Craft Beer Recommendations

As part of Craft Beer Bucket
List, I try hard to diversify my beer opportunities and the beers I choose to
drink/review. While I tend to stay away from beers that get overall terrible
reviews, I try to have an open mind and often indulge in beers that get mixed
reviews.  While most of the mixed reviews are warranted as those beers are
mediocre, sometimes that is not the case.  On the other hand, there are
quite a number of beers that get fairly high or rave reviews where such is
completely unwarranted. 

I like to compare this aspect of
beer review to Yelp or Google reviews of restaurants. While often helpful, the
truth is something that must be gleaned from what is not in the published
reviews.  Take a look at the reviews for McDonald's burgers at any point
in time and you will see statements describing the burgers as the best thing
ever to the worst food ever purchased. 

The same goes with movie
reviews.  Have you ever watched a movie
and just really enjoyed it?  Then you see
the reviews and are puzzled?  I loved the
Star Wars movie SOLO, but holy heck did it get grilled. immensely.  Was it the best movie ever?  The best Star Wars movie ever?  Nope. Does it matter? Not to me, because I
enjoyed it.

The truth is floating out there
in the hazy middle ground. Thus, take the reviews with caution, as your
experience may differ.

When asked about what beers I
would recommend to someone, I usually ask a couple of questions:

a) what type of beers or other
drinks do you already enjoy/prefer?

b) how adventurous are you?

From here, I can usually point
someone in the right direction.  For someone that is a bit more
technologically nimble, I would say find someone that reviews beers that is
similar to you in taste preferences.  This takes a bit more time. I try to
be as honest as possible.  If someone asks me for a sour beer
recommendation, I will immediately let them know that they should not take my
recommendation.  Want to be pointed to a good Hazy IPA? I'll get you in
front of the right person. Not that I think my opinion is bad (I love my opinion!),
but perhaps there is someone better out there in that realm. 

If you are adventurous, which I
try to be, I usually recommend to try anything in the same line of styles.  Not sure about an IPA, but love IPAs?  Why not give something new a whirl.  Perhaps you can confirm past reviews.  Maybe you get to contradict someone!

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