Does BA Australia deserve a top beers list

Discussion in 'Australia' started by mulder1010, May 17, 2013.

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  1. mulder1010

    mulder1010 Initiate (0) Aug 29, 2008 Australia

    This is not a knock on Australia, nor is it a knock on the beers made here. My question is does Australia deserve a top beers list on BA??

    http://beeradvocate.com/lists/au
    Above is the top beers currently on BA for here. Just under half the beers have under 20 reviews. For whatever it really means. The most reviewed beers on here see export to the US and Canada. See Coopers Stout, Little Creatures and the export Mountain Goat.

    https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/beer/country/australia/14/
    Very different list and more reviews. Why?? More reviewers in Europe and Australia on RB. As well some beers go to Europe. Mountain Goat was at the CBC recently, Bridge Roads collaboration beers went to Europe and some Murray's as well as Holgate.

    My main point is more NZ beers get US distribution. Yes, this is a US centric site. Leave it at that. Yeastie Boys, Epic, and 8 wired see US distribution and a larger pool of reviewers on here. If it was a ANZAC list the number on beer would be batch 31 from 8 wired. Yes there is a small, if any pool of reviewers in NZ but in reality when only Coopers has US national distribution and MT Goat sees limited distro why should Australia have it's own list when there are a handful of reviewers on here and that almost all of these beers stay in Australia??

    Please discuss. Interested in your thoughts
     
    #1 mulder1010, May 17, 2013
  2. hawthorne00

    hawthorne00 Devotee (331) Nov 23, 2010 Australia

    Flip response: now someone's been good enough to code it, having it doesn't really cost anything.

    Next:
    1. Both lists are useful because of the robustness of the Bayesian "it takes a bit to drag a score away from default" systems employed by both sites.
    2. Yes, distribution matters, but many differences are due to rating to style or not and differences in the geographic makeup of the fairly small pools of reviewers (more WA and NSW influence here, I think).
    3. I don't know why there is more talk here and more rating there. I know you review/ rate on both places, but I started there and haven't bothered here.
    4. The scoring system may be robust, but the very small pool of reviewers means that beers getting good scores don't appear on lists and don't come to people's attention. Obvious example, Wig & Pen.
    5. Interesting that the top 'strayan beer on Ratebeer has only been drunk by foreigners.
    6. "almost all of these beers stay in Australia??" Not sure why this might be a problem.
    7. Batch 18 :wink: was very good.
     
    #2 hawthorne00, May 17, 2013
  3. joecast

    joecast Pooh-Bah (1,694) Jun 30, 2003 Australia
    Pooh-Bah

    That was discussed initially wasn't it (a combined aus / NZ list)? I think it would certainly add value to the list for all the reasons stated, but its BA, you take the good with the less than good.

    To answer the q, I think we do deserve a list. But maybe it hasn't boosted user reviews as much as anticipated. And tbh, I don't review much anymore either.
     
    #3 joecast, May 19, 2013
  4. scmorgan

    scmorgan Initiate (0) Apr 5, 2005 Australia

    Maybe its too hard ... can you go onto BA like you can uptapped and press stuff ... like no expectation of writing and putting time into the review?

    Just asking, not saying one is better than the other ... one is perhaps just a lazier pursuit?
     
    #4 scmorgan, May 19, 2013
  5. heygeebee

    heygeebee Pooh-Bah (2,125) Aug 6, 2010 Australia
    Pooh-Bah

    My answer is yes, yes, yes....

    Not simply because I love lists or whatever, but because of the power that any given 'top' list has in throwing up a beer I have not heard of.
    A current example being the 'SQL error' Pale Ale from the Undefined Brewery in the Taphouse Top 100 2014 of course.

    However, a more serious note, given the difference between RB and BA.... are there any folks on here who know their statistics really well? ie at what point - how many reviews - would it take the two sites to converge on a 'best beer'? 100, 1000, a Million, more ???? I genuinely do not understand how the top beers can be so different, there are some underlying rules at play.
     
    #5 heygeebee, May 19, 2013
  6. danieelol

    danieelol Initiate (0) Jun 15, 2010 Australia

    Differences in geography and thus beer accessibility of reviewers, differences in hype/subjectivity influencing reviews, different scoring system with different weightings, different categorisation of style/weighting based on style, different mentality of reviewers on each site; are just some of the reasons.
     
    #6 danieelol, May 19, 2013
  7. mulder1010

    mulder1010 Initiate (0) Aug 29, 2008 Australia

    In a very general way, RB plays to a more ticker mentality. BA is more about Hype and trade value.
    In an Australian sense, what is odd is the lack of love for Feral in RB, BA very different. Wig and Pen gets good scores as I can really guess more due to tourists in Canberra who visit.
    What I find frustrating is that there will be little or no reviews for the GABS beers where when Mountain Goat got a lot of reviews from the Euro RB members at the CBC.
     
    #7 mulder1010, May 19, 2013
  8. CarlisleWineBin

    CarlisleWineBin Initiate (0) Jul 8, 2008 Australia

    As a non-rater on either site, I can concur with mulder1010 with the way I use the sites differ. Ratebeer is used for checking scoring and research. BA is pretty much for forums, discussion, beer fly etc.

    I can't bring myself to start 'officially' raring beers on either site or untapped due to the many missed from previous drinking, and rather dislike forcing a dissection of a beer at times...
     
    #8 CarlisleWineBin, May 19, 2013
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