Psychological evaluation on personal taste via # of beers reviewed

Analyzing why I like some beers more than others seems a bit too clinical. That sort of thinking might limit me and I have beer horizons yet unexplored.

 

I love reviewing styles I don't have a lot of familiarity with. It keeps my palate fresher and expands my knowledge base.

 

Went with "Pretty much any style except for those I dislike" because I really don't tend to drink styles that I do not enjoy.

 

Even though the majority of them don't become formal reviews, I'd say that my posts on New Beer Sunday are of any style that crosses my path, and I give them a fair shake on their own terms whether or not they're my 'thing'.

 

But I don't buy beers I know I will hate. Like Sours.

 

Interesting thread.

Here is how my 1,168 beers reviewed on BA break down:

Style - # reviewed - % of my consumption
American IPA / 171 / 14.6%
American Imperial Stout / 152 / 13.0%
American DIPA / 119 / 10.2%
American Stout / 45 / 3.9%
Russian Imperial Stout / 45 / 3.9%
Milk/Sweet Stout / 42 / 3.6%
American Pale Ale / 41 / 3.5%
American Brown Ale / 21 / 1.8%
American Barleywine / 17 / 1.5%
Quadruple / 14 / 1.2%
English Barleywine / 11 / 0.94%
German Pilsener / 10 / 0.86%
American Amber / 10 / 0.86%

Other 78 styles reviewed on BA consumption percentage: 40.14%

I'm self aware of my IPA consumption, which dominates my current beer drinking. It's a style I tend to go to when visiting a new brewery or traveling, not to mention it's one of the most accessible styles on the list above in terms of both geographically and in regards to weather season. I've been on a lager kick of sorts here lately, with German Pilseners dominating that category for me. I also included ambers and brown ales on my breakdown list, as neither is a style I particularly strive to try. Although, I have found some brown ales (borderline stouts), that I've found an immense amount of joy sipping.

Of the list above though, my personal favorite style is the English Barleywine, although it wouldn't appear that way based on the list. It's a style much harder to find (especially when compared with stouts and IPAs), thus a low number in that column.

Overall, I'd say I tend to review anything and everything, after all, I'm working on trying all the styles per the Beer Advocate page. I am slowly working my way towards that goal, with lots of time for my favorite styles in between.

 

I've had 102 of 104 styles, and while I have favorites, there are few that I avoid since I believe that there are beers of every style that I'll like.

 

I review everything that exists. Number per style only is because of what I can find. I review everything against style as it should be, but I generally evaluate only using the listed BA style as a general guideline of expectations. I have had to change so many beers because they were the wrong style. Majority of them were 100% malt lagers listed as adjunct styles. Others being English vs American porter/stout/barleywines etc.

Top rDev % are literally all macro lagers. They barely have any flaws, aside from being bland. No one knows how to appreciate adjunct lagers I guess.

Here a sample style breakdown from "that other site"

 

I haven't run into any styles that I don't like, so..... though I answered "Any beer that crosses my path ", it's really "All of the above".

 

"Pretty much any style except for those I dislike"

"Any beer that crosses my path"

Both. I'll try to give a fair, honest, and descriptive review of any beer I try, but I tend to not review styles that I dislike because I don't want to buy beer I don't like.

 

I do not review beers on BA in the appropriate way (or officially writing a review). That said, I do take time to really think through a new brew, or even one I have had before when it really strikes me. All this said, if I did review on BA, my reviews would probably be dictated by the following:

1) Style readily available (ie Barleywines in my parts are incredibly uncommon. At any given time there's maybe...3? And during stout season that might go up to 4 or 5?). So, despite enjoying a style, if it's not around, it's not. Not much I can do about that. I'd have to trade like crazy to have access to as many barleywine a from all over as I have local IPA/APA/DIPA/etc. just unrealistic.

2) Styles that I don't think my palate is sensitive to. (I have a bitter sensitivity, and depending on the type of sour, seemingly a sour sensitivity. So, while I can enjoy hoppy and sour beers, some beers in these styles are very 1 note. It feels unfair for me to write a review and skew someone's opinion, and also difficult to try to even rate to style. While I know that I am the exception and not the rule for this comment, I suspect there are people who avoid styles and might simply chalk it up as "not liking" the style, whereas it may more accurately be that there is a flavor profile that their palate just isn't sensitive to.)

3) Probably would not review styles that are painful for me to drink - ie ones that I really don't enjoy. (Some versions of Pilsners and other similarly light styles very much taste to me like water with a slight malt and hop presence. This presence is so light that it comes off to me much the same way a slice of lemon squeezed into a glass of water does - or cucumber/fruit put into water: truly dreadful. It's predominately water with the other flavors lightly added in such a way that feels like you don't get the essence or the flavor of the additions, but rather just a drop or two. It's bizarre to me. When you do this with beer what I tend to taste a lot is the alcohol - more than I ever do in even a 17% stout like oak aged vanilla WWS, which people described as "hot". So, while I can appreciate that pilsner Urquell is a great pilsner with lots more flavor than your average pils, it epitomizes why some people never liked beer: not much flavor, and what flavor exists tastes not great. The so called "beer tastes like piss" comment that on-beer drinkers used for so long to describe beer.

All this is to say that I imagine there are some styles that while they might not be my favorite, I can imagine that I'd review more because they might be really fun to review. Perhaps I am able to pick up a lot of different flavors in this style. I can see that.

 

I generally review beer that seems unique to me. Whether good or bad, there has to be something that stands out to pique my interest. Otherwise I just drink it and get on to the next one. I get annoyed when I write a review on an ipa and it tastes like a million other ipas. Nothing new to write about there.

 

I kind of needed a fifth option to vote for. I tend to only review beers that I have not had before, that I am trying for the first time. I try not to look at other written reviews or video reviews before drinking/reviewing the beer too. Sometimes it's hard to have an unbiased opinion beforehand with some hyped beers, or if it's a beer from a brewer you just don't enjoy typically.

 

I'm always open to trying a new beer regardless of style. But I won't rate it on a scale of 1-5 if I don't particularly like the style or know much about it. For instance, I don't care for sours. I've tried sours that my friends rave about and rate highly, but even those just don't do it for me. It isn't fair to give a poor rating to a beer just because I don't like the style. It drives me nuts when I go on Untappd and see people give an IPA a 0.25 rating and comment "IPA's are gross" or something like that.

 

Have you had Alexander Keith's IPA? Just read the reviews, and you'll get it.

 

I review everything I come across. When I discover I like a style now I disliked a few years earlier, I can go back and look at my review and figure out WTF was wrong with me then .

 

Well, I thought I was spreading the love across all styles better than this, but just ran the numbers and 43% (239 of 557) of my reviews are some variant of stout, which is my go-to style. Add porters and I'm over 50%.

 

One of the variables that can throw this off is local availability or biased (non-random) access.

For example, if Happoshu is unavailable where you live the liking score would be meaningless even though one might thoroughly enjoy them.

Similarly, German brewed Pils are sometimes hard to find fresh in the US but many are never even sent to the US at all so they can't even be tried and liking of a biased subset does not guarantee liking of the entire set.