Rating Retired Beers

I remember having this issue....years ago. It was changed back then (seriously, may have been 6-8 years ago) so you could review these beers.

And I believe it's not that the beer is retired, but the brewery as closed. I'm not sure why this would preclude a beer from being reviewed.

 

Sure, we already review limited editions, one offs and rotating series. If a beer is retired or even if the brewery is closed as long as drinkable examples are around I'd like to hear about it.

 

I believe you can review it still.

 

While I like the idea idle curiosity on my part is not enough to ask the staff to go to any trouble. I can only imagine the amount of time spent monitoring the existing traffic.

 

I feel that if the brewery is closed then there's really no reason to put up a review as most people won't be able to find it. Just my two cents.

 

Sure there is - could still be plenty in cellars, depending on the style. I figure it should be allowed, as it doesn't hurt anything. It's not like a bad review will hurt their reputation.

 

Yeah, I considered that there can be exceptions, for example wasn't Thomas Hardy's Ale not brewed for a few years while it was between breweries? But was the old producer closed? Hmmm... maybe you're right.

 

O'hanlon is still around. Eldridge Pope is not.

 

A brewery may go out of existence in a snap by being bought by another brewery. Sometimes the brewery is "retired" but not the beer! The breweries are often kind of virtual. I have difficulties seeing the dividing line between retired breweries with retired beers vs. non-retired breweries with retired beers. Maybe you should be able to review all the beers? The content in the bottle lives anyhow!

 

I just want to be able to review all beers I drink, just for my personal reference.

 

Excellent point. As we get more and more breweries in the US, it's inevitable that more and more will close. I would like to see reviews made possible for retired breweries.

I wouldn't say it's a huge deal, but it would be a very welcomed extra feature (and may help me clear out my bottles of Pretty Things in the cellar).

 

This is as good a thread as there’s been in a while...my thoughts...

Maybe set a limit as to how Lon a brewery as been closed? I realize this requires the use of arguably an arbitrary date, but it could allow for breweries whose beers are still likely floating around in decent enough numbers (Pretty Things, for me, comes to mind, as every so often an elite beer bar in Boston will have some bottles appear on their menu), but prevent an onslaught of closed breweries most of us are likely to never see again. And while I realize we all use this site in our own ways, and for our own reasons (I.e. - ticking) it still is a community and a public review is only valuable if one can actually experience the beer for which the review was written and then judge for themselves against it.

 

Would for example five years be enough for a beer? Ten sounds like a stretch to me.

 

Yeah, 5 sounds good. It's not like i could construct reviews of beers like from Heavyweight.

 

I vote for allowing it. I think the pluses far outweight the negative risks, basically just trolls fake reviewing or people reviewing old/stale non-cellarable beer styles, but I see that as very unlikely.

 

This happened to me yesterday. I kinda went out of my way to find a new brew for NBS, and I did. Go to review it, and it's retired, and did not get credit for it. There were at least 6+ bottles of this brew still at the store as well. Like someone above said, "I just want to be able to review all beers I drink, just for my personal reference."

Cheers!