How important are beer ratings?

They're incredibly important and useful if they're from someone that you trust/respect.

 

I’m not sure how much I can trust anyone who gives beers numerical scores.

 

The only time that I use ratings is when I select a beer at a bar that I really like, and my wife, who uses UT, tells me it only has a so-so rating on that site. I'll look up the BA rating to compare. Sometimes I'm vindicated, and sometimes not. So ratings are not all that important to me.

 

Ratings mean less to me more than ever before. The only time I will ever look at them is to check a beer or brewery I am completely unfamiliar with if at a store, but even then it's rare. Even my own ratings I don’t trust, as beers I didn’t like years ago I love today and vice versa. So if it sounds good to me at the time, I’ll try it out. Makes life and beer enjoyment much better that way.

 

Frankly , when it comes to something as personal and subjective as ones taste , any numerical consensus that can be reached on a beer on this site ought to be considered quite a fair reflection of the quality of that beer, so I personally would see beer ratings as a very convenient guide indeed when it comes to either acquiring or avoiding a particular beer.

 

Of course raters are doing so based on their own bias and preferences, not on how well a beer meets a style, however data is gold. The more and more people rate a beer the more accurate that rating will be for the average taster, capturing diversity of preference across ages, ethnicity, region, etc is always better than local opinion of a few.

I think ratings should not be compared across styles, but I have found for the most part I am inline with the relative ratings of beers within a style when there are 20+ ratings for the beer.

 

extremely

 

I also like the big flavor beers (porters/stouts, IPAs, sours, etc). When I review, I do make an effort to rate each beer against the expected style characteristics and other examples of the style. That said, I find that upper numerical limit of my rating does vary by style, so a stout can get a 5, whereas an AAL typically do not come close. Apropos of that, IMHO many well constructed AALs get unfairly low numbers. I would infer that many of us pretty much rate all beers against each other regardless of style. I that is so, beers that are lighter or more subtle in flavor and aroma may suffer relative to the "louder" beers. The point has been many times on the site that this is addressed somewhat by aggregating scores.

 

Yes, I frequently use ratings and reviews from this site when choosing new beers to purchase. I have almost always found them to be reliable and have rarely been let down in all my years on BA. To me it is THE most valuable aspect of this community of beer lovers.

 

We're not a bunch of cicerones or BJCP judges on here, just a bunch of beer drinkers. Personal taste is the primary factor in any review you read on here, unless you're a beer trader and want to inflate your local beers for trade value

 

Very well said!

 

Because that person might be handing you an IPA from Tree House? At least those are the folks I've encountered that say "I'm not really an....person."

They do into mine if it's like what the person below says from someone I trust/respect.

There are over 7,000 breweries in the country and there is so much variety on the shelves. There is often choice paralysis. If I can get some information or insight from people whose palates that I trust, it is going to make my purchasing decision that much easier. I honestly really need the reviews, not necessarily the ratings.

 

Ratings can help in some cases but I make up my on mind. A lot of raters just follow fads and trends I take most with a huge grain of salt.

 

The most important ratting tools are my taste buds!

 

I don't pay much attention to ratings, but I do read reviews to get an idea on whether or not I want to try a beer.

 

Beer ratings are like golf scores....no one cares about yours but you.