as if you were going to come back to see what you said about it at some point.

 

Overrated isn't distributed there.

 

That's probably a good thing, as it's dropped off considerably since last year. (According to a statistical analysis of my ratings, anyway.)

 

All the previous tips are good. This site is a resource, both in the info section, and from looking at other people's reviews. That's how I started. I have zero reviews posted, but have somewhere between 70 and 150 reviews in a file box. I'll add a bunch this year. My first reviews were like this, except less jargon and more descriptors I was familiar with.

As I drank more, with or without reviewing, as I'm sure you've done, I got a better feel for styles, jargon, etc. And I started to write longer reviews.

You want quick, but respectful, which I thank you for (respect on this site has been dropping), so the above is the way to go, although I would encourage slightly more description. Take 2 minutes to do AS, then drink half the beer (assuming 11 or 12oz total) to do TM. Revisit S, and then finish with TMO. Takes about 10 minutes including thoughtful abbreviated writing.

Trying to answer your questions briefly: Almost nothing is superfluous to a review, especially if you want to do quick ones. Write you you sense and think. To make the review useful for others, I would think more is better than less. But most people won't read your review unless the beer has, say, under 25 reviews total. If you are reviewing beers with low counts to get to your 20, take a little more time because your review counts more.

I chime in mainly to answer your questions, encourage some good thought with these quick reviews, suggest you review styles you're familiar with, ask you don't do all 20 in one day (taste buds will be too tired), and thank you for respecting beer!

 

I don't see that you've reviewed any of the already listed beers from Silver Creek yet... that looks like a great place to start

 

Try this "Beer good buy again" or "beer suck feed to sewer gators"

 

The reason why you require 20 reviews before you can add a beer is because it takes time to review well and to develop your palate. I still cringe at my first 100 reviews or so...