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How we review

December 21, 2008

Beer is hard to review. This is mostly because it is so subjective, but also because, unlike wine, people don’t seem to have a good opinion about beer. We would like to change that and bring to light how complex and interesting the taste of beer can be. Beer is really a fantastic drink, it can be tasty and refreshing.

In our reviews we aim to not just bring across the technicalities of the drink, such as its origins and availability, but also the experience the reviewer had along with the beer. Considering that pretty much everyone has different preferences, it becomes a very fuzzy endavour. We will try anyway. Here are some of the things we try to answer in a review:

  • The taste: How does it compare to other beers? This is very important as it will help the reader relate to the beer in question.
  • The look: Is there anything special about it? Some beers look very much alike but taste differently and yet others are complete opposites.
  • The side dish: Was the beer combined with food or any other drinks and what affects they had on the taste?
  • The Place: What was the experience you had while drinking the beer? It’s strange, but the drink will taste differently based on the person’s mood and social situation. Of course, it’s not the taste that changes but it’s how the person perceives it.

Most importantly we want to compare beers and not talk about them in absolute sense. This makes it easier for others to understand where a beer stands. So far all of the contributors to this blog like Guinness (some consider it to be the best). For this reason we will use Guinness as the baseline beer for dark beers. Whether or not you like it, this concept should help in understanding if you’d like the beer being reviewed.

The other half of the blog is the bar (or place of drinking). This is very important as we’d like to let our readers know where to go to the same experience. Perhaps that will drive the reader to make comments on the post or even become a contributor. As previously mentioned experience will affect the taste. After all that’s how marketing works. So we want to talk about that as well.