Do you think most BAs rate beers too high?

The rarer it tastes, the higher the score.

 

Yes.

 

Rating starts at a 4 and goes up from there.

Unless the beer is terrible. Then it gets a 3.75. It only gets a 1 if it's BMC.

 

When you have people saying stuff like "mediocre", "not good at all", and "subpar" to a beer they've given a 3.6 score to, then yeah, there's a big problem with overrating.

 

3 would actually be middle of the road, since 0 is not an option

 

Reasons for the large number of above-average reviews here:

1. Craft beer, which can tend to be above average in quality isn't even 10% of the US market by volume, but constitutes most of the reviews on this site.

2. Most establishments that reviewers frequent tend to serve or sell above average beer.

3. Many people don't review every beer they drink, they just review the ones they felt good about drinking. I believe SN Celebration is the most reviewed beer on BA, even though it is clearly not the most consumed.

4. We all like beer, and would feel bad about giving an "average" score to any beer that triggered a small release of dopamine in our hypothalmus.

 

I don't pay much attention to ratings, but the big, boozy, rare beers are rated way higher than I would rate them... in most cases.

 

I often think about this and think that I myself rate beers to high as it seems that nothing gets rated lower than 3. It's hard though because everything tastes so good.

 

Lagers are rated too low on this site; despite drinking a remarkable example of the style, the dunces around here rate them poorly simply because they don't like the style.

 

I think a lot of people write reviews with the hope that other people read them, and in turn, respect their opinion. So its a bit easier to just go with the flow and focus on the good. Being critical becomes more daring. For example look at Yelp reviews. There are plenty of people willing to rate a McDonald's 4 or 5 stars (laff). Meanwhile probably about 90% of the reviews that get filtered out are negative/funny/critical, even though they are also, more importantly, honest and true.

 

Yeah, they tend to be on the high end. I think some don't want to be overly harsh, or bash otherwise generally loved brew, or a local brewery, or the hype rarity factor is also there too Also, from say Yelp as an example, often many reviews are 1 (one bad experience, from one person that never rviews) and others are 5 (drunk, fanboys, local biast, etc) but the real quality can generally be found in the middle scores, since then there are details as to what they liked, didn't, etc. BA reviews are similiar in this regard, imho.

I haven't reviewd in a while, but got to about 300 - 400 hundred. I got bit better at it over time, but the context of your review is generally what matters, because pallette's differ. An example might be something like smoke, rye, or anise in a stout. Some love all of those, none of them, or one of them. Your desciption will detail those differences, and help others decide if that sounds like something they might like as well, but the score may not reflect that. Mainly, it's your opinion, which is just as valid as someone elses, and in the end, it's just one opinion.

 

I do for sure. But back when I was in school, a 50% was considered an F. I don't know how things work nowadays.

 

I don't rate many beers, but I tend to rate beers I like more than beers I don't like. If others do the same, it will tend to skew the scores in a positive direction.

 

I try to compare beers based on similar beer of that style. Also, I stay away from reviewing beer styles I'm not particularly fond of, like peppery porters.

 

Taste is subjective so a "5" beer for one guy isn't necessarily the same for another. If someone says Hoptimum is the greatest beer they've ever had, who am I to argue? Eventually everyone figures out who else has a palate similar to their own and which opinions to ignore.

 

I know I tend to, usually when giving an actual review. When I mark is as a "had" I generally consider a 4.0 or higher to be good enough to drink/buy again, a 3.75 is a "maybe drink again if its one of the only options, and a 3.5 or lower are "don't buy or drink". Ive noticed on the beers that I actually review I am usually a positive rDev, although I usually only tend to review beers I really like.