The Beer Thread

[Swirls]

So now that I'm in Columbia, SC, I think I have found my Mecca: http://www.totalwine.com They have a little over 2k beers available, and a metric [expletive]-ton of wine if you are into that sort of thing (I am not). You can order beer online and just walk in and pick it up already pulled out for you if you want. Plus their beer index is sortable by rankings from BeerAdvocate, which is pretty nifty.

Bought a four-pack of Whole Hog Pumpkin - deeeeelicious. Pumpkin Pie in a bottle, almost as good as Schlafly Pumpkin. In fact, it's probably my second-favorite pumpkin beer after Schlafly's.

Also, I'm seeing Christmas beers start to come out now. Time to buy some Troeg's Mad Elf Ale and Southern Tier 2XMAS. Both are [expletive] incredible.

[33anda3rd]

Swirls, do you like using the BA rankings? I find them kind of iffy. I feel like they way overrate anything "Imperial" and underrate or ignore lagers and, well, almost everything that's not barrel aged or a mega-hop-bomb or a super-culty sour/fruit/wild beer.

Their top 250 beers, there are some hard- if not impossible-to-get sours and Belgians on there (ranked there only because they're hard to get in some cases--six Cantillons in the top 100 and I guarantee you not everyone who ranked those Cantillons has had them because of the ridiculous status to be had in review counts on BA--note how many reviews are nothing but a "4/5" or whatever with no comment), but that list is dominated by RIS and DIPA/IPA and there's embarrassingly little variety. Ayinger Celebrator doppelbock comes in at 151 and there are no pilsners, no lagers, no marzens in the top 250. New Glarus lands a DIPA and some fruit beers on the top 250, but none of their lagers appear, and I'd way rather drink some of their lagers than their DIPA. The list shows how horribly biased the membership of the site is toward certain styles. I'll be darned if Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen is "89/Very Good" while Pipeworks Galaxy Unicorn DIPA is "97/World Class."

I always take BA scores with a few dozen grains of salt.

Edit to add: I'm not saying my taste is better than the BA crowds, just that my taste is different than the BA crowd and I think there are a lot of people out there who would way rather drink a lawnmower beer than a 9.5% DIPA. BA is a reflection of a taste that I don't share, and I worry that they have maybe a bit too much influence on marketplace decisions about beer. Here in the Chicago area we have brewers doing Belgian, lots of brewers doing ales, and only one really (Metropolitan) that focuses on good old fashioned lagers. Metropolitan kinda kills it because they scratch an itch that BA reviews and brewing trends ignore. I like them.

[JL21]

Pretty much any time you have an aggregator site like that for something that's subjective, and you have no idea about the contributors' tastes, you have to take it with a grain of salt. It's in the same ballpark as IMDb's user ratings, or even Rotten Tomatoes (which underrates horror the same way BA does with various styles).

I think sites like that give a nice starting place for overall quality as long as you know to adjust for your own tastes and never take them as gospel. It's like batting average. A guy who hits .300 or more probably had a good year, but you don't know how good or even if he's one of those duds with no power and walks. And beer/movie grades don't have the data to give more context other than just your own user experience.

[jim]

The Bros give Budweiser an 80, so at least those guys actually taste the beer and don't listen to unfounded biases.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29/65/?ba=bros

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I don't understand how you can think budweiser is awful. Too expensive maybe. Or boring maybe. But, it's like the definition of beer in my book.

[jim]

I think everyone is conditioned to think mass produced beer is just bad. Some of it is. Bud is not imo, but that could be because that's what I grew up on. I also find PBR a good beer, but I'm not crazy that some Russian company bought it out so I won't drink it. MGD is disgusting to me, it tastes like dirty water. Heineken is awful imo, Corona too.

But I would say Bud is my favorite all around beer. Drinkable always and priced right. I always have Bud in the fridge, usually along with something else. That something else right now is Negro Modelo.

[Freed Roger]

It is not that Budweiser is bad, it is just that other beers are much better. Ironically, Budweiser is the most expensive beer I buy, because it is the prevailing choice at the stadium.

Also, I hope when you say Bud, you mean Budweiser, and not Bud Light

[Swirls]

Middle, I'm not a huge advocate of the BA rankings. But like JL said, it can give you a rudimentary ballpark if you like a certain style of beer. But yes, I tend to find them incredibly snobbish overall.

I'd say their overall ranks tend to reflect the current market and craft beer industry. It seems every brewery these days has to have about a hundred IPAs and DIPAs and Imperials and whatnot - you aren't a craft brewery unless you have at least a dozen beers with over 10% ABV. It's ridiculous for me, because I hate hops.

I don't plan on actually using their sorting filter thingie, but it is certainly a nifty tool. RateBeer is very similar.

[Freed Roger]

I feel like there is a demand for stores and restaurants with limited shelf and tapper space to have me pick their micro beers for them.

[lukethedrifter]

i agree