Beer Rating Curiosity

It's supposed to be to style, most grade to personal taste.

 

Funny, because the only two 5s I have in my ratings are a Doppelbock and an Oatmeal Stout.

But yeah, I'm probably one of the few who rate to style -- I'm also probably one of the few who like just about every beer style.

 

Sup!
I had the same thought a while back, so I did this:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/do-you-drink-outstanding-beers-on-average.238371/

I did a bunch of analysis on the ratings, and came to the conclusion that big bold flavors win. And BAs are super harsh on lagers!

 

I've always thought that "to style" is a very objective thing. If everyone reviewed a beer "correctly" and "to style" everyone's rating/review of a beer would be the same. Seems like that would be useless. If I wanted to know how a beer is "to style" I'd read reviews from judges at beer competitions.

I don't know what we are supposed to do on BA (and don't care, I'd never solely rate a beer to style), but the only reason the reviews are useful is because beers are rated on how much people like them, not what people other than the reviewers say every beer of a certain style should be like.

 

Rating generally is preferable for me. I can always take the general scores within style and rescale on the 5-point scale given the distribution within style. Much harder to look at relative preferences of all beers if people rate to style. We lose information about those relative taste preferences that rescaling won't help.

 

I had a growler fill of dirtwolf from victory over the weekend for $11 I think that is a great deal. I normally have a growler fill from my favorite local brewery st. Boniface in pa for $10.

 

Ratings here reflect lots of emphasis on bold, large and some would say excessive/obvious flavors and aromas.

Those are reflected often in the top lists which dominate with American IPAs, and Large stouts.

Some also feel it's a herd mentality, and hype, and a self fulfilling prophecy.

I wont deny that big and large beers are impressive, but I also have rated other styles highly as well.

But mostly that's just my personal preference.

The site is also heavily American focused leaving other traditional non American styles less rated. That doesn't mean their bad though.

So take ratings as a guide more than anything else, and decide what you like.

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/how-to-review-a-beer.241156/

 

This is pretty much it.

A simple, plain beer will be downrated even though it's style is just that (say, cream ale). I've been guilty of it myself but I do try. It's just hard to give, say, a good Hefe a 4.5 when I rate something like BCBS or FBS at 4.5. It's like a mental block.

Dope

 

That is definitely not true. Everyone has a different opinion on how a beer represents a style. Not everyone would rate the beer the same.

For instance, say you had someone who has had an original representation of a pilsner, and they view that as the be all and end all of the pilsner style, and you have someone who has only ever had american pilsners. Say they had the same american pilsner, they would obviously have different reviews/opinions and how true to style that beer was. The person who has had a true pilsner may not think it was a great representation of the style, while the other person who has only had american pilsners might give it a higher rating.

 

I think also if you read the guidance from the Bros it isn't a strict 'rate like a beer judge' expectation, but more think about the style and rate the beer on what it is trying to be, not what you personally like. I think the best advice they have in there is to not rate styles you don't like - it isn't fair for me to rate a really funky sour since I don't like sours - my rating and review is essentially worthless because all I would do is say 'I don't like sours'...

 

I noticed the same thing a while ago. Looks like most rate to preference. That's why I mostly look at actual reviews rather than the number. I imagine if some of those other styles become more popular (pilsner renaissance anyone?) then the top ratings for those styles will go up.

 

@dmvanmeveren Out of curiosity, how did you grab those numbers for top-rated Bock and Stout? I'm showing very different numbers for the best Bocks and Imperial Stouts when sorting by rAvg and looking for beers with significant numbers of ratings.

 

it might also be a matter of access. there are a lot of wonderful IPAs and huge stouts out there but it can be awful hard to find a decent example of some less brewed styles. Complexity of flavor is important to me in a larger beer but once the ABV dips down I start to look for cleanliness of flavors and any off flavors or aromas.

 

Click the link on that page to get the top rated.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/lists/style/32/

How that list is calculated appears at the bottom of the page.

 

Only problem with rating to style is that American beers are morphing and may not even be aiming to achieve a representation of a style. Six Point is the best ex

 

Six point is the best example. They just reluctantly put style labels on their beers to help out consumers. They have clearly stated on BA that they aim to make good beer not a good style of beer.

 

Don't bother trying to compare ratings numbers across styles. There are no controls in place to ensure that ratings are done in the same way, using the same portions of the rating scale for different styles.

Your conclusion is correct.

If you want to know the best rated bocks look only at their scores relative to other bocks.