What's your Average Beer Rating?

Sort of like a local Medicine Hat Alberta brewer doing several milkshake IPA's and little else in 2018

 

Well, my average is 3.73, which is way lower than I expected. I always thought of myself as a generous review...I guess not. I am on spot for the US places and countries, but higher than I thought in styles - a good thing, I do believe.

 

3.68
I'm pretty new to rating beer here at BA.
My feelings are I'd probably never rate a beer less than 2.5 or more than 4.25 to 4.5 max. In case I ever did drink the one magical best beer ever and rated it 5.
I try to rate to style for each beer, even if it's not my favorite style.
I'm afraid style probably does bias my rating, even though I don't want that to happen. Subsequently, I do avoid certain styles of beer I don't like.

 

3.81 - I go hard on the 4 rating.

 

My average rating is 4.02, and I've been known to dish out a few 5's here and there. I respect the brewer's craft, and I always try to look for positives. Maybe that's why I tend to be overly generous (read: go off the reservation) from time to time.

 

3.97. I'm not going to buy something shitty on purpose even if I know the review is going to be funny.

 

That's a tough quandry to face. Do you drink that great beer with full enjoyment, or do you take a 'bullet' for the crowd and write that ugly, but funny, review and enjoy every minute of that?

I'm not a reviewer, so the choice would be easy for me, but you.....?

 

I guess my thoughts as it pertains to rating beers are a bit skewed because of the curve. In my world a 4.0 ipa would be an average beer, it’s good but no cartwheels. When you get north of 4.25 you can tell the quality of the beer definitely moves up a step. When you get into 4.5 plus they’re truly great beers that are memorable. I wouldn’t think to buy a 3.5 rated ipa looking to buy a beer I’ve never had. That’s only one example, but with Pils I understand the curve, most don’t rate to style, and I’m including me in here too, I rate to how much I like it, but I’d rate the before Pils right there along with how I view ipas. A 3.5 Pils is most probably a very worthwhile beer.

 

I stopped rating on BA a long time ago. My untappd average is 3.87 with a pretty nice gaussian distribution. I can be a harsh rater, my ticking just tends to be focused on beers I think will be good. I don't like wasting my time on beers/breweries that aren't really good, let alone average or below average.

 

3.67 I haven't reviewed one in a while New year is a good time to start again.

 

Mine’s 3.93, which is super high, but exactly what I expected. There’s a built-in bias for higher than average ratings given that I only seek out beers I think I will like and avoid low quality breweries like the plague. I’m guessing many of you are the same, but I’m curious if others feel the need to try a wide spectrum of quality. If so, why? In my view Beer Advocate’s main use is to steer me away from anything rated below 4.0. If I’m thinking about ordering a beer and it is less than 3.5 I simply pass. I’m also curious what the average rating says about the person rating. Also, has anyone ever given a 1 for appearance? What does a 1 look like? I’ve given some 5’s, but not a 1 that I remember.

 

3.8

I seek out highly rated beers on the regular so this doesn't surprise me. I give out 4's like they're going out of style.

I'm easy to please.

 

I'm gonna alter your post to my view:

I guess my thoughts as it pertains to rating beers are a bit skewed because of the curve. In my world a 3.0 ipa would be an average beer, it’s good but no cartwheels. When you get north of 3.25 you can tell the quality of the beer definitely moves up a step. When you get into 3.5 plus they’re truly great beers that are memorable. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a 1.5 rated ipa looking to buy a beer I’ve never had. That’s only one example, but with Pils I understand the curve, most don’t rate to style, and I’m including me in here too, I rate to how much I like it, but I’d rate the before Pils right there along with how I view ipas. A 3.5 Pils is most certainly a very worthwhile beer. As is any 3.5 beer.

 

Mine is 3.99, which I initially thought was high, but for the most part I only buy beers that have a good average rating to begin with.

 

Although the forums and knowledge base is far superior here, I tend to review on untapped (better mobile interface).
Mine was 3.98. Most everything for me tends to fall between 3.75-4.25. I have avoided reviewing anything I drank that was past date or tasted infected.

 

The ratings are a bit weird if you look at it, an average Pils might score a 90, the top end ipas are 99/100. If I see an ipa under 90 I’d guess it to not be very popular. The ipa curve is almost unique to itself in that it tends to weigh heavy. Hard to find a Pils over 90, and there’s plenty in the low 80s that imo are terrific beers. It’s why I don’t rate beers anymore, I’m not helping the curves much, or I haven’t done so in the past.

 

I like to drink a variety of styles for the learning process, but my purchase of a variety of styles usually occurs with a sampler flight while visiting a brewery. I don't prejudge quality by looking up a rating when ordering beers, so this can result in a variety of quality, especially with a newish brewery. I normally don't rate/review these beers on BA because my drinking experience is from a sampler-sized glass (or maybe it's a style with which I have minimal experience and don't feel competent to rate it). However, my wife and I decide on a rating for her to enter into UT, and if we give a score below 3.0 then I'll write one or two sentences in the BA review box about why I rated it below average. (I rate to style as best as I can.)

For the "Why?" part of your question, someone has to rate those beers that end with a poor score, but an unintentional purchase is likely the only way it's going to happen if people look up a score prior to a purchase.

Be gutsy every now and then because you need to refresh your palate recognize the subtle taste of 'badness'. Or maybe it will be better than you expected. Look at how many people have rated that beer, or how old the ratings might be, and that information may lead you to take a chance.

I've never given a "1" for any characteristic in a rating that I can recall, but a "1" for Appearance would likely mean a murky beer that should should have good clarity. However, this isn't true for certain styles such as Hefeweizens, NEIPAs, Saisons or Farmhouse Ales, etc.

 

I find it a bit odd that some main line AALs score out at 1.8. Really? At the worst they’re harmless Light lagers, that are easy drinking. In some instances they’re actually quite appropriate. Kinda kills the rating theory of rating to style. IMO there’s no way Miller, Coors or Bud etc, or plug in many locals , deserves to be rated in the shit beer category. Sure I’d prefer a Heady, but that’s not how the ratings are supposed to be done. So I don’t formally rate at this point, and at my worst I just give my impression on what beer I’m drinking if I’m in on a New Beer Sunday. So it’s not so much a hard score but an impression fwiw.

 

3.42

But I'm in the " gotta try 'em all " club.

 

We need members who "try 'em all" to make this site work the way it's supposed to. Thanks for taking all of the bad 'bullets' for the team.