Obsession with BA ratings

If only people did this more often it would finally kill the "BUY LOCAL" dogma out there.
(well, at least for Arizona).
90+ beers only.

 

The people saying you should *never* use scores to pick a beer sound just as pretentious as the people saying they would *never* buy a beer rated under 90. We all want to drink good beer. Find it however you want and, by all means, enjoy the path you took to that discovery. Neither camp is right or wrong, they are just different methods used to find beer in varied situations and preferences. The real question should be: Did the guys enjoy their beer that night? If not, I doubt they'll follow ratings again. If so, I guess it served their purpose.

 

English Bitter. Kolsch. American Blonde Ale.

Just three styles I can think of that have less than five beers rated 90 or better. Probably not a bad idea to take style bias into consideration.

It can be relative. An English Bitter rated below 90 could easily be a better constructed beer than one of the many IPA's scoring over 90.

 

I usually look for beers rated in the 80s myself. Lots of subtle beers and less popular styles I like end up with lower ratings. I think 92 - 93 is the sweet spot, Westmalle Dubbel, Saison Dupont, and Weihenstephaner Korbinian as examples. I'm usually suspicous of that rate higher ratings are skewed by abv, hype, or style.

 

Well none of those are barrel aged, sour, 12% abv, or 120 IBUs....how could they be better than average?

 

I was going to mention that there are entire clusters of beer styles for which BA ratings are essentially useless due to style bias. Munich Helles, anyone?

 

If this is wrong, I don't want to be right. I often pull out my phone and check out BA or use the Beer Buddy app to scan bar codes on bottles (believe they source ratings from Ratebeer). It makes things a bit slower at the store, but I like to have a decent idea about a new beer before I buy it. Not that I think a beer that rates 95 is by definition better than one that rates 93, but if the sample size is high enough, I have to believe more highly rated brews will tend to be better than lower rated ones. My $.02.

 

I would have missed out on plenty great beers that I love if I only purchased 90+ rated beers. You have to think that BA has been around a while and those ratings could have been established 5+ years ago. The beer / brewery could have improved in that time, and now you are just missing great beer.


On the other hand, since I have been on BA, I have spent a lot more money on beer from seeking out beers that are highly acclaimed here.

 

I understand their logic & why they do it.
They sound like they are starting out & I do still think that starting out with some nicely priced classics and working from there is a nicer way in the long run. Will leave you with some easier to get & cheaper beers that you will really love. The hall of fame might be a nice place to start.
Their way will cost them a lot more & will lead them quickly to getting disappointing with more standard brews – non BA, supper hoppy etc. stuff.

 

When I was new to craft beer, I did this as well. These days I know most of the stuff I like and can usually buy something new based on my gut.

 

My boss suprised me with 6 bombers from her local bottle shop as an x-mas gift. She didn't know what she was buying, but used this website to find 90+ rated beers. I thought it was great that she thought to get me craft beer, but I was even more estatic that she found some pretty great stuff.

 

I had the opposite experience. One of the guys at work knew I liked craft beer and got that for me in a gift exchange. Except he got me a six of Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale. He even chilled it so I could drink it at the company party. Great guy, so I choked down a couple. He finally joined in and after the first drink exclaimed, "This is *@!*@!* AWFUL." At least I didn't have to pretend anymore. Wish he had used BA to buy beer

 

If its a style I love or from a brewery I love I usually buy it without looking up ratings, but due to limited funds wanting to be spent I usually look up new releases. In the past when I first got into craft I didn't care and wanted to try everything. Now that I have more knowledge of the craft beers out there I realize its impossible for me to try everything.

 

The best is when one of your favorite beers is rated low, because then there aren't any other BAs buying it all up.

 

One doesn't have to practice self-discovery to enjoy surprises and disappointments; such concepts occur quite naturally. I would agree perhaps that the art of taking chances isn't for everyone.

Even so, I wouldn't consider consulting the beer ratings of a beer site to be an ode to human frailty.

 

Total awkwardness of walking around a liquor store with an ipad aside, isn't that the entire point of ratings? To see what beers are good and which are not? Drawing a line at "only an 88" is ridiculous, but conceptually I don't really see the problem...

 

I find myself using the info here on BA to find out what exactly the "style" is of the beer more than anything.

Ah... that guillotine beer from Delerium? Is that dark Belgian?? who is it from... oh okay.. Is that my bag? Is that a brewery I've had good experiences? then maybe I might look at the rating... then I might buy it... or not.. regardless what others think. Same goes for other brews.

Ratings are one facet, but BA provides way more info than just what other people think of something. Ratings are interesting, but it's not the only factor. (at least for myself).

 

I'm 100% guilty of checking scores in store and basing purchase decision on them. But I try not to limit it as much as possible. For example, right now I'm only buying stuff from bottle shops that's on one of the three Top 100 lists, I have that list of those beers on my phone so I'm not walking around the store waiting for BA to load on 3G.

That being said,

Chicory Stout, Dark Intrigue and Hopsun all com in around 85 here and I LOVE those brews. So I try not to completely write off anything in the 80s. But its a pretty good bet that I'm going to like something in the 90s.

 

Many stores put the BA and RB scores on the shelves so you don't have to fumble with your interweb things.

 

I don't have all the money in the world for beer, so beeradvocate is a nice reference.

That being said, a porter or stout is something I can buy even if it has a lower rating, while a tripel or wheat beer needs to have a higher rating for me to buy it.
Of course, this is when I have access to beeradvocate...