When purchasing beer, what's your minimum score?

No...I respect other's opinions and enjoy reading their reviews but I decide what I like and what I don't.

The same applies to music, movies, food, clothes and so on...so much stuff out there to enjoy...many people have a very purist attitude towards the things they immerse themselves in and I tend to be more of an explorer, always trying new things and/or things that have been tweaked...cheers.

 

The one issue I have with the rating system is that higher ABV brews and styles (e.g., imperial stouts and DIPAs) generate higher ratings compared to lower ABV styles (e.g., pilsners and Kolschs).

If beers were rated in comparison to other brews in a given category, that shouldn't happen. However, the bias is evident and there's not much to be done about it. So to me, an 84 RIS might not be worth getting, but an 84 Czech pilsner is a definite try.

 

I agree with this. I never look at a beer's score on this, or any other beer rating site to influence my purchase. I let my taste buds determine the score.

 

Don't over think beer when fanboys are present.

 

Agree...I always think of the BMCs as their own style and never rate them as a craft. I rate them in the 2 1/2 to 3 range depending on the beer but never a 1 like so many people have done...1? For God's sake it's beer...all beer is better than a 1!

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29/2186/?ba=Shroud0fdoom

 

Agree. I don't bother with the top 250 beers list or idea, it is a popularity contest not an evaluation of quality. Looking at a beer only within its own style gives me the comparative information I want. For cross style numbers to be meaningful it requires ether constraints on the ratings or numerical manipulations that are not used on this site.

 

Amen.

 

Sure, there's a cut off category, within a style, that I don't bother to look at. With all the beers in the database I have to filter what I buy somehow and the ratings/reviews on this site, particular those done by certain people, is a lot more useful/reliable than other sources. Do I take the ratings/reviews as gospel? No of course not but there is enough overlap between my tastes and those of certain reviewers they are useful.

Edit: And there's enough beer I don't particularly enjoy easily available that I'm not worrying about becoming jaded or dissatisfied with anything but the "peak" experiences.

 

I've actually started re-examining beers I've ignored for years because they're (at least on this and other websites) considered ordinary or 'just ok'. Turns out, there's a lot of depth to be found in English-style brown ales and Munich Dunkels, among others. I've actually ceased rating brews on online websites and have devised a (what I think is, at least) fairer/more balanced rating system that I now keep in a series of notebooks. But the most fun is rediscovering/discovering things I never bothered w/before because they weren't the most sought-after/hyped/etc.

 

:-)

Try doing that when most of the beer you buy is purchased by the case.

 

Touché. Well, when you're at a Pub and buy a pint, I hope that you don't get 23 extra.

 

Lots of the brews I enjoy on a regular basis are rated here in the low eighties, and some in the high seventies.

Surprise surprise: I don't mostly drink DIPAs or barrel-aged stouts.

 

No, that's true you don't get that extra in a bar or Pub. But there I am forced to select only from what someone else has chosen to offer me. While that's sometimes a great source of input to buying decisions it has its limitations.

For example, there's quite a few beers I've enjoyed that I would never have thought to try or been even able to find if it were not for the information available on this site. e.g., even in the Philadelphia area, it can be hard to find bottle aged Duvel, 5 year old Orval, or Eiskeller aged Aventinus in a bar or pub.

 

i usually go by the "don't knock it until you've tried it" rule with craft beers, and then give my personal opinion of it when i take the first drink, i usually will look up the beer on here if i'm going to dish out 15$ or more on a bomber, just to see what i'm getting into. getting to your question, i usually never let the rating impact my purchase. you can't have fun in the craft game if you don't take a chance.

 

This.

For me, 3.7 is pretty much the cutoff. There is so much beer, and I'm getting on in years I also take into account the number of reviews on a beer. A hundred is far more useful that a half dozen. Of course, there are beers below that number that I really enjoy, (Tommyknocker Brown) and beers over 4 that I'll never buy again. (Clown Shoes Galactica). It's a bit of a balancing act.

Cheers. And drink what you like & (hopefully) like what you drink.

 

I might take ratings into account if I think I might not buy it ( price usually is the cause of this ). Like stated previously. A RIS or DIPA rated in the mid 80s will probably not get the benefit of the doubt if over-priced to me. Usually only certain breweries will generate that sort of suspicion for me...

 

If you don't want a case of BA La Trappe Quadrupel, yet still want to try it, beer message me. (Only if you haven't had it.)