Tag: ratings

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Pinnacle

Guides are important.  I named this blog in that spirit and now a new cocktail bar guide is close to starting their new rating system, the Pinnacle Guide for Cocktail bars.  They have stated their mission in three parts:

Purpose – “To create an authentic, reliable and trusted recognition system that elevates the bar industry, underpinned by fair and visible processes.”

Process – “To work collaboratively with the global drinks community to create an accolade which is enduring and internationally-respected.”

Promise – “To be a driving force towards an inclusive drinks industry, to uphold sustainable values and to champion excellence without prejudice.”

Instead of stars, bar programs will be awarded Pins (get it?) and it will give pins to dive bars under how good a dive it is while a fancy DTLA hotel bar will have a different set of considerations.  Will see how helpful the ratings are next year.

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Rate Map

Some may not like Untappd or Beer Advocate ratings for the tickers or sometimes weird reviews but if you use the services just to measure yourself you might learn a bit. In a nod at transparency and/or education, here is my ratings charted by Untappd…

Why, for example are their three towers on my chart right smack dab in the middle?  And why is everything bunched up around 2 and up?

I would say that the majority of beers are in the middle of my taste spectrum and that I am pretty damn picky.  So there are no drain pours but very little at the far right either.  Is this the sign of an intelligent drinker?  I would like to think so.  But statistics are known to lie.  But I encourage all beer searchers to look at how they rate the beers they drink.

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Let’s Do the Numbers

After the multitude of helpful GABF statistics started being posted online, it got me to thinking about a personal pet peeve of mine. Why pilsners aren’t loved more.
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Using BeerAdvocate as a test case (that I will explore further, at a later date), German Pilseners 1-50 range from 4.04 out of 5.0 to 3.7
Czech Pilsener from 4.18 to 3.55

That’s a range of of .34 and .63 respectively.

Now look at these two, more loved styles:
American IPA 4.53 to 4.22 for the top 50
Double / Imperial Stouts 4.67 to 4.28

That’s a range of .31 and .39

Obviously IPAs and big stouts seem to be starting with an advantage because their higher ranking beers score higher than their Pilsner counterparts. But what strikes me is that the 50th best IPA and 50th best Imperial Stout are considered that much better than the absolute best Pilsener, from whatever country.

Now, I don’t expect a Pilsener to score 5 out of 5. But I can’t believe that the Top 10 in any category don’t track at the same levels.

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How Many Stars?

CraftBeer.com posted an editorial on its site that I think might ruffle the feathers of the tickers out there as well as the hop lovers and anything barrel-aged crowd.  You can read the article by Chris McClellan in it’s entirety HERE.

The hypothesis being that beer ratings are creating hype and driving less thoughtful beer purchases.

Now I haven’t been in a crowd that bought up a particular beer before a single mote of dust could sully the bottle (or can) and I am an ex whale chaser. So I am not privy to the mind of current beer hunters and thus more prone to give a “hallelujah” when McClellan asks us to not “let your phone tell you what your taste buds already know about your preferences.”

But I think that it isn’t the rating website that causes the problem. Sure there is bias a plenty when it comes to ranking pilsners vs IPAs but that is more the fault of the people who buy into it.

And in the connected age the people buying in seem to value their opinion less than the groupthink. I have reviewed a fair number of beers on my preferred site, Ratebeer and I have noticed that if I even glance at the score or read a previous review that my score and review might be affected.

Maybe my loathing of star ratings on Amazon or Yelp makes me an outlier but I prefer to make my decision first and then solicit opinion second. But I fear that others faced with a daunting variety of beers do not take the time to do that.

Which I find strange. I think it is easier to develop a coterie of friends or beer blogs to help guide beer choices that you can absolutely trust vs. hoping that a random sampling of strangers will provide you a better selection from the cooler.

But I think we can all agree that it is best to take your time with a beer and enjoy it and not always be playing the ratings game.

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1,000 – part 4

I have now rated 1,000+ beers on RateBeer. and so I have been looking at the figures to see what I have been drinking.

Last week I covered which cities make the best beer according to what I have rated. This week I take a step up and look at the states that are doing it right and which ones I have been sipping. As with last week, this is based on the RateBeer information.

Of the 1,000, 388 are from California and 157 from Oregon. So well over 1/2 of my ratings are from 2 states. That is something I hope to remedy. The 50 Beers from 50 States challenge helped but didn’t close the gap. Predictably Colorado was 3rd and Washington state was 4th.

Here is the average rating breakdown:
California – 3.20
Colorado – 3.10
Massachussets – 2.92
New York – 3.34
Oregon – 3.17
Pennsylvania – 3.18
Washington – 3.06

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1,000 – part 2

I have now rated 1,000+ beers on RateBeer. and so I have been falling down the rabbit hole into some real statistical geekery.

Last week I covered the top and bottom 10 this week I give you my top beer in each style. These are the top beer in each style that I have had at least 10 different beers to judge against. So Zwickel will have to wait until I sample 8 more.

New Belgium Lips of Faith – Fall Wild Ale-Abbey Dubbel
Sawyers Triple-Abbey Tripel
The Bruery Loakal Red-Amber Ale
Drakes Alpha Session Ale-American Pale Ale
Hair of the Dog Matt-American Strong Ale
The Bruery Provisions Series: Old Richland-Barley Wine
The Bruery Humulus Blonde-Belgian Ale
Brooklyn Cuvee de Cardoz-Belgian Strong Ale
Brùton Bianca-Belgian White (Witbier)
Widmer Brothers W’10 Pitch Black IPA-Black IPA
Rogue John John Hazelnut Ale –Brown Ale
Magic Hat #9-Fruit Beer
Firestone Walker Hefeweizen-German Hefeweizen
New Belgium Hoptober Golden Ale-Golden Ale/Blond Ale
The Bruery Humulus Cornballer-Imperial Pils/Strong Pale Lager
The Bruery Chocolate Rain-Imperial Stout
Kern River Citra DIPA-Imperial/Double IPA
BrewDog Punk IPA (5.6%)-IPA
Angel City Che-Pale Lager
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter-Porter
Rubicon ESB-Premium Bitter/ESB
Sierra Nevada Summerfest-Premium Lager
Pelican Saison du Pelican-Saison
Ommegang Cup o Kyndness-Scotch Ale
The Bruery Melange #1-Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Upright Six (#6)-Specialty Grain
Hair of the Dog Greg-Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Youngs Double Chocolate Stout-Stout
Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam from the Wood-Traditional Ale
Speakeasy White Lightning American Wheat Beer-Wheat Ale

What pops out at me is how many Bruery and Hair of the Dog beers there are on this list. When I think of favorite breweries those two don’t immediately come to mind. And yet, here they are in a wide variety of styles.

Also the style that I have reviewed the most? IPA’s by a large margin with 107. Not including 60 DIPA’s or 15 Black IPA’s.