Retired beers in the Top 250?

Talk Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by eawolff99, Sep 25, 2020.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
Page 1 of 2
  1. eawolff99

    eawolff99 Pooh-Bah (2,422) May 10, 2010 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Aren’t a lot of these beers retired? When was the last time SR-71, Ann, others released? May I suggest a purge of retired beers from the top 250 .... ??
     
    #1 eawolff99, Sep 25, 2020
    Prospero and officerbill like this.
  2. SierraNevallagash

    SierraNevallagash Initiate (0) Sep 23, 2018 Maine
    Trader

    I thought SR-71 and Ann still make regular appearances. As far as I know, the entire Top 250 list is comprised of regular, seasonal, annual and semi-annual releases. I could be wrong now...But I don't think so.

    It's a jungle out there.
     
    #2 SierraNevallagash, Sep 25, 2020
  3. eawolff99

    eawolff99 Pooh-Bah (2,422) May 10, 2010 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Similarly - because years are assigned to BBT that’s constantly a top rated beer of all time but doesn’t get fairly placed in the top 250 - I think we need a bit more human intervention here vs pure algorithm ...
     
    #3 eawolff99, Sep 25, 2020
  4. eawolff99

    eawolff99 Pooh-Bah (2,422) May 10, 2010 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    My understanding is SR-71 has been released twice in past 5 years (2015 and 2018) - this beer shouldn’t be in the top 250 if BBT isn’t. It’s anything less than a regular annual or semi-annual release. Same with Ann.
     
    #4 eawolff99, Sep 25, 2020
    Chuckdiesel24 and jonphisher like this.
  5. SierraNevallagash

    SierraNevallagash Initiate (0) Sep 23, 2018 Maine
    Trader

    I fully agree - I do not at all care for the new individual vintage/retiring previous vintage listing thing for certain beers. I think there are better alternatives that would better and more fairly place beers in their respective positions as far as ratings go. It's not like every yearly release has its own entry. What about Dark Lord? Haven't certain vintages of that beer sucked?

    Unless the blend, recipe, base, or fruit/adjunct addition is wildly different from year-to-year, why retire each vintage when the next comes out?
     
    #5 SierraNevallagash, Sep 25, 2020
    Chuckdiesel24 and maximum12 like this.
  6. eawolff99

    eawolff99 Pooh-Bah (2,422) May 10, 2010 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Absolutely spot on.
     
    #6 eawolff99, Sep 25, 2020
  7. SierraNevallagash

    SierraNevallagash Initiate (0) Sep 23, 2018 Maine
    Trader

    Interesting. I always thought SR-71 was around longer than that, and just underwent a name change. I know Ann isn't super predictable, but I feel like it isn't going anywhere, and will continue to show up. Nevertheless, if that's true, I suppose you have a point.
     
    #7 SierraNevallagash, Sep 25, 2020
  8. Snowcrash000

    Snowcrash000 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,041) Oct 4, 2017 Germany
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Beers which are marked as retired in the database do not appear in any of the BA Top lists, as you can see when going to the beer's page. If any beers which are actually retired still appear in these lists, it's because they are not marked as retired in the database. You can send a correction to mark a beer as retired via the beer tools on the beer page, which will need to be approved by the mods.

    There really is no "new individual vintage/retiring previous vintage listing thing" on BA, it has always been the policy not to allow vintage listings unless the beer is radically different for individual vintages. BBT has been deemed as such because the time it ages for and barrels it ages in are radically different for each vintage.
     
    #8 Snowcrash000, Sep 25, 2020
    BBThunderbolt, SierraNevallagash, officerbill and 3 others like this.
  9. Longhorn08

    Longhorn08 Savant (1,109) Feb 4, 2014 Texas
    Trader

    Not that I disagree, but by this logic how would we handle CBS or BCBCS? Those go dormant for a LONG time at times.
     
    #9 Longhorn08, Sep 25, 2020
    FBarber likes this.
  10. Gkruszewski

    Gkruszewski Grand Pooh-Bah (5,859) Nov 1, 2013 New York
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I always thought a retired list was needed, a top 250 available would be a lot easier to track
     
    #10 Gkruszewski, Sep 25, 2020
    emerge077, JohnnyHopps, DokiDokiLitFam and 3 others like this.
  11. eawolff99

    eawolff99 Pooh-Bah (2,422) May 10, 2010 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I don't really think that the community should decide material differences batch by batch of beers that the brewery has chosen to maintain the same name - Beer:Barrel:Time is a good example of that -- just because SP changes barrels or ages longer or shorter than prior batches, they've kept the same name of the beer. The counter example to this is what Goose Island does (BCBS vs Rare, as an example) -- two different beers according to the brewers. BBT is not. Assuredly, we are not researching the bourbon barrel and duration of aging of each beer on the list, are we (do we know what barrels Founders has used over the years for KBS / CBS / etc?? I can confidently say there is MAJOR batch variation among those beers over the past decade -- yet they're bundled under the same name)?

    So ... what are thoughts here? I'd argue SR-71, CBS, Ann are retired. I'd argue BBT ratings should be aggregated into one beer and ranked accordingly. Other call outs??
     
    #11 eawolff99, Sep 25, 2020
    Chuckdiesel24, pmarlowe and Harrison8 like this.
  12. traction

    traction Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2010 Georgia
    Trader

    I want to say within the past year or so Todd already played with the algorithm for top beers due to other issues; I want to say it was pretty much full of OH and Treehouse releases . From my time on this site it seems it is constantly being updated.

    I'm not sure this is a good idea or not (my initial thoughts are no as it may be a pain in the ass) would be to release a Top 250 of all time list and and a Top 250 of the year list. Someone else mentioned removing retired beers from the Top 250 and I think that would be a slightly better idea than mine but I'm still not sure how I feel about it one way or the other
     
    #12 traction, Sep 25, 2020
    unlikelyspiderperson and Harrison8 like this.
  13. Harrison8

    Harrison8 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,285) Dec 6, 2015 Missouri
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I always thought the purpose of the Top 250 was to showcase the best of the beers in the market now. It doesn't mean they're widely available, but they were available for public purchase/consumption sometime within the last 12 months.

    Yes, this means some classics like CBS would drop off the list, but the list would be a more accurate representation of the current craft beer scene vs. hype-beasts that come around irregularly.

    With that in mind, I'd be all for an 'all-time top 250' or something similar that could include retired beers.
     
    #13 Harrison8, Sep 25, 2020
    Chuckdiesel24, traction and eawolff99 like this.
  14. FBarber

    FBarber Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,325) Mar 5, 2016 Illinois
    Mod Team BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Its not really what BA members argue though - its what the Brewery says. If the beer is retired and there are no plans of it coming back, then we can retire it here. If its an irregular release and the brewery just releases it when they release it, and its not technically retired, then it stays active.

    If there is a specific beer that you think should be retired, please feel free to submit an update, explain why it should be listed as retired, and the Mod team will review it and, if appropriate, retire the beer.
    CBS was just released last winter (and the year before) and is still sitting on many shelves.

    There is the beers of fame, which is something similar for beers that have been around for 15 years or more: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/fame/

    Although, admittedly, that does not include retired beers.
     
    #14 FBarber, Sep 25, 2020
    ovaltine, BBThunderbolt, bluejacket74 and 4 others like this.
  15. Coronaeus

    Coronaeus Grand Pooh-Bah (3,744) Apr 21, 2014 Canada (ON)
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Brewery websites complicate things too. There is a beer on the Canada Top 100 that hasn’t been available in about 4 years. It is still listed on the brewery website as a rotational beer. Should be retired here?
     
    #15 Coronaeus, Sep 25, 2020
    Todd and FBarber like this.
  16. Harrison8

    Harrison8 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,285) Dec 6, 2015 Missouri
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    If a group doesn't report it as for sale with a new bottling date - retired.
     
    #16 Harrison8, Sep 25, 2020
    BBThunderbolt and DokiDokiLitFam like this.
  17. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    Side Project themselves refers to the year when writing about BBT.
     
    #17 MNAle, Sep 25, 2020
    FBarber likes this.
  18. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    So, unless a brewery puts out a five year plan, only year-round and annual seasonals are not retired? Or, even more strict, if a beer is not released for a year it is retired? Really?

    I'm not sure what all the fretting is about.

    The Top 250 list is what it is. Does it really matter if BBT is not on the list but SR-71 is?

    IOW, WTFC?
     
    #18 MNAle, Sep 25, 2020
    ChicagoJ, zac16125, Bhubbard34 and 2 others like this.
  19. WickedBeer

    WickedBeer Grand Pooh-Bah (3,210) Sep 23, 2015 Alabama
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    i agree here. I don’t necessarily think there should be purge, just more of a re-thinking of how the list is comprised. Yes, beers like SR-71 and Ann are very seldom released, but even if its last one was the last time it was brewed, people still jump through plenty of hoops to try and land bottles from personal collections. That said, Side Project beers should be way higher on this list (OWK, BBT, Derivations, etc), and that’s just one example.
     
    #19 WickedBeer, Sep 25, 2020
    Harrison8 likes this.
  20. DokiDokiLitFam

    DokiDokiLitFam Pundit (977) Jun 3, 2019 New Jersey

    While I agree with some brews needing to be removed, it would require a lot of moderation and personal touches. There are some brews that have recent reviews, but are 5 year old vintages. And reviews before those go back a few years as well. Like the Kaggen! Stormaktsporter by the brewery from Sweden.

    I feel if a brewery wants to maintain a spot at the top it needs to be brewed at least one a year, two years tops. Or make a more transparent schedule like Founders does.

    It seems a little unfair to let a brewery make a brew a handful of times and then rest on their laurels for too long. There's a lot of hungry breweries out there looking to get a spot up at the top. Circulation and exposure is good. If they deserve it of course.
     
    #20 DokiDokiLitFam, Sep 25, 2020
    MikeWard and Harrison8 like this.
Page 1 of 2
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.