Beer review pet peeves

People who rate every beer they have in the 3's...and makes me wonder.....do you like beer? do you enjoy it? Is there anything that would get a 4.5-5 from that person?

 

I drank my favorite malt liquor in the early 70s. I don't remember the exact date or the particular brand but I retained the general circumstances. Oregon imposed a 4%vol limit on a product labeled "beer". I picked up a six pack of a German Bock (forget the brand) that had a hand stamp that blacked out "beer" and added the words "Malt Liquor" below.

 

Your mouth must run a lot hotter than mine, because I’ve had scalding hot coffee on a hot summer day and don’t remember it ever evaporating off my palate.

To each their own, but to me, a dry finish is a taste not a feel. Doesn’t matter either way, of course. Unless someone puts it in the appearance category.

 

I have no idea about what is proper in this mini debate about "dry", but I was taught many moons ago that the finish gets described as part of the mouthfeel. Maybe this old dog needs to learn a new trick?

 

Totally disagree with you here - for example, if a beer cost $30 for a 12oz bottle and turns out said beer is mediocre, then dammitt its justified to ding the score on the beer due to price point. If a beer cost that much, dammitt, it ought to be better than mediocre.

 

As I said, it’s a “relative” term—I’m not saying the beer is literally dry. It might have to do with carbonation, I’m not sure. I just know that certain saisons, wild ales, Berliner-Weisse etc. have a “drier” mouthfeel/finish than, say, most barleywines or imperial stouts. I think you’ll just have to live with this pet peeve because I’m going to keep using this term where appropriate.

 

Sorry but no. What if that same beer was gifted to you? Or you are at a bottle share or blind tasting etc.

 

My only pet peeve is being forced to attach a rating to my review.

Other than that it is easy to ignore review that I don't see value in, or that isn't a review and just a comment about enjoyment, or lack of enjoyment.

 

Nope. The price of the beer has zero effect on what's in the glass, and should not be reflected in the review. You can mention in the written portion, but it should not be factored into the numerical score.

Look at it from the other side: if you bought a bottle for a buck, and the beer was really good, would you give it a higher score just because it was a good bargain?

 

I agree that price shouldn't be a factor during reviews and I also write about my perceived value.......but when I run into a beer that I think is an outstanding value, subjectivity sneaks in and the overall score might tic up a bit. Cheers.

 

Price/value is always going to factor into the overall score, consciously or not. In a lot of ways, price sets certain expectations and how a beer matches up to your expectations impacts your overall perception of it whether you like it or not.

 

That is exactly what grinds my gears about it! The rating system is based purely off of your sensory experience with the beer and NOT how the product ended up in your gullet. Look, Taste and Feel
What are your "Overall" impressions drinking the beer.

I would add that the rating system is modeled after the pro level of judging/reviewing beers as well.

 

Yeah I'm just pointing out that the cost is always going to impact your experience. Like the old saying "the best beer is a free beer", you can't really separate your experience from the cost of obtaining the beer (a phenomenon that was long pointed to as a reason that certain rare beers got such universally high ratings).

I try to minimize the "value" question's influence on my ratings, but i do mention it if it's pertinent in the review. I also don't think it's wrong that retail cost impacts ratings on a consumer focused database.

 

What?!? Then how are we supposed to know what the best beer is?

I agree that in theory your rating should not be influenced by the price you paid—but realistically speaking it’s hard to impossible to separate one from the other. I will give a beer a higher score if I paid less for it, because my expectations are lower. I know that’s not supposed to come into play, but I’d be lying if I said that it never does.

 

I guess I just can't wrap my head around that line of thinking. That would explain many of these crazy 5 star reviews here however.

"This pizza tastes like crap and gave me bubble gut but it was free so I give it an A+ rating"
...and I say that in my best Jim Gaffigan voice

 

Whatever beer YOU like the most, not others

 

I’m pretty sure a beer’s finish can refer to its feel and/or taste upon swallowing. Because I view “dry” in the context of beer reviews as meaning “not sweet,” a dry finish would refer to the taste. I suppose a “drying” finish could refer to the feel. I’ll try to be more open minded about other people’s usage, regardless. There’s no extended pinky emoji, so I’ll stick with the wink.

 

I think most of the time it manifests the opposite way. People spend dozens of dollars on a single bottle and/or go through a huge hassle to obtain it and then feel like they have to rate it highly to justify it after the fact.

 

I once read a review on a fairly popular beer and someone's review was a 2.8 or something like that.
So I looked at his review list, everything was in the red and sometimes by a substantial amount. Then I started to notice it more which makes me think that reviewing a product is some sort of negative power rush for some people. As @Genuine stated,would any beer make you happy?

 

Absolutely would get a bump in score due to great bang for my buck! Most of us have a finite budget and don't receive beer for free, so price to quality ratio is high priority for me and certainly factors into my scoring of a beer and into my decision as to whether a beer would be a repeat purchase.