Comments on: How many beers before I die?

By: KevBrews

KevBrews — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:35:04 +0000

I’ve also noticed that BA tends to weigh Extreme Beers more heavily–it’s the same problem when judging homebrew competitions–the beer with the biggest characteristics of a given style gets the awards, while beers with more subtler flavors get slighted. This phenomenon isn’t surprising on BA though, given the Alstrom’s very vocal advocacy of the extreme beer movement.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:19:57 +0000

Stan, gotcha. A Netflix/Amazon recommendation engine is a good idea; as far as I know, nobody’s doing that yet. BeerAdvocate has an “Other [style] Examples” column next to a given beer, but that’s about it.

Loren- interesting, I didn’t know RB was West Coast heavy… or BA East Coast, for that matter– they seem to really like the West Coast beers on BA, though.

By: Stan Hieronymus

Stan Hieronymus — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:34:57 +0000

I don’t even think it was written with beer (Lost Abbey or otherwise) in hand, but I do think I meant to put Alpine between North Coast and Bear Republic.

By: Steve Beaumont

Steve Beaumont — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:10:49 +0000

“…and think, no North Coast, no Lost Abbey, no Bear Republic, no Elysian â€¦ (stopping to wipe the tears) no Lost Abbey, no AleSmith, no Russian River (finally overcome and unable to go on).”

You really do like Tomme’s beers, don’t you? Or was it the grief making you stutter?

(BTW, on the subject of Lost Abbey, I opened a bottle of Angel’s Share for a group of prominent wine and spirits writers last night and impressed them greatly. We also discovered how remarkably different — and, in some views, better — it is when the yeast is added rather than left in the bottle.)

By: Loren

Loren — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:02:23 +0000

“Iâ€™m not a big fan of the Beer Advocate and Rate Beer way of coming up with a rating. I think the sites are terrific and am fine with the individual ratings. However, they are presenting a consensus.”

A consensus based on some sort of bias you might add. Since each site has a diverse core of members from a concentrated area of the US, mainly. BA is East Coast heavy and RB is West Coast heavy.

Forget the ratings (score) and read the words. Words speak volumes. And remember…it’s all opinion anyway.

My list is my list…and yours is yours.

And nothing in this world would EVER make me want to try Cave Creek Chili…

Cheers!

By: Stan Hieronymus

Stan Hieronymus — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:47:00 +0000

Jon,

I’m not a big fan of the Beer Advocate and Rate Beer way of coming up with a rating. I think the sites are terrific and am fine with the individual ratings. However, they are presenting a consensus.

I DO like the idea of collaborative filtering. The sort of thing Netflix does/did (I first paid attention to them because of collaborative filtering, in fact). There the host sets up an algorithm and suggests “if you like this then you might like that” based on how other people rate the same beers you have rated.

Not the world’s best explanation, but I think you get the idea. Similar to what Amazon does as well. So you get some good recommendations and some pretty strange ones.

Of course what I’m ofcusing on is hooking people up with beers they might like, rather than worrying if they are the “best.”

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:22:56 +0000

Thanks Stan, this is a good write-up. I was indeed unaware of Protz’s book when I started the 50, though I’m going to seek it out now.

The American West Coast is becoming something of a Mecca for beer, isn’t it? Perhaps a good sub-series of this would be something like “50 American West Coast beers to drink…” although, I could go on and on too. I think I’d have trouble limiting to 50 for Oregon alone, even. I hear ya.

Perhaps the best approach is to take the BeerAdvocate.com way: user collaborative ratings, and show the top X beers in each category as well as overall…