Rating beers blindly....what would happen?

I rarely look at a beer's score before reviewing/rating, and I'm usually surprised how close my rating comes to the average. I usually fall within 5% above or below the average.

What I'd be more interested in is what would happen if all beer reviews were done blind; i.e., not know what the beer is or who made it. One key piece of information people would still have to have is what style it's classified as, since we're supposed to keep style in mind when writing a review/rating a beer.

 

Usually beers with good ratings get them because they are indeed, good beers. Although, the hype train might add a couple extra points to some people's ratings.

 

Difficult to review to style when so many style guidelines are all over the place.

 

I usually try not to look either, but when you are reviewing a well known beer (ie Zombie Dust), it is pretty easy to know about where the ratings are.

However, even if I know the ratings, they usually don't influence my score.

 

This is going to sound anal but I think the way to get your "personal best" rating is to drink 2 or 3 of the beer if you can. Keep a notebook. Read the style guidelines and as many reviews as you want but then sit down and do your review from your notes and not from the first sip. I have deviated quite a bit on some beers.

 

I think that's why BA just advises people to "keep style in mind" or whatever the phrasing is. IPAs should be hoppy and bitter, stouts should be dark and roasty etc. I use style guidelines more as general parameters rather than strict rules to be followed.

 

This is probably the ideal but would require me to double or triple my beer budget. Sorry, but I like my family and house too much to do that.

 

You can really taste the rare/small distribution in this one!

 

Expectation influences perception. Taste also varies greatly, depending on many different factors.

Next time you have a beer tasting, pour your friends five different beer samples and don't tell them what they are. Have them rate the beer first, then do the reveal. This can be done with similar styles, different styles, and with the same beer repeated once or twice.

It's always fun, and always surprising. And if you do it with a self-appointed beer expert, it always pisses them off, because they'll get something wrong.

If you're a self-appointed beer expert and you still have friends left, have your friends try it on you and see for yourself.

 

Am I ashamed of my +50% or -50% reviews? No. I realize that my tastes differ from other's. I'm not going to rate my 09 Abyss 4.5/5 when it was infected just because that's what it's "supposed to be rated". I wasn't a big fan of KBS, so I rated it a 3.75. Same goes for a lot of beers. Trying to score it closest to the "BA score" isn't helping me or anyone else.

 

Better Beer Authority does most of their reviews blind now.

 

Good thread. I'm not necessarily going to rate a beer HIGHER because everyone else did, but sometimes I do drink half the beer and then look it up on BA and it causes me to re-assess my initial impression of it. Kinda makes me step back and say, "hmm maybe I am missing something". Sometimes I will change my first impression, sometimes I won't. A blind rating might be kind of cool though.

 

It would break the bank to do it with every beer but if you just do it with the ones that you have in a 4 or 6 pack then all it amounts to is waiting until the 3rd or so beer before you really rate it.

I can feel a craft pack coming on right now.

 

I almost always look at the rating before I buy a beer. In fact, I've recently decided to only buy Michigan beer, 4.0 or higher rated beer, or Sam Adams. I will certainly miss out on some treasures, but my odds of finding a beer I will thoroughly enjoy have never been higher.

 

Homerism or the effects of getting the beer fresher and closer to the brewery? Some argue that bottling and/or the vibrations of travel can produce some modest but noticable degradation of the beer.

 

That's another way of saying "Some people are douche bags."

 

I generally just cut and paste the description of the person who rated the beer immediately before me, and I score it the same as them too. I just want beer karma and don't really care too much about ratings integrity.