Has the Pendulum Swung Back Towards Reviews?

While i don't personally write reviews or assign ratings to beer, I do enjoy reading/watching reviews about beer. If i'm going to crack a new special beer i'll look up previous reviews ahead of time so I know what to look out for. I do not look/read reviews before purchases however.

 

I am all in favor of full reviews instead of ratings. When I first joined in 2006, I loved scrolling through and reading the reviews of a beer. The recent trend of just giving the beer a rating has taken some of the fun out of it. I hope to see more reviews from this point forward.

 

Its real. The current site rules make reviewing easier than it used to be.

 

At some point I decided if it was worth rating it was worth reviewing, so now I only review and in fact am going back to write complete reviews of some that I previously rated.

 

You can choose to ignore ratings and only see the reviews.

 

I had a bunch of ticks and I am glad to say that, but really I like doing the reviews better. When they went to the tenth of a point system, I liked that better than the quarter point because I felt I could be more accurate. On the other hand, I did not like just assigning a number because it seemed hollow without the review.

 

Reviews tell you what a person thinks about a beer, ratings only tell you about what a person thinks about a score

 

When I first joined the site it was still the case that you had to do reviews to create an online record. When things loosened up a bit I tried doing some ratings only. I accumulated well over a hundred ticks and then realized that I was remembering a lot less a beer that I only rated. I also found I was making more repeat purchases than I wanted to, and that included some beers I hadn't wanted to repeat.

So I went back to reviewing almost everything that's a new beer for me and I have even slowly been adding reviews to some of those that I originally only ticked. As far as I'm concerned, not reviewing is actually a waste of my time and of more money than I care to just throw away on repeats of beers that I'm not interested in adding to my regular rotation or to my "occasional treats" list.

 

I used to be scared of reviewing beers but now I just don't care. I try to review as much as possible, but for some I don't have the time. Most beers I've rated in the last few months without reviewing I plan on giving a proper review at some point.

I do feel as though simply adding a rating is perfectly acceptable, as long as you put some thought into it (and not just do 3.5 across the board because you had a 2 oz sample and can't remember what it was like).

It can be difficult to review a beer you had at a pub or brewery. It's a lot easier to just give it a score than to type out a review, especially if you're there with friends. You can take notes, but you might as well just write the damn review while your friends ponder ditching you.

 

All reviews, all the time for me... I have tried a number of new biers at times, but unless the situation permits, I will not do just a simple rate.... If I am in a social sitch I won't inconvenience others with my noting... I can try it again sometime... or maybe never at all... I'll live without reviewing.... Prosit!

 

I haven't noticed a swing to or from reviews, but I haven't been around long. I joined BA to trade beer, and have since wandered into the world of reviewing beer. My first reviews are dainty, and felt daunting to write, but it has laid the ground work for my review writing skills now. Once I realized New Beer Sunday wasn't just a thread for new releases, or new beer to the world I started posting reviews there and got lots of good feedback on what I was doing well and what could use a little improvement on my part. I have never posted just a rating on here, nor do I ever intend to do that. It feels cheap. Beer Advocate is a wealth of knowledge and a tremendous resource thanks in large part to those who take the time to sit down and write a review - whether it's about a beer, or a place.

If I want to check in with a beer, I'll do so on Untappd, although all my ratings there are based on my reviews here. In other words, I only post on Untappd after I've reviewed a beer here. The formula break down of the beer rating helps take some bias out of just rating a beer on Untappd (i.e. did I or did I not like this beer?).

I've also seen folks going to tastings and rating a dozen or more beers in a day. Granted in some cases those beers could be drank over several occasions and thus be more accurate numbers, but other times they're simply just to tick another beer onto the "beer" counter. Personally, I'd be all for removing plain old ratings. Justify the beer and its ratings.

In summation, I believe reviewing beers is important for the reputation of the site. Some folks may reference BA for just the number, others may want to see what tasting notes they'll experience. I believe we need to cater to both folks, and with ratings being tacked onto reviews, a review will help both visitors.

 

I can't be bothered to sit down and type out a 500+ word review on beer, mainly because I don't drink much at home. The 0-5 rating scale works just fine for me: 0-1.0 is awful, 1.25-2 is bad, 2.25-3 is okay, 3.25-4 is good, 4.25-5 is great and the quarter point differences on those scales tell me enough. I don't need someone's review telling me what to expect my beer to taste like because I like to experience/taste the beer without outside influence. Hell, even reading the description of the beer on the bottle/can can influence what you taste in the beer. I can as easily buy a beer that is rated 72 on BA, as easily as I can one that's rated a 98, and I'll still probably enjoy both.

 

What in the old site rules made reviewing more difficult? Higher character count?

Legitimately curious, since I wasn't around then.

I see the descriptions within ratings as a more clerical way of assigning numbers to a beer. It's a better justification to why a beer landed at a 4.38 or a 3.25 other than it's good or great. It also gives the reader something to compare it with. This stout got a 5 for looks but it didn't have any head foam up? Okay, someone is off here. At least, that's my take on how reviews help the site.

For new folks, the reviews are nice so they can try and taste for specific notes, and figure out how their palate performs. It also gives folks looking for a beer with powerful blueberry, or chocolate, etc. notes a chance to vet a particular purchase based on something other than an overall number or the fact that the label says "blueberries".

The beautiful thing is, you don't have to read reviews either. Sometimes I make a purchase solely based on the number, other times it's more about finding that thick, meal of a beer where looking for a "5" in feel may mean anything to that particular rater.

My personal favorite reason to provide reviews over ratings is it helps reduce (somewhat) of the hyped, inflated ratings. If someone is drinking Julius, they might assign it a 5 based on hype, but if they really break down the flavors and notes, they may find that it doesn't perform perfect. If everyone was meticulous in their ratings, then I wouldn't have much of a problem with them though.

 

It's always has been for me. I remember back before 2010 when I could print out my list of beers I've had, at work. Many pages, then it stopped, for whatever reason.

Cheers!

 

Mostly character count. But there was also a bit less structure and guidance on how to do a review if you were trying to use reviewing as a learning experience and be helpful to others. e.g., the reviewing guidelines for this site have been significantly improved, note the comments (and the date) here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/how-to-review-a-beer.241156/

 

I think more reviews are being written since the karma rules changed, as opposed to just ticking.

 

I know that. What I'm specifically referring to is that the option to simply rate a beer rather than review it has, obviously, led to a steep decline in the number of written reviews on this site; and I find that sad.