How does rarity affect your reviews?

100% of the time ... duh. You're not a real BA if you actually review the hype to a "C" average like a normal beer. Hell, arguably you're not a real BA if you review to a "C" average in any context.

Sigh.

 

Honestly, I try to review it simply as I see it. Now, if I know something is supposed to be "great" or "amazing" I might try harder to find out what stands out about it. However, these expectations are just as likely to lead to a lower rating than something deserves as well.

 

It often has a more negative effect on my reviews. The more effort I put into getting a beer, the higher my expectations and the more disappointed I am when they don't meet those. Though I get a similar effect from higher priced beers. I might have given Black Ops a slightly higher review had it not cost $24 for a bottle. It's probably not a coincidence that nearly all of my favorite beers are easily obtainable and affordable.

 

> How does rarity affect your reviews?


Positively of course.

 

It definitely effects reviews. If a beer is rare then only people who hunt for it are going to drink it and review it, and most people dont hunt hard for something they are unsure of

 

I think if you have a rare beer that everyone is talking about, your expectations are higher. I recently had a westy 8 and I really didn't care for it. It's in the top 20 beers of the world but for me it was just ok. If I had the choice between that and a hop stoopid, I'd take the hop stoopid anyday.

I think people tend to rate rare beers higher. I agree with n2185 with the price as well. Expensive doesn't always mean good.

 

Rarity doesn't affect mine at all. If a beer isn't great I have no problem saying so.

As backfat says, "I only subscribe to aasher's reviews, it's like he hates beer or something"

Haha

 

Knowing that rarity and price can affect the reviews of even the most experienced and critical reviewer, as has been shown several times and in several areas of reviewing (e.g., wine, beer, food, etc., etc.), I minimize the effects by separating conditions of purchasing from reviewing. Also, I don't actively pursue rare beers. If I find one, I find one, but no special effort is involved.

After purchase the beer goes into the "cellar" for a couple of weeks to a couple of years. Since all beers are gray in the dark, when the beer comes out for reviewing I typically can't tell you how much it cost, how rare it was or how even where I bought it without checking records that are completely separate from the list of beers in my "library."

 

It doesn't affect my posts at all because I can't afford rare beers

 

If the bottle count of a beer affects the final score of your review, you're doing it wrong.

 

Homebrew FTW?

 

I was going to say at least +1.0 to all categories but your response was genius in its brevity.

 

I agree with a few of the earlier posts that if rarity or "hype" about a beer affects my review of that beer at all it just sets my expectation higher. For example, earlier this week at a beer social hosted by a store here in Chicago, I finally had a chance to sample (actually a few 4 oz. samples) of the famed Bell's Black Note. I really enjoyed it and thought it was great. However, I was expecting it to be one of the best stouts (at least top 5) I've had due to all the hype. It wasn't. I do look forward to having it a second time, and hopefully a full glass instead of a few 4 oz's.

I tend to wait until I have a beer a second time to review it if possible, especially a beer with a lot of hype around it regardless if it initially lived up to the hype. After I've had it once, I'm not reacting to the expectations and preconceived perceptions rather just the beer itself.

 

Something to mention in the body of the review - something along the lines of whether or not it should be worth the trouble acquiring. I (to the best of my ability) don't let rarity or cost affect my rating - I rate these things for myself and not to conform to what the BA score says others have rated it to.

 

Go into the rating no, but I'll probably mention in the text somewhere whether it was worth acquiring for whatever price I had to pay.

 

Until you stop having irrationally high expectations for rare beers or whales, you'll find you only enjoy maybe half of those beers. It's usually when you aren't expecting much from a beer that you are impressed. Not to mention that rating is based on what other people thought of the beer. Obvious I know, but just from cruising the forums and reading another 5-desert-island-beers thread, you can see just how different other people's tastes are. And thus they may like X-beer more than you. /rant

 

I didn't even think about that! LOL

 

It might make my review longer, because I'm putting a little more effort into analyzing it than usual, but it shouldn't affect the conclusion of the review.

 

Shoud it, no. Does it, yeah.