How do you evaluate/rate a beer's appearance?

The more beers you review the more natural this will become. be sure to read plenty of reviews as well. I always had a harder time with mouthfeel.

 

Take into account: the appearance of the head after pouring, retention time (i.e. how long it takes for the head to fizzle away), and the presence of lacing, collar or cap after the head has died down a bit. Obviously most of these parameters have to do with how you pour the beer, so it helps to be somewhat consistent when pouring. Colour/clarity can also be taken into account here, but keep in mind that many styles can have a fairly wide range of appropriate hues.

Basically, does the beer look the way you'd expect a beer of this style to look? Does staring at that glass have an enticing effect on you, i.e. make you want to drink it? Keep in mind that appearance is only worth (I think?) 5% of the beer's final grade, so it's perfectly possible for a great beer to look like shit in the glass.

 

It's mostly about head, cloudy/or not and if the color matches what I expect from the style.

 

I haven't started posting reviews on BA yet, but I keep my own review notes on most of what I drink. Personally, I always try to rate appearance from 2 main angles:

1) How appropriate/accurate is the appearance for the style, and if it's a style I drink a lot, how does the appearance compare to other examples of the style that I've tried? This can get tricky for some of the more unusual styles or those that you're not familiar with, but there are lots of resources here and elsewhere that can help provide some idea of what the style 'should' look like.

2) How appealing is the appearance to me personally? (yes, this is totally subjective, but I feel it's important to consider). For example, I expect an imperial stout to be very dark/black. If I pour one and can see significant light through it, I'm going to lower this portion of my rating, because it's not as appealing to me.

 

Two-finger head is ideal to me, anything more or less generally gets a lower grade. Except for certain style exceptions, such as most saisons having a larger head.

 

I also like to include a line about outstanding (good or bad) bottle/box art. I usually don't bring it into my score, however, unless I'm torn between bumping it up or down.
Like other people said, I'm also pretty lenient with this score. Rarely will anything be below a 4.
Finally, regarding head and retention, make sure your glassware is clean, as this can affect it- give every beer a fair shot to impress you.

 

I personally like a small tan head with a thin body and an aromatic smell with an excellent mouthfeel.

 

I always look for things such as:

-color
-haziness
-activity in the glass (are there lots of bubbles rising or not)
-head size/color/retention
-head texture (cloudy, soapy, fizzy, etc)
-lace
-texture and thickness

as previously mentioned, the more beers you critique and analyze, the more points of reference you will have when evaluating which will help you determine point scores.

 

This is very similar to what I look for when evaluating appearance. If these attributes are consistent with how that style of beer should look, it will get a good rating.

 

And if there are nucleation bubbles on the walls of your beer glass, your glass IS NOT CLEAN. See my example below, or check out the WBAYDN threads, which sadly always have a number of perpetrators.

 

I agree with most of what has been stated already. My two adds ...
(1) I like really dense (small) and uniform bubbles in the head. I give points for this.
(2) It ticks me off when there is no born on or best by date. I will ding appearance for this. That's how I roll.

 

For me, appearance is a big part of the overall beer experience. Color, level of clarity, head, lacing, plus I like to throw in bottle/can size and any freshness dating in that category as well. If it's a great looking beer, anticipation rises, salivation begins, and you're off to a good start. Having said that, I've had many a beer that looked great and tasted awful, and vice versa.

Cheers, enjoy the entire beer experience!

 

Close eyes, then drink.

 

Whenever I get those bubbles I tap my glass against the counter and they pop right off.

 

well since we all not beer judges and its your review, you get to pick. Still I try to rate to style. When in doubt I check the sheet and tasting beer by Randy Mosher. TBH unless you are comparing beer on the same type next to each other, its really about it matching your ideal of the type of beer its supposed to be. Which frankly can be impossible at times. I can tell you how I do, but then I would have to kill yea.

get the book, Randy does a great job of explaining things better than I can in words. In person well I do much better.

 

All beer looks good to me, it's expected, I get hung up on mouth feel with styles that are not Stouts.