Beer Reviews Biased

They are slanted, you have to account for that looking at the ratings. If you see a 90 Pils it’s a buy, 90 ipa perhaps not.

 

People are all over the map on how they subjectively rate anything. It's from their experience, which is typically loaded with bias. There are several styles that I don't drink often, though have tried them. I'm likely to either let my bias against them hurt the score, or realize I have that bias and give therm a higher score than they deserve.

It comes down to the fact that I really shouldn't score or review beer styles I don't like and know well. Despite that logic, I review all new beers I try, and usually if it's a style I don't like - such as IPA or sours - I gravitate to those that are highly rated, figuring that if I'm giving the style yet another chance then I should only try the best examples.

If you want to talk about biased reviews, look at how folks review or score cult beers such as CBS, KBS, BCBS, and KBBS. While they are certainly outstanding beers, their scarcity plays off people's tendency to rate things higher when they are hard to get. Now that KBS and CBS are easier to get, I suspect their recent average ratings are down from when they were scarce.

 

You are correct. The majority of folks do not rate to style. One of the major reasons I never look at scores before trying a beer.

 

As a one-time teacher, I look at styles as a sort of 'rubric', and I encourage others to do the same. It gives tangible reasons as to why a beer is or is not good within that style - and then the reader can then interpret if this would be a 'good' beer for them to try.

Not to say it's an easy process by any means, but holding to a set of standards helps establish some consistency across the years of reviews/ratings vs. interpreting what is 'good' in that moment - and that's how you can help reduce bias (notice I didn't say eliminate).

 

In my mind there are 5 rating styles that can be seen in the BA ratings:

1. Rate to taste (novices/Untappd members who rate from Perfect/Very Good to 'I hate this beer's style/taste,' or somewhere in between)
2. Rate to style (difficult to do until well past novice status and have consumed many beers in a particular style to know good vs. bad style characteristics)
3. Rate-to-hype bias (novices who got lucky and got their mitts on a hyped beer and now must justify the effort)
4. Rate bias as a macro hater (I assume the OP's point by mentioning 'lager'), and can't appreciate a well made pilsner simply because it carries the name of Budweiser/Miller/Coors, and unfortunately most other pilsner breweds by good craft breweries simply because it mimics the B/M/C taste/style.
5. Homerism. Obvious definition.

Points three and four involve bias. Point number one is a necessity by definition until a beer drinker can transition to number two. Five is going to happen to a degree by everyone, but it's minor in its occurrences in the big picture.

So with a long explanation, bias does occur.

 

I agree with you 100% I've always treated beers like judging dogs at a dog show. Breeds are judged against the standard for that breed; not against another breed. Beer should be the same. I don't drink a lot of lagers. But a lager should be judged against the ideal lager - not against, say a NE IPA. I recently reviewed Industrial Arts' Summer Landscape and gave it a really high rating because it may be the best lager I've had. I just rated an Imperial Stout that I probably liked better than the lager but I gave it a lower rating because it wasn't nearly one of the best Stouts I've had.

 

Oh most definitely

What really bugs me though:

"Terrible beer, would not buy, etc etc..."
*Rates said beer 3.0 or higher*

 

I always review based on style because a great lager, great stout, great sour, great IPA, etc, does not compare to each other and it's why I've even rated

Original Pils
Schlossbrauerei Rheder / Gräflich von Mengersen`sche Dampfbrauer Rheder a 5

 

I concur and that’s why I look at the beer notes vs the rating. I look for specific tasting notes that I like and what I want in an ipa, lager, stout etc.

3 magnets has a beer called one kap Kölsch. On the label there are Untappd reviews like one cap I am not a fan of lagers. Just look at the top rated beers. You don’t see subtle styles. More alcohol, more flavor the higher the rating.

 

You also need to factor in that there are some people who have higher expections that the beer deserves and show their disappointment by rating lower than they might have otherwise. Since the two sets of biases in raters tend to "cancel out" each other the average scores on frequently rated beers usually windes up being closer to the "real" score.

 

Personally disagree that they cancel out. If you spend a bunch of money and effort to obtain said beer you want that beer to be great. I think people rate beers higher than Lower because they are disappointed. That’s the whole thing about hype and why it exists. I think more people are influenced by the perception that it should be great.

 

Disappointed people tend to not show it by rating higher than they might have otherwise. (There's research on how people use rating scales that illustrates that.)

Pick a few of the beers that fall into the "whale" category and sort the ratings by lowest and quite often you'll find people who didn't give the beer high ratings and expressing disappointment if reviewing.

 

What I am saying is that I think more people are impacted by the hype and expectations and thus rate the beer higher. I think there are fewer people who rate the beer lower than expectations because they are disappointed with a whale.

Just look at the top beers and scarcity marketing. More beers are over hyped because they are hard to get or are supposed to be the best. Thus, they don’t cancel each other out.

 

Who cares? Let people review and rate how they want. Use your own judgement when buying beer.

 

Focus on one single beer. You are probably correct they don't exactly cancel out because the number of over-raters is probably larger than the number of under-raters thus the two may not entirely cancel each other out. But neither of us have access to the data which would tell us how large the effect of either subset of raters.

But the critical point is that not all raters are subject to the overrating bias and there are those who use lower scores to show their disappointment. In addition there are those who do neither. So the average score of a hyped beer is closer to "reality" than many folks seem to realize.

 

Maybe Ba needs to add another item to the rating system called Style. Then folks can rate the beer from 1 to 5 based on how the beer rates for the style its in. This could aid some since you would see the scores and if the beer ranks high but the style mark is low then we know its tasty but does not meet the style, etc.
I would honestly like to see something like this.

Cheers

 

I'll review beers and have done so for many years. Rating beers is over-rated and inherently fraught with prejudice. Describe the beer and note your impressions.