World-wide recognition for local beers

Ratebeer has accolades for many local beers, including calling Three Floyds the finest brewery in the world. A writeup here.

I wonder why Hop Leaf fell off the top 50 beer bar ranking?

Also, I've always wondered why West Lakeview Liquors gets ranked so high. It's a great beer store, no doubt. The staff is very helpful and they carry a high quality selection. But, the selection is significantly smaller than many other stores I've been to. Sometimes I stop there first, then hit up Binny's or Armanetti's to round out my purchases since they didn't carry some of the beers I was looking for. I don't mean this as a criticism, really just a curiosity as to why it's considered world class.

turkob wrote:I wonder why Hop Leaf fell off the top 50 beer bar ranking?

I'm guessing it's because nobody goes there any more - it's too crowded.

(Thanks, Yogi.)

That's a lot of Imperial Stouts (17) in the top 20.

Matt wrote:That's a lot of Imperial Stouts (17) in the top 20.

I could never take the top 50 beers list seriously. It is completely unbalanced. The top lists for each individual style are much more reasonable.

The bias of the list is in the rating system. The categories for tasters on ratebeer are aroma, appearance, flavor, and palate. Note that you don't see categories like refreshing(ness?) or balance. Of course beers that bring pack a lot of complex flavor and nose are going to come out on top.

I've also wondered how someone can rank one beer over another if they haven't had them both. These rankings are aggregate ratings not a juried list. Kind of like the IMDB top 250.

jblth wrote:

Matt wrote:That's a lot of Imperial Stouts (17) in the top 20.

I could never take the top 50 beers list seriously. It is completely unbalanced. The top lists for each individual style are much more reasonable.

I agree. These sorts of lists are very "big beer" biased. Now, I do enjoy my big beers, and Three Floyds is one of my favorite breweries, but I don't think I've ever seen a straightforward pilsener or lager on one of these lists. Part of the problem is what Turkbob menions: the rating system tends to bias against certain styles. However, I'd speculate there's more going on. I think a good portion of recreational beer aficionados (aren't we all? ), especially when they're first getting into the microbrews, conflate "lots of crazy different flavors going on" with "good." I think that's partly a reaction against the BudMillCoors seltzer water beers--the farther the beer gets away from resembling an American macrolager, the "better" the beer is. And looking at the top beers and all the Imperial Stouts that dominate the list, that does indeed seem to be what's happening. The highest ranked pale lager (like Stella, Heineken, etc.) is 72nd percentile. The best pilsener is 92nd percentile (not too bad). Premium lager? 85th. California common (aka "steam beer"?) 78th. A Kolsch? 87th. The lighter beer styles all rank much lower than their hopped-up or malted-up counterparts.

I mean, look at the best English Pale Ale. It's Three Floyd's. Of course, because it's hopped to holy hell. That scores in the 96th percentile. The second best EPA, Pink Elephant Rogers Reserve from New Zealand, is 81st. I mean, really? It's the "extreme" brews (and Belgian styles, which are "extreme" in a sense) that constantly take top scores at rankings like this--at least with American beer sites, where tastes are geared towards boldness and assertiveness rather than balance and elegance.

Now, don't get me wrong--I think America is the most exciting place to be as a beer drinker, what with all the myriad breweries and pushing the boundaries of various beer styles as well as resurrecting forgotten brews. But I wish there was a little pull back from the big beer trend (and maybe there is already some pulling back) and a little more appreciation for more subdued, but very elegant, beers.

The ratebeer list has steered me toward some excellent beers that I otherwise never would have known to try. I, for one, find it pretty useful. If you can recommend a place where I can find out about these so-called "subdued" beers, I'd love to know.

geno55 wrote:The ratebeer list has steered me toward some excellent beers that I otherwise never would have known to try. I, for one, find it pretty useful. If you can recommend a place where I can find out about these so-called "subdued" beers, I'd love to know.

Just look at the top 50 for each style. Any of those should be good, even if you aren't likely to find a Helles in the overall top 50.

geno55 wrote:The ratebeer list has steered me toward some excellent beers that I otherwise never would have known to try. I, for one, find it pretty useful. If you can recommend a place where I can find out about these so-called "subdued" beers, I'd love to know.

It's not that it's not a useful site -- it is. And their top beers are legitimately world-class beers. But, as is to be expected, it's steered to slightly more aggressive American taste buds, so that's something to keep in mind when running down the Top 50 and individual style lists.