Hop Butcher (2019)

On both our @HouseofWortship s

 

I love untappd but it is the reason that people are so obsessed with getting these beers which makes it hard for everyone else.

Then again, without people reviewing these beers on untappd, hop butcher probably isn't churning out new stuff every week.

 

I'm definitely getting chicken broth vibes on the latest untappd photos. Aka, I'm mad excited

 

and it'll be available on the shelf for weeks. so that's convenient.

 

I'm fine with Untappd itself, it's the userbase that sucks (or more specifically, the ratings). I like it as a place to record my beers (and what I thought about them), and it's a good tool for finding beers; the problem is numerical value the beers get. You get breweries like Dovetail that rarely crack a 4 because no one rates to style (and German beers aren't "hot" enough), and every stout with an adjunct is "omg x adjunct bomb!"

 

I'd be happy if untappd took away the ability to include the fire emoji in reviews.

 

Yeah that is a big issue especially when it gets to the point that it's at with hop butcher. I never know if the beer is actually good or if it's just people giving any haze an auto 4.

I always rate to style and my friends will make fun of me because I'll say I don't think it tastes good, but still rate it solid because it tastes exactly like it should.

 

Have you ever compared ratings from Untappd to another source with user ratings such as BA? I did it once for a list of 50-ish beers and they were pretty similar, with BA generally being higher. I think the aggregation of so many ratings evens out all of "OMG!" ratings that may come about in Untappd.

 

I'd agree, but people here use the term "fire" to describe beers as well, so I don't see much of a difference whether you say it or use the emoji.

 

I agree with Untappd in large chunks. There's a lot of difference if you're just going beer to beer, but if the average for one beer is 4.4 and the other is 3.8, I'll usually end up preferring the former. Although, admittedly, I am definitely part of the craft beer nouveau riche.

 

The real issue is just HOW the info is available, though; the numbers are half of what you see on Untapped, and there's no real description other than "fire dawg" or "very hoppy."

Don't get me wrong, I still use it as a general aggregator ("is this beer complete shit?"), but the reviews here allow for actual text, which is the helpful part (to me, at least).

I didn't mean to turn this into Untappd Warz, though, so my bad.

 

Me too, as long as it's the same style. I just think people on Untapped tend to be less trustworthy on non-hyped styles.

 

I once got called an asshole because I said Henna Swirl wasn't worth a car payment even though I rated it a 4.25.

Anywho...I like Hop Butcher even though I haven't had much from them. Tavern Cut was good but I did pick up on the "green" aspect of it.

 

agreed, which is why the key is to find a select group of like-minded individuals and only pay attention to their ratings/feedback.

and then to take it into a new stratosphere of snobbery, i ding their average a .25 point because I feel like the vast majority of reviewers tend to skew higher initially

 

How often do you go into BA and read the text for 5+ text reviews of beers you are interested in buying/comparing and then use that to make your decision, though? I for one just don't have the time for that, and like @PhilBallins mentioned, I can use the aggregate scores as a guiding light (I can do this with BA as well, obviously).

In the end, though, I really don't use scores on BA or Untappd to guide my buying decisions, as I typically know what I want. If I am up in the air between a few beers, I have my own herd of beer ninjas to consult with.

 

Honestly, and it may just be because my palate isn't advanced enough, but the extremely detailed tasting notes do nothing for me. I get the most value from a quick overview of flavor and overall score.

A still remember a bourbon article that called out a tasting note of "tinned peaches". You honestly got that flavor to so specific a point that you could tell that it was a tinned peach flavor over a normal peach? I wanted to smack him.

 

Wow.


Just.


Wow.



Tinned peaches and normal peaches taste completely different.

I’m not mad.

 

It was his sixth or seventh straight flavor. I don't believe for a second he pulled that out amidst the "waves of vanilla cream".

 

Oh yeah, I rarely read reviews to formulate an opinion either, I just sometimes use them for some more important details that I wouldn't get on Untappd. I don't use Untappd for scores at all, either; I just have a fundamental issue with a platform that makes it so easy for people to give good beers a 3/5 because they don't know what they're supposed to taste like.

I think you're selling yourself short; I'm not sure everyone really analyzes notes that way. And for something like NE IPAs (since we're on HB's thread) Untappd works fine. I've just been burned quite a bit on other types of beers, and that tends to be less the case (numerically) here because the typical reviewer on Untappd isn't as hardcore as us dudes/dudettes on the forum.

(Also, I agree on bourbon reviews, I generally hate that shit. Different bourbons definitely taste different to me, but when you're picking out 17 different fruits and the taste of old dollar bills, I just don't believe you)

 

If you want some great reviews here on BA you got to check out the reviews from @BEERchitect. Straight poetry.