Why don't you review?

I stopped when I felt like my reviews were starting to all sound the same. There is only so many ways to describe IPAs, IIPAs and BA Stouts. Instead, I've been trying to focus my ratings to land on an overall number I have in my head for every new beer I drink.

 

Beverly Owen > Pat Priest

 

That is so well considered.. Reviews is one thing, but the info and banter are best. I like the humor the most.

 

Well I do review approximately 1-beer per week. However, there is a very simple reason for the beers I don't review- Socialisation. Alot of the beers new-to-me that I drink I do in a social setting with friends and/or family. I don't want to be "that guy" that ignores everyone while working on his phone.
The one exception is when I'm drinking with just my wife. She's more that happy to have some time with her phone also.

 

On here? Because there's no app for it and a lot of the newer beers don't have entries. I check everything in on Untappd though and write as thorough reviews as I can most of the time.

Only time I check beers in here is top250 beers or if I have a really special bottle that I feel warrants a fuller writeup than untapped allows

Honestly I'd rather drink a beer by myself so I'm able to think about it without distraction. I love the social aspect of drinking too but it's harder to put together cogent thoughts on the liquid in that setting

 

This is mainly me. I drink a lot of beers. Many are new to me. I'm highly competitive and see reviewing beers as such. However this has never been an aspect of my life I've felt the need to excel at. To each their own.

 

I wish I could do that. The further away I get from my first impressions the more the details are muddied.

 

I don't review on here. I knew a guy who ran a local beer blog a ways back, so I did a couple guest reviews for him, then another local website a couple years ago asked for ones, so |I did a video review for them.
But generally I don't bother because I'm just that lazy. I want to crack one open in front of the |TV or whatever and zone out. If presented with a beer, I can usually remember if I've had it or not, but I've never really been one to keep lists or counts. If I'm at a fest or something, I'll usually just mark down the ones I try, and occasionally a note or two about it, but that's mostly if it's either exceptional, or exceptionally bad.
I've run across people now and then who seem to write novels about each beer, be it at a fest or a bar. I just want to enjoy it.

 

I replied to the opposite thread already but thought I'd chime in here too because I like this question just as much as the other.

I don't review a beer if it's in a public setting, like a taproom or bar.
Dumb reason:

• I have a particular style for the photos I take with identical background/lighting; the conditions away from home are different so they would not match up with all the other pictures of my reviewed beer. Chalk it up to some OCD or something.

Practical reason:

• If I'm out at a brewery/taproom/bar, I'm with friends and my time there is being spent with them, not the beer. The beer is just the facilitator of that meeting.

The other thing I'd say here that I didn't bring up in my reply to the "Why do you review?" thread is that I don't consider my notes on beers "reviews" personally.

Review feels very definitive. Beer is so subjective and subject to change. It doesn't feel the same as something like media that gets traditionally reviewed: once the movie/album/etc. gets released, it's rare that it gets altered after the fact. You can experience a beer and the brewery may alter it because of feedback, process revision/improvement, material availability, etc.

Additionally, I'm always learning about it that I feel like my "review" of something right now could be different later with further knowledge and experience: I could detect a flaw or notice something really exciting/wonderful I didn't notice before that could drastically alter my take on it.

 

I need to start believe I don't review. One year since last, and they came very scarcely before. Do like to list, image and also rate though, for getting the beer 'visible'. The rating already shows what I think about the beer as a whole (at that moment ). Can't put good words to the experience, nuances. It is what it is, usually good!

 

Short answer… I don’t review because of my wife. Lol!
I am a husband and father of two teenage boys. So when drinking a beer at night it is usually with my wife in our down time. A couple of times I picked up my phone to do a review and she was like “put down your phone and relax. You are on screens (at work) all day.”
Another reason is that I don’t really enjoy writing reviews. I have written only a handful and i only did them out of obligation to try and contribute to the site. In some of my past posts where I may have questioned BAs scoring metrics, some folks commented on my lack of reviews indicating that I shouldn’t be able to complain about scoring if I don’t review. I will review again, but it will be few and far between.
That being said, I truly appreciate all those who do review!

 

For me it comes down to retaining my ability to choose. If I like a beer and feel motivated to share my thoughts - I will review. If I don’t - I won’t. But the pressure I see being exerted by Advocates can be suffocating. An expectation of 500 reviews or more or my opinion holds no weight - and the details they require - I mean how many adjectives exist to describe mouthfeel? For me - I don’t like my beer review liberty being encroached.

 

Same as @bwarner2015 , wife and for me 2 young kids.
My 1st several years being on Beer Advocate I would use other people's reviews while I was trying a new beer. 1st I would take a couple drinks to see what I tasted, what I smelled and all that. Then I would look up the reviews on that beer, try the beer again to see if I could pick up what the reviewer thought. The vanilla, barrel, coffee and so on. I appreciated those reviews!! maybe in a way it helped me develop my palate. At the time there were a couple fellow advocates, @Sabtos is one for sure, that could describe exactly what I was tasting in a new beer.
The reviews never influenced what I bought but they did play a role in maybe a higher $$ valued bottle I would trade for.
So please keep reviewing beers!!
Cheers
Jake

 

I appreciate the call out and am gladdened to know that some people get some value out of my thoughts, cheers Jake!

 

This is something I struggle with while reviewing similar beers, but I always justify it as I'm recording what I experience. Somedays I manage a better syntax, or tasteful writing, and other days it's barebones, but regardless, the experience I have with the beer is what is recorded.

 

That, more or less exactly.

As someone literally unable to ever develop a palate for IPAs, I'm probably among roughly 0.00001% of the userbase here. So my reviews are for me, and often contain some form of disclaimer about my palate particularities in the event that anyone else ever bothers reading them.

 

My new idea is I may stop at rating 200 beers at BA, and then gradually increasing my reviews of the already rated from the current six. Untappd may be more suitable for fast rating. Best of both worlds!

 

I understand and respect the stance not to review. But in the case of "who really cares?" and "making up my own mind without influence" then I don't understand why visit this site in the first place.
I think BeerAdvocate supports and champions beer reviews. I think collaboration and comparing and contrasting beer reviews and beer opinions are what make this site what it is.

 

This explains very thoroughly as to why I/we should review beers. Thanks!