Why We Beer Smack

I can respect and appreciate the honesty and forwardness of your comments/thoughts and suggestions when given. Don't forget that integrity gentlemen. Cheers.

 

I wish more people would be honest about beer. It would lead to less "accolade via trendiness", and ratings would be better balanced across the board.

I've heard so many times "This beer is so good!" and when I ask why there's no real answer it's just that they were told it was good. That goes on with everything (restaurants, clothing, cars, etc.), but it seems to really be going on with beer right now.

And I think we should call out breweries on gimmick and nonsense, or even just misleading information. Why is the Guinness Irish Wheat labeled "BREWED WITH GUINNESS ALE YEAST AND 100% IRISH WHEAT" if in fact it's brewed with 100% Irish wheat and barley - big difference there. Really, it's the gimmick beers that bother me the most though.

Anyway, cheers to honest journalism!

 

This is why I'd support doing reviews only on the site. Ratings do have a place, and I don't want to start that crud storm, but with reviews folks have to justify their high or low ratings. Or if they don't, it's easier to weed out those bloated, or uneducated responses.

I've read reviews of excellent beers (IMO) that were rated low, and the only comments were "tasted like alcohol", or "wow, I'll be hung over after this" typed up in a much lengthier way to meet the 150 character minimum. Even if they only picked up alcohol, at least write that and then include notes on look and feel (of which there were none). Justify your numbers.

Now the folks who run the site have done a good job of weighting reviews over ratings, so I understand any unjustified rating numbers will not be 100% reflected in the overall rating of the beer. I just prefer to see data, particularly one that can be so subjective, to be backed up with some sort of statement in each of the deciding categories.