I probably have more 5's than most. This is because I rate beers within styles. Just about every style has a beer that is "perfect" that basically represents the benchmark. It seems to get very convoluted when I try to rate beers compared to other beers outside of style. Basically I end up with big beers and highly hopped beers at my top of list. It's always been weird to me that a style like ESB or German Pilsner would not have a five just because it's not 10% abv nor big tropical and citrusy in aroma. That said, everyone "advocates" how they feel best!
In 10.5 years on BA, out of 2112 beers reviewed, I never rated a beer 5.0 until yesterday: Toppling Goliath KBBS.
Member 19+ years now note that rating scales have changed when I first joined, rating wasn’t an option - you had to write a review. A few years later, we could add ratings without a text review but I believe the initial scale was overall rating only and 1-5 in increments of 0.5. You can see this phenomenon play out in the histogram of my ratings. https://www.beeradvocate.com/user/beers/?ba=jophish17 I never liked reviewing beers, but when basic ratings were allowed I uploaded a bunch of ratings from my spreadsheet. As such, of the ~1900 beers I first rated, ~10 of them earned a perfect 5, but really these were 10 where 4.5 was simply too low. I too am in the camp of a true 5 is exceptionally difficult to obtain. I did happily rate t’Brugs Beertje in Bruges a perfect score. That absolutely IS beer bar perfection.
Its reputation agrees with your decision. I've never had it so I can't say one way or another, although I'll guess that you're not alone.
I was prepared to be disappointed, after others bagging the same whale were. But it's a well engineered pastry stout that's not cloyingly sweet.
Zero at 5. Zero at 4.75. 13 at 4.5. Out of 4,666 rated and 4,362 reviewed. I rated according to style for the last couple of years. I usually consider 3.25 to be "average" for the style, as only about 10% are below that. I don't consider myself parsimonious, but must be compared to most of you.
There never was, there ain't one now, and there never will be a perfect 5.0 beer. Unless of course, I brew it.
