New Rating System +/-

Agreed with your thoughts OP. I know I personally took some satisfaction in what people scored and said about each component of the beer.

 

Yes, indeed, that's my opinion too. I would have ditched the "mouthfeel" part, which is very rarely a component of how I feel about a beer, but my opinion of many beers changed from what I thought looking or smelling it, to how it tasted. And in general, my reviews on taste were comments on how it matched style, but the "overall", I'd up increase or decrease according to how I enjoyed it.

What I really hate now is having to rate a beer before I've ever started drinking it and reviewing it. I want to write about the entire experience, as it comes

Is there any way we can get a hold of our old reviews with the actual numbers? I've got a couple backups I made of those, but they're years old. I'd like to keep them for my own record keeping purposes.

 

Boo to this new development

I've had quite a few beers that had a fantastic aroma but a mediocre taste, as well as some that smelt and tasted really nice but had a lacking feel. I am disappoint BA...

 

I can see the angle/decision from a development perspective, but I do prefer the category system...

Buuut.. I can live no big deal, my life will go on.

 

"This feature doesn't exist."

Those columns now dropped from database forever? Well, ok then... My last backup of reviews was Jan 2007, more than 500 beers ago. Grr.

 

I agree. The old system was a good compromise. For those interested a quick and dirty rating, that existed. And those interested in the thoughtful (and in my opinion therefore more valuable) individual ratings and reviews, that existed.

I don't see how someone can really decide whether to rate a beer a 4.00 vs. a 4.01 or 4.02, etc. On the mobile app, it's going to be wherever the user fat-fingers it.

I think the category scoring was particularly valuable for the places, as it rated distinct features people would care about.

Very disappointing. Personally I had already put less weight in the beer ratings since the majority moved to ratings vs. reviews. Now I feel this only worsens that effect.

 

I don't like it one bit.

As one of the top reviewers on this website, I can honestly see no value in allowing 0.01 increments to be adjusted manually. Does someone really know when to grade a beer 3.51 versus 3.52 for example? The only thing I can see it being used for is when a rater thinks two beers are fairly similar, but one is just slightly better for whatever reason, so they give it a small bump to make it rated higher.

Also, I liked having the categories rated separately with the system doing the final calculation for you. I feel like putting in your own final rating sort of diminishes the whole rating system in terms of looking at a beer from different angles versus just one overall rating that you are supposed to come up with yourself.

Just my thoughts.

 

This is in NO WAY MEANT TO BE A SLAM TO THE OPERATORS.

While I give all the kudos in the world to the operators of this website whose notes have been used in places I have been to in the Cincinnati area, I am curious what other beer enthusiasts think. I have myself come to really love the old way of rating brews with more concise measures of the beer other than a simple rating. A look, nose or smell, and taste, a mouthfeel, all descriptors of what I see and experience rated.....the only place I had issue was the overall rating. It gave me pause from what I had already given great thought to. I go to whom I call the Brews Brothers ratings.....the humble proprietors of this site for their concise reflections in choosing beers. A flat score is almost meaningless to me as I have been doing this since the craft revolution.

AGAIN, this is not against the proprietors of this site, just a meager question.....some newbies MAY need something simpler, but the hand of guidance gives credence to experience, and experience and knowledge is what we all cherish.

 

One overall rating is the most arbitrary thing ever. I know I'm going to lose sleep tonight knowing I should've rated that last beer .01 higher.

 

Couldn't agree more with everything you said.

Do not like this new system at all, and if there was a petition to change it back to the old system I would sign that today.

 

While I agree, a single number does the same as multiples. Variation on the fronts of the senses are nice to have a variability scale. An overall rating is as plain as, well....vanilla....no contrast, just a single number.
Being different is what set you apart from the others which is what I respected the MOST. Depth.

By the way, love the hat!

Cheers Todd!

 

Reading reviews is information I often used when on the fence to buy a certain beer or not. I like to see what people actually took the time to write. It is way more helpful than just a number.

 

Considering more people "tick" brews than give comment gives no credence to an overall profile and characteristic with discerning thought given to the number.

 

I don't particularly care for the new system but I am not going to lose a lot of sleep over it. I definitely do not plan to rate beers other than with .25 increments so the old system was much more granular for me. The one change I would strongly urge is to bring back the serving type category as it is helpful to note whether the serving was draft, bottle, can etc.

 

Ya I think the number-only system is good for tickers and people who just want to keep the number for personal reference. When I look up a beer on BA, I want to see more than a number. I want to see what flavor profiles are going on, what off flavors there might be perceived, strange out of style flavors happening, and other nuances of the beer. I want to read about the dissection of a beer by someone who sat down with the beer and took the time to know it more than just assigning it a number.

I suppose I could just use Beer Geek Nation or some such video review system to get this info.

 

I would very much like to see this come back as well. It was useful when traveling to know whether a very local beer I was interested in trying was bottled or seemed to only be available on draft, etc.