Beer Ratings and Availability

I'm part of a local beer club that does blind tasting knock out rounds on different styles a beer once every two months. The guys who run the club are really into beer and track down everything and anything and when we did our double IPA blind taste testing, pliny was knocked out in the first round and Burton Baton won the competition overall with racer 5 coming in 2nd. I feel a lot of high beer reviews are hype. Also, the first 3 beers of the "beers of fame" list are all incredible hard to track down.

 

The only way to accomplish what the OP suggests is to have two ratings for each beer - one based on the beer and one based on availability. Good luck with that. Besides, if you know about the beer, you should know whether it's readily available.

 

It's probably been said, but then Bud Light is a 5 beer and something like PtE is a 5 or 1 one depending entirely on where you live.. Nonsense; so yes you probably are the only one.

And honestly it sounds like the entire "problem" is that you haven't been able to try these beers so you want their scores lowered.

 

No.

I do wish that distributors were clearly linked/marked on the beer's page and limited release stuff had their release locations specified.

 

I think that availability makes a difference and certainly goes into the idea of quality or taste in ratings. Someone that's trading or putting in a great deal of effort to obtain a beer(s) from outside what's distributed in their area, will already have the perception that what they're getting in the trade is better than what they can get regularly. Most people won't want to admit that after shipping, they spend $30 on a six pack of average or slightly above average beer. The same thing goes for "rare" or hype beers.

However, I don't think there's an easy way to quantify this on a rating scale considering the difference of what's available in the different distribution areas.

 

I think that availability should be some type of feature on this website although I'm not quite sure if it should be factored into score for the reasons previously mentioned.

I know what is available and distributed to Indiana for the most part. But it would definitely be useful for traveling purposes.

 

No I don't. In every beverage category I'm familiar with it just so happens that many of the best examples are also hard to get either because of low production or price, or both. It goes with the territory sometimes.

Plus availability really isn't a quality of the beer itself.

 

Besides the fact that "rarity" is often specific to location, we're scoring/rating the beer, and the beer doesn't determine how available it is.

Jeff

 

Sorry but you missed my point. By any standard PtE is a hard to get beer. Yet has been reviewed 1,000 more times the best selling craft beer SNPA.

 

Originally I liked the idea, but only because I also like the "biggest bang for the buck" threads. I just read one about six packs. My point is that while I love tracking down the rare stuff (that is 9 times out of 10 very much worth tracking down), I also enjoy finding readily available 12 packs that I can pick up anywhere. Torpedo being my best example to date. So I like when such a beer pops up in the ratings and I am able to find it.

After reading the full thread, however, I agree that availability should not be tied to score.

 

Maybe not tied to score, but I do wish there was a value that could be associated with each beer based on availability. Then, be able to sort the list of any given style (or brewery) based on availability.

 

Yes
Great idea
if a beer tastes great in the woods but there is nobody there to taste it...
Does it REALLY taste great?

 

What do you guys think about doing a map where the color of each state is determined by the number of reviews (<10 white, 10-50 pink, 50-250 red, etc.) That should at least help someone determine at a glance if it is distributed to their state, and is so how popular it is. Is it perfect? Probably not. Worth the effort? maybe.

 

Are you saying that SNPA and SABL are poor to average beers? Or that BA tend to review hard to get beer (and overrate them) more often?

 

I don't think availability has anything to do with rating the beer on its own merits. Yes - many great beers are difficult to impossible to find, but that doesn't add or detract from the beer itself. It is pretty easy to figure out how readily available a beer is with existing information. BMC - virtually all of them would be fives, right? And KBS would be a one. An availability "scale" might be useful, but not as part of the "scoring" system.

Personally, I choose not to play the whale hunter game and I don't really have much interest in the trade wars either. Trading changes the game and certainly makes things available, granted. So availability is a tricky thing. For me here in MA, New Glarus is rare because t isn't distributed here. Fortunately, I travel to WI frequently for work so I drink the hell out of NG (and Ale Asylum) when I get there. I don't have the time to make the pilgrimage to Vermont, so all those great beers might as well not exist to me either. Doesn't mean they aren't great beers worthy of their high ratings - just means I can't get them without making extra effort or using methods I can't really be bothered with. Maybe I am just a lazy BA, but I don't want to make buying beer a chore. If I have to work to get a beer, I'd rather put the effort into making my own. YMMV...