Does appearance skew your rating?

Looks very important
Second only to the taste
Much more vital than scent

 

This asked on a site where heady is #1....

 

If the appearance is a 5, why change it? If it's a 5, or a 1 you should rate the appearance accordingly. Aroma, taste, and mouthfeel are not part of the appearance.

 

Honestly, unless a beer looks absolutely incredible and just blows my mind, or looks like vomit from a bottle, I just give it the average of my scores for the rest of the categories.

 

My strategy is to do the best I can at rating and describing a beer on each of the scales independently.

I'm focused on improving my ability to evaluate and describe the beer. I've found over the last few years since I started reviewing that reviewing increases my enjoyment of beer in general, even those beers I don't review. Going back and tinkering with the numbers to get the combined score to match some number I can't explain to myself doesn't help me improve.

That said I will sometimes change the individual scale scores and/or the wording of a review, but that is a result of having had the beer again and deciding that my new evaluation is a better description of the sensory experience.

 

Eh, ratings aren't that big a deal anyways. If something's an 86 or a 92 there's not that much difference.

I think the total score matching close to what I think it should be is more important than a 3.0 vs a 4.0 for appearance.

I mean, is anyone checking the individual categories, or the total score? Total score.

 

Heady Topper looks like shit. But smells, drinks, and tastes fantastic. I thought I was generous with my appearance score... To answer your question, I feel (subjective) it's a part of the brewer's art or craftsmanship, to make his masterpiece appear beautiful and appealing. Yeah, to me it matters. We are all people who appreciate visual appealing things we are passionate about. I mean....do you like quality ****, or subpar ****?

 

It's what's on the inside that counts. My momma told me that.

 

Sorry, read OP's post wrong. Each score is separate.

 

No, and it shouldn't.

 

Most people should be giving Heady Topper a low score for appearance, except for people that think hazy and full of debris is a good appearance for an IPA. That's obviously not the case though, a lot of people give it a 5 in appearance just because they like the taste.

 

no. I mean, um, ... no.

 

I don't rate ugly beers. They have enough problems.

 

it skews my "appearance" rating.


end thread.