Should we sync with Untappd's beer styles?

The
Beeradvocate rheinheitsgebot states that thou shall not have CiderAdvocate or SeltzerAdvocate.

however , I do feel that both sites would benefit from a synchronized and uniform style database . Full descriptions and portraits of each style. That I needed a Kvas and am now in search of a Grape Ale and a Zoigl!!

 

I don’t think a full merger would be warranted- they have some odd style listings. But, there should definitely be some expansion here. Imperial/Double NE IPA’s and Imperial/Double Sweet/Milk Stout come immediately to mind.

 

they have too many styes, but if its a yes or no decision, then yes

 

I very much agree with REVZEB about the saison style. Because saisons are traditionally "whatever is leftover from the harvest", they already were one of the more flexible styles before the micro-revolution took off in this Century. With the exploding use of Brett & Friends in the past decade, the saison needs some protection to keep its character. But, I admit my bias as I am a Euro-saison Head (proper accreditation to StonedTrippin').

As for syncing Beer Advocate's classification with UnTappd's system, that should be tested in obvious areas and, if successful, evolve to less obvious areas. However the goal should not be syncing per se; but rather to help influence the standard in the industry. In the meantime, BA should keep some independence to experiment and deter how style-classification problems can reduce preserving traditional quality... as has happened to saisons in the last decade.

 

Coming from someone who actually wants less styles...

I think it would be good for the proposed eventual syncing of beers for the styles to be synced. I would consider not necessarily just using Untappd's list just because it is larger (i.e. it could be pruned along with BA's being expanded; e.g. do you really need an imperial Baltic porter?).

I might consider something that was suggested before, I believe - have a major category and a specific category. This would at least help for lookup, and could be used for coarser and finer grain filtering on personal beer pages and the like, allowing users a little control over the level of granularity they care about.

Alternatively, I might also think about, if possible, a good combo-box input for choosing a style on the add a beer page. The switch in naming convention did help, but I still scroll back and forth over a style when on my phone. Typing a key term and getting internal matches as well as first word matches could help a person find something more appropriate quicker.

 

Nah...BeerAdvocate just needs to do themselves. The styles we have here are thorough, IMHO...

Keep up the good work.

 

I’m fine with BA styles and also Untappd styles. I’d be fine to adopt their beer style platform. Would it help to auto migrate new beers asded to Untappd automatically into BA if step one was to synch up the styles? If so, I’m on board.

 

This is a good idea, but it would be nice leverage the BA community to determine if UT entered beers are the correct style. Likewise it would be great for UT breweries who post new beers to automatically create them in BA as well

 

As long as you never merge the ratings systems, I think this could be a good idea. The problem I see is that we would be left with tens of thousands of beers that will be mislabeled in style on BA, once you add the extra styles from Untappd to the database. For example, pretty much all milkshake IPA's are currently logged as NE IPA's on BA.

 

Nah. Let's set the standard here and make them follow.

This is no time for laziness or mimicry.