The beer I am going to evaluate in the very next post puts a cap on a string of beers lately that have me at a dilema, or maybe crossroads is a better term.
I see the need to once and for all address and lay down the procedure I use for the evaluations/reviews I post here on this blog. I also see the need to start adding some of my own personal observations of procedure when needed.
To be clear, I don’t want this to turn into a “how to fix this beer” blog, but there has been a few occasions where some extra commentary would have been helpful in explaining my evaluation a beer.
When I evaluate/review a beer I take into account two things.
First: What the brewer or company is telling me the beer is.
If they are telling me it is a sweet stout, I will start looking at how it fares as a sweet stout by using guidelines like the BJCP or The Brewers Association beer styles.
I generally assess how the beers fit into the style that it is being marketed as.
I say “generally” because these are not competition beers. These are beers made to appeal to a wide range of tastes. Beer style guidelines have fairly narrow specs that contest beers follow.
But the we, the consumer, need to have some sort of an idea of what to expect, so the brewer or company gives us the style it is or closely matches.
Second of course, is how I like it. How I personally rank the different aspects of the beer.
Those two things are usually pretty close together and don’t usually need to be separated. I then combine or fold that info into my Untappd score.
However, in light of recent beers, and especially the next beer I post,, there needs to be a clear seperation of style score, and my personal taste score.
Why? Because to me Untappd is about how I enjoy the beer or not, rather than how it is technically. I have been factoring in both since the beginning, but recently I have been needing to draw a faint line to show that separation.
I don’t wanna hear the “whether you like it or not is all that matters” argument either.. because that is completely false.
None the less, that is what Untappd is all about, but luckily that is NOT what these evals/reviews or this blog in general is about.
By adding and explaining things from my own brewing and drinking experiences I think I can tighten the gap between the two scores, and maybe explain how or why we got there, or possibly why a beer was placed in the category it was.
I do not think there will be much change in how things are presented, but now at least you will know how I got the scores I give, and hopefully you will get a little more info on the beers we love.
Thanks, and stay tuned.
All roast, all the time.
Stoutmaker.beer 