As I travel through Asia and have limited contact with craft beer, I’ll occasionally look through my checked in beers on Untappd. I do this to remember the good times, see if there is anything that I may encounter on the next leg of my trip and to see what everybody else is drinking. Lately though I have started to notice a trend.I haven’t rated beers I really like very highly.
For those that don’t know, Untappd is a handy app that allows you to review and rate beers on your phone. It’s handy to help remember if you’ve tried a beer or liked it (some sessions can get hazy).
A beer that was a regular on tap at my local pub in Sydney, The Welcome Hotel, was After Battle Pale by Ekim Brewing Co. I have checked it in on Untappd several times. I was always happy to see this on tap and would always have one. If friends were with us and unsure of what to get it was my first recommendation every time. It’s a delicious beer with decent bitterness, balanced out with tropical hop favours. I have a friend who usually drinks the worst cheapest pi$$water you can find. I have tried to get him to try some craft beers, but he hasn’t liked them. He tried the After Battle and didn’t turn back. Nobody I know doesn’t love this beer.
So what do I give this great beer on Untappd? 4 stars. Now don’t get me wrong 4 is a good score and many would be happy. But I started looking into it further. I have never given anything 5 stars. I look at some more of my favourite beers and they all hover around 4 as well. I am clearly taking the ‘you can never be perfect’ approach, but I think that is unfair. This doesn’t mean I am going to get soft, but from now on, if I try a beer and the say something profane followed by ‘that’s a good beer’, I should consider that it might be 5 star worthy.
As soon as I get back to Australia, I will have an Ekim After Battle Pale and check it in with 5 stars. All will be right with the world again.
Are you too harsh on Untappd?
I saw your post on Reddit and provided a very fulsome explanation of my rating system there (https://www.reddit.com/r/Untappd/comments/531rkn/i_realise_i_have_been_underrating_beers_i_love/d82ea6w), but thought I’d give you a direct comment on your blog here.
I don’t think I’m too harsh: my average rating across my ~350 checked-in unique beers is 3.360, and the average global rating across those beers is … 3.362. I swear that I’ve not engineered it that way. There’s also a beautiful correlation between the two, demonstrating that although I’ll differ on some things, I’m not out of touch with what the general community thinks.
That said, I’ve handed out 5’s to three beers in total, which is less than one percent. And looking at my data, it seems that the bulk of the 11% that is 4.5 and up was assigned in the last three or four months. There’s two factors for this, I reckon: I’m trying some better, more expensive beers (since I’ve run out of things to try at my local between $4 and $7); and the second is that with greater experience, I’m more comfortable knowing that I’ve given that porter category a good run and *this* is indeed a fine porter. I don’t know if I’ve been more or less harsh over time, but I reckon I’ve become more precise: I’m more likely to be confident that a 4.25 rating is fair now than the ones I look back on.
It also helps that I judge the beer mainly against its style. So the question for you would be, “Is Ekim’s After Battle Pale the best damn American Pale Ale you’ve had and are likely to have?”. If yes, that’d be a five-starrer for me; if you hesitated, then find some well-rated APAs and put them to the test. Looking here (https://untappd.com/beer/top_rated?type_id=99), there’s nothing I can get in WA, but perhaps you could get (NZ brewery) Liberty Brewing’s Yakima Monster over your side of the country.
Good luck with your global beer quest!
Thanks Andrew
Some good food for thought. Thanks for that. I should print out your guide from Reddit and laminate it.
I think you’re right about taking style into account. I probably forget that sometimes.
Thanks for the follow on Untappd. Good to see your reviews of what’s coming out at home. I am in Hungary now so you should see some interesting check-ins from me soon.
Cheers
Adam