It’s an amazing task to me. It’s too difficult ,expensive and time consuming. every time you seem to get close it changes.even if you accomplish the goal,the question is for how long. The list changes so quickly it’s too hard to keep up. I think the HOF list actually a better accomplishment. Good luck and cheers
I don't really understand the top 250, it actually doesn't change that much and there's beer on there that hasn't been brewed in years, however if the brewery doesn't deem it as "retired" it stays. e.g. Stormaktsporter, which hasn't been brewed since 2023 I also have no idea why the other top 250 lists like "Trending" and "New" don't have their rating sorted appropriately. Just sort it by rAvg and set the minimum # of reviews to 20 or something a little higher. If the review counts are low it's likely a one-off beer, a new beer, or such a small batch it probably shouldn't out rate another beer like KBBS that's actually brewed at scale, been around for a while or multiple batches, and has higher # of reviews.
I decided to chase the current list rather than the always updating list. That list was May2013 and it took me 13 years to complete but I have no regrets chasing it. It took me halfway around the country (Decorah a few times) and the world (Denmark for Blåbær) and it was a great adventure. Met so many amazing and generous people along the way including a few on this thread. Don’t chase it just for the checks. Do it for the adventure and the love of beer.
A lot of the beers on that list are expensive and hard to find. As a former whale chaser, I am not interested in reviewing any of those beers unless they drop in my lap. I found great joy in beers that are not on the list.
Just noticed a new beer (and brewery) into the top 250. Seems to be a small self described “Hudson valley farm brewery” that was added here on BA on May 3rd. They have one beer, added May 4th. That beer already has 17 ratings here on BA, and has cracked a spot in the top 250. Their profile says “Beers are brewed at / by another brewery.” The beer has barely a 4.0 on Untappd. Is it just me or does this seem like someone has inflated these ratings/the system here on BA? Perhaps @Todd could provide some insight? https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/72153/799512/
Also….14 of the 17 ratings are by members that just joined BA within the last week LOL. Something obviously fishy.
Of those reviewers, 14 have joined the site in the past week, no pooh-bahs among the others. Either this beer is making a lot of converts out of people and is completely unnoticed by the rest of us, or something fishy is going on.
The obvious answer is that employees, friends, and family of the founders were "encouraged" to start accounts just to rate the beer, another had one that they never used, and only couple of them were smart enough not to give it a perfect 5, but not making it obvious was not a specific instruction when you consider that it has 11 as that, and then 3 others are 4.92 or higher...
I do take a couple of them somewhat seriously, but they're also homers, so... maybe they got to them too. Conspiracy theories are a lot of fun. I can see why people get into this.
Those reviews are super sketchy just in their wording. The mix of "I don't usually like IPA..." and people calling is "crisp" (for a hazy ipa?) is weird to enough to make me suspect they are written by ai and or a marketing team that has never had the beer.
I don't want to flag all those reviews, maybe tagging Todd, and some mods will help. This looks really odd to me...there are certainly things that can be critiqued with online beer reviews in general, but this just looks ah, wow. All the users created within the same few days, all not really "reviews" (I'll give the first one a the benefit of the doubt). I can't say I have seen this before here, but there is also a lot of reviews and breweries I haven't seen either. @Todd @beergoot Don't know if these can be reviewed and removed or whatever...but looks bad to me ha. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/72153/799512/
*THIS IS PURELY SATIRICAL* He's a known beer retailer in the area. You do the math. Actually the only one of two reviews I trust. Has posted, has some beers under his belt. I'm sure the rating is inflated by homerism, but that's to be expected.
You know what they say. “any attention is good attention, even if it's bad attention”. Or something like that.
There has been some discussion behind closed doors over the past few days about this beer. If they are legit accounts (i.e., not multiple accounts created by the same person), there really isn't anything to do. Even if it's deliberate inflation or people being encouraged to join to give a perfect rating, it's not our place to subjectively decide which reviews are legit and which aren't. That would be a slippery slope.
I can understand that. Kinda stinks though cause all legitimacy of this being a top 250 beer is out the door then. Glad I completed the list when I did!
I hear you. If it isn't a top 250 beer, then more people will try it, review it, and produce a legitimate score.
The issue isn't up for y'all to resolve, it's up to the users. I get it. This is a pretty democratic (form of governance, not the party) site. Even if they are a great brewery, it'll take a while for the stank to wash off. Probably won't, and shouldn't. Keep this thought alive if they ever take off, because this is somehow more insidious (to me at least) than all the revelations about unfair treatment of employees in any of it's forms that have come to light in the past few years. At least you could find an honest review of the beer and then figure out how strong your morals are in relation to whether you'd buy a beer from a brewery. To straight up start the business with subterfuge, well, they have balls, I'll give that to them. Kudos to @Bhubbard34 to bringing it up in the first place.
