When purchasing beer, what's your minimum score?

In the fall, you need to try the Porter. Very, very enjoyable stuff. The Bock is pretty good too. They aren't going for points. The beer is cheap, tasty and certainly isn't like Bud, Coors or Miller in any respect.

 

For me as a person fairly new to craft beer (around 1 years experience), I use this site too look up rankings and read some reviews before I make purchases. I think checking the ratings for me is beneficial so I have a better idea of what I am purchasing. However, for those who are very experienced in the craft beer game, I think using this site to make decisions on what to buy would be less beneficial. The more experienced people would be able to better determine what they want.

 

Some beers are rated well because that many people think they are amazing. Others gain score based on hype. Either way I look at reviews for tasting notes, not for the overall score for the most part. Saison dupont is a 93. I would rate it at least a 98. I'm also not a huge fan of zombiedust... I really like RazorHoof. Call me crazy. There are, however, a few beers I can think of that imho deserve their hyped ratings, beatification, bcbs, db huna, fou foune etc. but that's for another thread.

 

While reviews really don't guide my purchasing, I do look after the fact. I am more interested in what people write versus the numerical score. Sometimes I just want to know if I am picking up similar flavors to what others have, but sometimes I want to know if I am way off base, especially when I find a well-regarded beer (or vice versa) where my taste buds disagree...shocking, I know, but it does happen. DO I sometimes wish I had looked a beer up before buying - sure. I am generally in the "how bad can it be" mindset and unfortunately sometimes the answer is "wicked bad"...but it's only beer, try another.

 

I would never let low beer rating scare me away from a beer. If it's a style I enjoy and it's fresh I'd go for it. If I bought only 90+ rated beers I would never enjoy any Kosch, pilsner or even some low ABV pale ales. However I will admit that if I'm trying a new brew and there is a sticker stating (Rated 95 on BA) I feel a little more confident I grabbed at least what should be decent beer.

 

As reluctant I am to defend the rating system, in this case I will. I think most of the criticisms above do hit various nails on the head, especially ones that address the rarity issue and the local/homer issue.

I do not use the rating system personally for very small differences in scores, but I do use it for "macro" trends because I think it is useful in that context. A brewery that has all 90's for their beers is very unlikely to disappoint, in my experience. And the flip side of that is true as well, that a brewery that is slamming down a bunch of 70's is likely to disappoint. I also think the overall trend is to inflate ratings, so if a craft brewer is consistently receiving low scores then I'm more open to taking those reviews seriously.

There's a lot of mediocrity now. Lot of new brewers are opening up that don't necessarily brew good beer but hey, they're your local! Buy local! Support local! So, yes, if a brewer has a lot of really low scoring beers on here, I'm going to think twice about buying a mixed pack so I can see for myself.

 

When there is a large pool of reviews I would tend to consider that much more than say, less than 100. I don't use that as the overall decision maker as to whether I should make a purchase. If you did that, certain styles you would never try as they don't get the same scores as a DIPA or an imperial stout. You would also miss certain breweries because they just don't get enough love on BA.

For newer members it is a great way to weed through the "okay" stuff and find some of the better examples of styles. This is great because once you know what you like you can decide based on your preferences what you want to purchase.

Forget the numbering system. If you start avoiding beers that aren't at least a 90 or higher you end up missing some gems. There are entire styles that don't have one beer with at least a 4 out of 5 rating, but are worth trying (English Dark Mild for example).

To each his own but those review scores are a *guide*. And if 1,000 people rate a beer highly (as in Beers of Fame) I'm more likely to trust that guide than the latest overhyped release that just got cleared out of your local bottle shop.

 

If a movie interests me or a beer sounds interesting (I couldn't turn down Spring House's eggnog porter) or is from a brewery I trust, then I'll consume it. If a trailer just leaves me confused or a I see a brewery I've never heard of, I consult reviews first.

The problem is that there are nearly 3000 breweries each making 4-40 beers and no conceivable way to try them all. Drinking an 80 means I might miss out on drinking a 95 (or just another Two-Hearted, which I really should drink more often than I do). I'm probably just rationalizing, but I see spitting at an 84 as snobbery; reaching past and 84 to grab the 95 is just prioritization.

I don't stick to it ironclad either though and occasionally find a pleasant surprise: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16206/41605/

 

For me, it's a guideline - but just to how many of a beer I buy. If the rating is 85 or above, there's a real good chance I'll like it so I'll go for the 4 or 6 pack. If the rating is 75 - 84, I'll go for a bottle or two. If the rating is under 75, I'll wait until one of my friends or relatives buys me a present, and hopefully they present just one. But I try to discourage presents; my wife already knows better.

 

Sometimes I wish I'd looked first simply because the beer really did suck. One of my all time favorites only received an 86 or something though so I generally avoid it until I'm at least a third way into actually drinking it. The exception is when I already know the beer is on the top 250 list.

 

I've always found the rating system very skewed where scores in the 80s can actually mean mediocre or below average, at least in my experience. If a brewery had an 84 rating on here I probably wouldn't bother with their beer.

 

I rate lots of beers. I try to rate them relative to style and only put my personal bias into the "drinkability" section. Does it look like the style should? Smell right? Taste proper? That earns a 3 (average). Anything above average or minimum acceptable for style earns higher than 3. Anything flawed goes lower.

This creates a bit of center bias in my ratings, but that's the system that works best for me and the one I think is fairest to the brewers.

And I totally agree with you; there is an "everything sucks" mentality in pop culture these days that encourages binary thinking: good or bad, excellent or the worst thing ever. Every experience has the potential to be the best or worst (reading a book, taking a trip, drinking a beer) but, as you get more experience under your belt, you realize there are few transcendentally sublime experiences. Most of the time, things are pretty average. Mediocre isn't necessarily a bad word.

 

To add to my comment abouve, I tend to look at the ratings (and such) before buying, but will buy a half dozen bombers at a time at the local bottle shop and not get to drinking them for weeks (sometimes months). I don't remember the rating when I get around to drinking it, and come up with my rating before looking it up again. I don't think group think bias really comes into play doing it that way (and I am OK with being .75 or so off of the average now and then)

 

I don't spend a lot of time looking at ratings, with a couple exceptions. If I'm going to a brewery that I've never been to before I'll filter the beers by rating, to see what people think is the best, and by number of reviews, to see what people are drinking most. I will use this information as the basis for forming my decision, along with my own style preferences and cost considerations. I also spend a lot of time looking at the beers of fame list, as that list has never steered me wrong.

I review for my own use and I find that trying to describe beers helps me explore their nuances. I use ratings as a tool. This site has served me well thus far. I have no problems.

 

First, I don't base my tastes on beers being the highest rated; I think I've had enough of them to know that everyone will have different favorites and I have my own tastes as well. However, time is finite, and this applies to all media, food, entertainment; my objective is to avoid what I feel will be bad/waste of time, and try to stick with the best. After all, I have only so much time to listen to music, read books, watch movies, so I want that time to be optimal for me. The same goes for beer - I can drink only so much without getting sick/passing out, so I have to choose wisely!

 

For trading purposes, I'll use the ratings to help me dictate what I'm seeking. Hard to know if a beer that you can't get at home is worth seeking out without some sort of ratings system. As much as the beers I'm seeking, I love getting the extras that you've never heard of before. I try to never look at their ratings prior to drinking them as to sway my judgment.

As far as local beers, I typically never look at ratings until after I try them to see if my thoughts align with the masses. There are a lot of really quality beers and brewers I'd never had tried otherwise.

 

Not too long ago, I went to 18th Street in Gary. They had like 6 beers on tap, all of which were good. He refused, steadfast, to try any beer aside from Deal With the Devil. Why? "Because that's the only whale." Seriously. That was his stated rationale.

This hobby has recently gotten weird and unappealing. The idea that a beer's goodness is inversely related to its availability is just effing stupid, and it's lent an air of shitty pretentiousness to many beer events.

 

I don't have a score that's too low to buy or try a beer...Hopefully I haven't even looked up the beer before I buy it. A "not high enough score" could detract me if it is an expensive bomber but that is the only case I can think of. The more beers you look up before you buy chances are you will try a lot less beers overall. Rating is also dependent on the style of beer too, one number in a more common beer style may be low, while in another beer style it would be one of the highest.