Take a look at this op-ed from Four Peaks owner and brewmaster, Andy Ingram:
Couple the glut of options with social media and the need of some people to be relevant, and in come the experts. […]
I rarely visit beer blogs, and I try to avoid beer-rating websites. Though I think many are excellent advocates for my industry, I have a nose and a mouth that work quite well, and I’m confident in what I like and don’t like. While I really enjoy when someone tells me of a new beer to try, I don’t want to be told whether I should like it. And neither should you. The world of craft beer is too diverse to be told what to like. Explore it, and become your own expert.
UPDATE: See this article from one month ago in which the same author suggests five pumpkin beers that you should try “that stand above the rest.” H/T to @aleheads.
That’s really all you need to see but read on if you would like my personal take.
[Ed: note: below, a rare op-ed!]
As far as ‘beer-rating websites’ go, I’ve never seen them as more than a collection of people who love beer posting what they think of this or that beer. I don’t see anyone on there trying to be an expert telling you what to drink. And even if there are a few, is anyone remotely close enough to threatening to become the Robert Parker of beer?
As far as blogs go, 98-99% (ok, maybe 90-95%) of the beer blogs I am aware of that have traction are disseminating information like ‘Check out [insert event here] at [insert local bar/brewery here] tonight.’ Not ‘beer expert’ blogs. The author admits that the industry benefits from such blogs but casts them all aside anyway. Huh?
The ‘online beer community’ (for lack of a better term) advocates for breweries like Four Peaks so that they can champion not having to have marketing budgets or not having to market beer traditionally like the big guys. It’s nice to see that the savings from those marketing dollars are being put toward a second location.
I think what the author is getting at is that he dislikes Beer Advocate and RateBeer or more specifically, dislikes the use of BA and RB shelf tags, in shops. This has little to do with individuals who promote beer online telling you that they are experts (again, where?) and more to do with the owners of said sites and retailers who use them as tools for selling beer. Period. [That isn’t to say that I think there is anything wrong with shelf tags. Just merely being explicit about what I feel the author is arguing.]
Click the link below and read through his whole argument. What do you think?
[note: I brought this up on Twitter. Here are the responses so far.]
via Beer Buzz: Don’t let ‘expert’ define your taste in craft beers.
“While I really enjoy when someone tells me of a new beer to try, I don’t want to be told whether I should like it.”
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I think this is the whole gist of what he’s trying to say and I agree. Give me ratings – fine, but if I don’t agree with those ratings when I taste the beer, don’t tell me I’m “wrong”. I like what I like – even if you don’t.
While there certainly is a danger of BA and RB ‘unfairly’ representing a beer before a consumer even tries it, I completely agree with you. If you are undiscerning enough to not realize that these reviews are the personal opinions of individuals with their own tastes, then you probably aren’t even the type of consumer who cares what beer you drink.
What I find more troubling/interesting is the whole “I rarely visit beer blogs.” Coming from an article written by someone who begins by calling himself an “occasional beer writer” is extremely hypocritical. He cautions us against The Expert while acting as one himself.
The opinions and discussions that beer blogs and social media facilitate are part of what have made the craft beer industry so unique and so accessible. Sure, there are beer writers out there who have no professional involvement in the industry, but is that to say that their opinions aren’t worth reading? The brewer’s perspective is only one of the many parties that are involved is this thing we call beer culture.
I couldn’t agree with Aaron more.
Personally, I look at the beer rating sites to compare what I find in a beer with what others think but not to decide what I should buy. If anyone is solely buying beers based on ratings, they are missing out on a lot of great beer. I don’t know anyone who does this. What I hear is (as we are about to open a new beer we’ve never had before) guys saying something like “It had a great score on RateBeer…” And that’s about the extent of it.
(As an aside, I know a pretty new but very hot brewer who checks his ratings on a daily basis. He uses the reviews as feedback since all his friends just tell him that his beer is great.)
It also puzzles me that people are still worried that opinions expressed on the internet will somehow be confused for truth. I think we’ve moved past this. In fact, most of us read anything on the internet with a healthy dose of skepticism.
That’s good and all but he throws a whole community of innocent bystanders under the bus in doing so by associating “beer blogs” and those on “beer rating websites” with those who say you’re an idiot if you don’t like x beer.
If you want to try a beer, buy it and try it. Why do people actually rely on ratings and reviews for movies, music, and beer? All that reviewers do is try to compare what they are reviewing to something that was previously done. It is a tired and annoying schtick.
Yeah, I totally agree with Aaron and Adam. I run a beer blog, read about 200 regularly, and have never once encountered any of them telling me I am an idiot if I like or don’t like a beer. Some give opinions, some give information. The best (like this post) give us both.
Raters on BA and RB are at this point known commodities to all of us; they are a large force of niche geek wisdom that, like all such groups, has a few bad apples and a tendency toward the extreme. But most people who take the time to write about beer – whether on a blog or elsewhere – understand the diversity of tastes and styles, and guys like this do themselves no favors by just issuing blanket barrages of criticism.
Of course, most bloggers are also hypersensitive about fairness, so we probably won’t hold it against him.
Sorry, Greg. No idea why the spam filter caught that one.
Beer rating websites help to inform the beer community what others think of a particular beer. You’re not going to always agree with a rating on BA or RB but that’s ok the rating is an average of what the community feels. You might happen to fall on the extremes of the curve, but that’s ok. Use the ratings website as a guide, not as the definitive source of information. If a beer only has a few ratings, you can’t trust it now if there are hundreds of ratings, you can rest assured you’re getting a fair shake.
Brewers are doing themselves an injustice by not taking a look at these sites and seeing how the community feels about their beer. Its simple, free and quick market research, what business doesn’t want that? There are a lot of breweries out there that could stand to look at the ratings and improve their beer or at the least get a feel for how they are performing.
Irving nailed it. A lot of business’s would love to have to have that much free feedback from their consumers.
Also, brewers are like the rest of us, it can be difficult to hear criticism without taking it as a personal affront.
I agreed with Adam that the whole article was just tilting at windmills. I don’t really understand why people like arguing against positions that no one actually holds, but it happens disturbingly often. Who pays this guy to write?
As a blogger that speaks to Andy Ingram here and there on topics of beer. I’ll throw my 2cents in.
He’s not anti-beer blog. He just doesn’t read read very many and “tries to avoid” rating sites. I completely understand the second part. There are plenty of people in certain occupations where you’re encouraged not to read your own reviews.
He brews beer like he like to and so far, it has proven to be personally and professionally satisfying. The only other insight that I can tell you is that he is as concerned about what goes on outside of the glass as what goes into the glass. Four Peaks has an amazing pub feel for such a large space.
I’ve heard one “expert” here call a certain beer brewed locally, “undrinkable”. When I pressed on what the hell he meant, he walked it back to, “not a beer I would choose to drink a x bar with 25 handles”. I think that’s the type of expert that we could all do without.
Disclosure: I’ve written plenty of stuff about Andy and Four Peak and he has mentioned me in on of his columns.