Tags (or a tag-like system) for targeted searches

I'm not sure if this has been suggested before but I've seen on other sites the ability for users to add tags to items to help with searches. I think it would be great if users on here could add tags to beers (like under "Notes" or something) to help target searches.

Examples: BCBS might have the tags #imperialstout, #barrelaged, #bourbon (etc. etc.), Stone Smoked Porter with Chipotle might have #chipotle #chilibeer #smoked (etc., etc.), FW Easy Jack might have #sessionbeer, #sessionipa

The tags might seem redundant after a while, but honestly the more there are the more targeted searches could become. Want an imperial smoked oak-aged coffee stout with habanero & cocoa nibs? Tags could help you narrow your search down very quickly and easily.

The same logic could be extended to places, but beers is where I could really see it making an impact.

Thanks for your time. You guys are doing a great, great service to all us beer lovers. Cheers!

 

The BA users would do the tagging. Not mandatory, of course, but anyone with an account could add (or delete, I suppose) tags.

Think of the example I gave above, imperial smoked oak-aged coffee stout with habanero & cocoa nibs. What would you get if you ran a search for that right now in BA? Likely an error message and/or a bunch of (seemingly) random posts and (maybe) some beers (it came up with Chocolate Oak-Aged Yeti--not too far off!). With a tagging system, you could just punch "imperial smoked oak-aged coffee stout with habanero & cocoa nibs" in and based on a search of tags you'd get the beers you want and, yes, some beers you don't--but I feel the pluses could vastly outweigh the minuses here.

 

Jesuscream? Who wouldn't want to drink that???

Seriously, though, BA's who care enough to could delete stuff like that (or not, really, who cares?) and basic (and simple) ground rules could be put in place, such as "has to be a specific characteristic of the beer itself," eg. Yes, just like any other ground rules these would be ignored but I really feel this would be a great beer discovery tool if we could search for beers only this way.

 

Shoot! I was just about to go up to bed when I remembered something I wanted to point out before...

I would love to be able to tag beers to give them more specific style descriptors than what currently exists. Take, IPAs for example. The current style categories are American IPA, English IPA, and Belgian IPA (which is fine, I'm not lobbying for more categories, just more descriptors in the form of tags). Tags I'd like to use to make it easier to find the ones I want might be: #westcoastIPA, #sessionIPA, #amberIPA, #singlehopIPA, etc., etc.

I really love my west coast IPAs but right now they are lumped into "American IPA." Having tags like this would allow me to search for "#westcoastIPA" and only bring back the IPAs I'm looking for. Another example of how it can really be a great beer discovery tool.

Other random yet useful tags I thought of: #fallseasonal (or spring, summer, etc.), #draughtonly, #bombersonly, #mosaichops (or nelson, citra, etc.)...

I'm probably going to have these running through my head all night now. Off to bed and (hopefully) sleep now.

Cheers!

 

Don't listen to him. This would make it FAR MORE FUNCTIONAL as a beer discovery tool.

 

#doesntgetit

You've said your piece. Feel free to move along.

 

That's a good idea to make the ratings info more useful, it's just such a HUGE change that it's hard to see it happening. What would happen to all the current ratings???

Getting back to my idea of beer TAGS, though...

Anyone else have thoughts on this? Anyone have any idea how much work it'd be to implement? Anyone???