When I rate on BA, my overall rating is usually the same rating as my taste rating. Even if the look, aroma, and feel are higher.
Right? If I'm being honest, I cheat and often use the "overall" number to level out any inconsistencies with the other numbers.
I've never seen/heard it explained, but to me it represents my overall feeling of the beer as a complete entity. I guess I also use it like @Premo88 to make sure that the final rating of the beer represents how I actually felt about it.
I treat the “overall” category as if it were a separate non-specific rating. A stand alone, overall assessment of the beer as a whole.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/how-to-review-a-beer.241156/ Overall = 20% Describe your overall impression of the beer. Examples: How was the overall drinking experience? What did you find pleasurable or objectionable about it? Offer suggestions for improvement. Pro tips: Be honest and constructive.
Like overall impression? May have checked some boxes, but, overall, didn't blow you away.... or didn't necessarily check high boxes, but, it just did it for you
A blind man would say taste, I believe taste is certainly the most important category, but I also feel that smell look and feel also should be equally considered.
Well, I'm confessing to be part of the 7% who said that all qualities are equal. Now, I don't really believe that; but I say so because I want to make two points. First, we tend to over-analyse based on these four categories. And while the weighting system we work with has flaws, it is thoughtfully developed. So we should stick with it. Second, the alternative is to rate to the style's average (as I do). This complicates the weighting system. If you rate to the style you have to improvise the rating because some styles Smell very good and others Smell bland. So again, consistent weighting is something of an illusion. For both points I make, the Overall category gives wiggle room for inconsistency. I also use that wiggle room to talk about what makes a particular brewer unique... which interests me more. Bottom-line: go with what we got... and wiggle.
Eh... it's a small percentage of the weighted average, but I will argue that there is a difference between a correctly colored stout with a rich, dark head and one that looks like flat coke. I tend to agree with @Harrison8 and when I saw this poll I figured taste would easily be over 90%. The other part of the question is what intrigues me - and while look has some affect on my experience, the mouthfeel is the part I think that really differentiates beers outside of its BA weighting (and funny enough, a really bad-looking beer quite often suffers in feel for me). And I say that knowing I cringe at seeing too many posts where it seems people too often want a thick feel on too many styles of beer. So yeah - most important is taste to being a beer one will buy and enjoy. But what differentiates beers at the same level of taste is likely next smell, then feel, and finally look. Which is approximately where the weighting sits. (Though I also agree different styles should probably have different weightings, but I also easily realize that just starts to get really confusing at some point)
