Overrated Is Overused

Came here to say the same thing. So it's okay to be underrated but not overrated? Whenever I hear the words "underrated" or "overrated' I think that it goes without saying that means over/underrated in their opinion. I think it's kinda silly to presume that people who use these phrases are actually saying that something is factually under/overrated. It is nearly impossible to use these words objectively.

 

Thank you for finally saying what I've felt for a long time; more eloquently than I ever could.
I find beer & its critique of it, has evolved into that of something you might find in the Wine Enthusiast, or an Art/movie critiques, or even Yelp. Most of it is a bunch of smarmy, BS!
Beer, like everything else, which is nothing more than What you like is, what you like & all that matters.
There are so many good beers waiting to be tried, don't waste your time on reading about, just fucking drink it.

 

I tend to use overrated when the thing seems to be getting rated highly due to past glories or reputation instead of its actual value.
Notre Dame's football team is almost always overrated.
If lots of drinkers think a beer rates 90+ and I don't think so, I usually just chalk that up to difference in taste, not overrating.
The movie Better Off Dead is the most underrated movie of all time. (I'm not sure what this emoji means, but I feel like this sentence needs an emoji at the end.)

 

Thought provoking editorial. For me, it is more about language, and perhaps society's increasing lack of interest in mastering its use. If you have lived with teenager's recently, you might have noticed choices in language that are (to someone from a different generation) lazy, inaccurate or just inane (see the word "like"...potentially used a dozen times in a single sentence).

I agree with others that "Overrated" is simply a shorthand for the less creative communicators in our world.

In my own experience, having been exposed to "craft brewing" at an early age in late 1980's, I have always found joy in exploring all of the new creations released to the world. I DO NOT use ratings boards, but go to real life places to try the products and discuss with other people.

So when I see a whole segment of consumers that have evolved into these people that ONLY seek out Pliny the Elder (for example), I would likely put the term "overrated" to that beer. To me it has nothing to do with the quality of the product, but more about the fact that many of these people spend their time, timing their visit to the local bottle shop to score this one thing...and walk out empty handed because it is not there yet. Or the local retirees in my community that converge on the Whole Foods on Thursday at noon in anticipation of the Pliny the Elder delivery. There is this rather large segment of consumers that are pursuing something primarily because it is scarce. I have tried a dozen beers or more in the last 12 months that I would put on par with Pliny. I don't even think Pliny is the best beer Russian River brews.

So all that said, people will always judge and troll, and unfortunately for all of us, it would be so much more amusing if they would simply articulate it more descriptively!

 

As long as the word "overrated" is preceded by "IMO" I don't have a problem with it, especially when referring to Pliny the Elder!

 

Whenever I see someone call a beer "overrated" I almost immediately tune them out.

 

Meh, I've been to enough blind tastings to know when a beer is overrated. And there are plenty up in the BA top 250 that are overrated.

 

When I see a beer being called "overrated" or "underrated", all I take that to mean is that the person either did or did not like the beer. its just an opinion. i dont see this as hurting anything at all. unless of course you put too much stock in 1 person's opinion.
kind of a strange article if you ask me. seems more like just a little rant/personal complaint.

 

A person's tastes are entirely subjective. That goes for their taste in food, drink, music, literature, etc. The term "overrated" is an expression of a person's tastes, relative to the tastes of other people. It has no inherent value as there is zero objectivity in a person's personal tastes, zero. Everyone can agree that a beer is a certain temperature, as that can be measured. The color of a beer is also something that ultimately cannot be argued; even if person X sees gold and person Y sees yellow-orange, different colors have different wavelengths, which can be measured. However, whether an individual likes something, the taste of a given beer, blondes versus brunettes, etc., is absolutely a matter of their own personal tastes, which cannot be measured.

I do feel some opinions may be of more or less value to different individuals. For example, if I'm browsing jazz fusion albums, and see a negative review from someone who states they hate jazz, I would likely dismiss that person's opinion. But if someone I knew to have very similar tastes as me said a certain album was awful, then I might consider an alternative. Neither of those people are right or wrong.

A person saying a beer is overrated is even less helpful or informative than if they just gave their opinion of the beer. They're trying to somehow rate the value of their own purely subjective opinion against the values they perceive in other opinions. It's just adding layer upon subjective layer.

All that said, I guess I would say that a single use of the term overrated would constitute overuse, but that's just my opinion.

 

Guy's, if I can be controversial here, there are a lot of good beers in the country

But on a real note I completely agree with this article @Todd I've been fighting this fight on message boards since I got on here!

 

Should I say a beer is overrated by me?

 

Furthermore, until everyone is doing all their reviews blind, the term overrated is quite appropriate.

 

Are we interchanging overrated with overhyped? BA is a site where people rate beer. There are countless records where, for many reasons, a particular beer has a rating which would seem abnormally high. Its not elitist to think as such (we all have opinions), nor is it wrong to claim that a beer has an inflated rating.

You want to see a list filled with overrated beer? Look at the BA top 250.

 

I think your confusing the game with the players. The system is only as good as its input. While taste is subjective, you have to agree there is a bias towad certain beers and against others regardless of actual quality. Times change, tastes change but well made beer should always rate higher than a mediocre hype beer and that’s rarely the case.

 

A more appropriate term may be "over-hyped".

Which means the beer is riding the wave of publicity that is disproportionate to its quality.

 

I found the following line to be particularly laugh-inducing:

Listen: Taste is subjective. There’s no right or wrong.

This is a site the promotes hypetrain beers and makes "best of" lists about them. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

 

Yeah, what an interesting line. Not to get too philosophical, but doesn’t saying, “Taste is subjective.” Literally imply that there is a right and wrong, it’s just not the same for everyone?

So another way to phrase that line would be, “You make your own truth. There is no truth.”

 

You have achieved nirvana.

 

I use the word overhyped rather than overrated because I have had quite a few beers that have not lived up (in my opinion) to what everyone builds them to be.
If what you stated is true, "Taste is subjective. There’s no right or wrong." then someone has the right to think that something is overrated?
Please correct me if I am wrong, but you are arguing that someone's opinion is incorrect?
I fully believe what I state when I talk about beer but that doesn't mean that it is factual or that everyone should agree with my statements...When I say that I taste Cheerios and burnt toffee but someone else tastes orange juice and chocolate, are either of us wrong?