Tag Archives: beer ratings

Hop Talk Podcast #6 – Dirty Blondes and Missing Dons

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In this episode we talk about

  • MolsonCoors goes “craft” in Canada
  • Economy down, alcohol sales up
  • Rating beer
  • Finding beer festivals
  • and, listener mail

Download it here: Hop Talk Podcast ep. 6

…or subscribe with iTunes

Show notes:

Beer News

MolsonCoors has launched Six Pints Specialty Beer Co to target the “craft and specialty beer market”. Haven’t we seen this before?

In spite of the sluggish economy, alcohol sales are doing well.

We also ran across an opinion piece from Ashley Routson, aka “The Beer Wench”, about Craft Beer and the “Restaurant Hypocrisy”.

Beer Rating – does it make sense?

We discuss the origins of the Unofficial Hop Talk Beer Rating System. Does rating beer make sense? Isn’t beer too personal to try to put an objective measure on it?

Beer 2.0

Looking for something to do this weekend, or maybe next? You owe it to yourself to check out BeerFestivals.org. It has the best and biggest listing of beer festivals I’ve ever seen.

What we drank:

Spot a discrepancy? Something missing? Let us know. contact@hop-talk.com

Follow us on Twitter: @hoptalk and @hoptalkron

Music credits:

Background music at bar during intro:
Artist: Gnappy
Song: Best Not FUnck Around

Main intro:
Artist: A Thousand Knives of Fire
Song: She’s Yours

Outro Music:
Artist: Aphasia
Song: Metal Tank

Transition Music:
Artist: Devil In A Woodpile
Song: Beer Ticket Rag

 

40 Random Beers Ratings

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Of the 40 beers I received for my birthday I’ve tracked thus far how each has rated against the unofficial Hop-Talk beer rating scale. I am a bit behind on my posts, so the snapshot below is probably from mid-February.

The highest score is a 5, which we have never officially given to a beer, but some have come close. Of the first round, Clay Pipe and the very odd style Sam Imperial Pilsner were the tastiest. (to me)

I will catch up with updates and point out which bubble to the top, and which fall to the bottom.

snag-3-10-2009_0000

Click to read

YourBeers

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I don’t really know what “Web 2.0” is, but I’ll bet this site is part of it.

YourBeers Beer Guide

It is, very simply, a place to rate beers. Anyone can join, add a beer, or three, or a hundred, and rate them. You can also comment on them, post in the forums, and look through the data in any number of ways.

Their “About Us” page says:

Your Beers is a web 2.0 social networking site for beer enthusiasts. It allows individuals to discover new types of beer and to share their favorites with the world.

The site uses AJAX, which all of the cool Web 2.0 apps use nowadays, making using it dead simple. The interface is clean and easy to use.

It looks like it launched in the latter half of 2006 and never really got significant traction. Sadly, it appears to be foundering. The last couple of messages in the forums are spam and messages in all are rather sparse.

Competing against such well-established heavyweights as Beer Advocate and RateBeer probably accounts for much of that. It’s your typical “chicken-and-egg” conundrum. The site won’t be compelling until it has a good database of information. It won’t get that information until people sign up and add it. People won’t sign up for the site until it has a good database of information.

I think it could be worthwhile, though. It’s much simpler than its competition, and isn’t saddled (yet) with the politics and cliques of long-established community members. It also doesn’t try to be anything more than a place for people to rate beers and share. That’s not a knock against them, or anyone else; Sometimes, to me, doing one thing and doing it well is the best way to go.

Update (10-May-2008): The site appears to have been abandoned. There is little more content than when I first posted this, and now the forums are rife with spam. The site has been abandoned by its owners. I can no longer recommend it at all.