This is what Beerfly is for, and it is just as handy/useful as ever.kwjd wrote:If I were to go to Montreal today, based on the list I would know to pick up Unibroue, DDC and St Ambroise, but nothign else. The list has no usefulness for travelling anymore. It requires more research to know to look for Les Trois Mousquetaires or Charlevoix.
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Canada Top 50 on BA
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markaberrant
- Seasoned Drinker
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On one hand, I now feel more motivated to actually write up reviews for more Charlevoix beers (I've tried 5 or 6 but only wrote about 1). The Milk Stout only needs 7 more reviews to bring Charlevoix into the top 50... get writing people!
Might be a while before Trois Mousquetaires get back in, partly due to all their annual releases that make reviews less frequent or split them up for each year.
Might be a while before Trois Mousquetaires get back in, partly due to all their annual releases that make reviews less frequent or split them up for each year.
I don't know enough of the top world or US beer lists to say what effect the change has had, but for the Canadian list, I don't think this was the way to go.
I do understand that they're trying to make the best-of lists relevant to a larger population, but at least for Canadian beer this new system leaves off too many of the actual best beers. What we have now is a list of the most-reviewed good beers in the country. If you want to attach availability to the perceivable quality of a beer, at what point do you draw the line? IMO, the line has been crossed in this instance.
I managed to, quite easily, tick off the old Canadian top 25 in a couple months. After sampling all of them and about 75 or so of bobsy's top 100 list, I felt that the BA Canadian top 25 was a pretty good representation of the best 25 beers in the country. I don't think I ever saw anyone complaining otherwise, either.
If this is supposed to be a list of the 50 best Canadian beers, where is Charlevoix? Where is Half Pints? Trois Mousquetaires? Seriously? Also, two of these beers aren't even available in Canada (Eau Benite and Quelque Chose) and rely almost solely on American distribution and reviewing. I don't agree with the new system, at least in the case of Canadian beer, and hope someone at BA does something to show some more appropriate representation, for the sake of anyone seeking out the *real* best Canadian beer (as I believe the old list had effectively led me).
(No offense to the beers on the new list, though. I do enjoy the majority of those I've tried).
I do understand that they're trying to make the best-of lists relevant to a larger population, but at least for Canadian beer this new system leaves off too many of the actual best beers. What we have now is a list of the most-reviewed good beers in the country. If you want to attach availability to the perceivable quality of a beer, at what point do you draw the line? IMO, the line has been crossed in this instance.
I managed to, quite easily, tick off the old Canadian top 25 in a couple months. After sampling all of them and about 75 or so of bobsy's top 100 list, I felt that the BA Canadian top 25 was a pretty good representation of the best 25 beers in the country. I don't think I ever saw anyone complaining otherwise, either.
If this is supposed to be a list of the 50 best Canadian beers, where is Charlevoix? Where is Half Pints? Trois Mousquetaires? Seriously? Also, two of these beers aren't even available in Canada (Eau Benite and Quelque Chose) and rely almost solely on American distribution and reviewing. I don't agree with the new system, at least in the case of Canadian beer, and hope someone at BA does something to show some more appropriate representation, for the sake of anyone seeking out the *real* best Canadian beer (as I believe the old list had effectively led me).
(No offense to the beers on the new list, though. I do enjoy the majority of those I've tried).
Last edited by eat on Mon Aug 09, 2010 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
If anyone wants to take up notdan on his encouragement to review the Vache Folle Milk Stout, I've got a bottle I would trade away in the Toronto area. I love this stuff but to not have Charlevoix on the top 50 is ridiculous!notdan wrote:On one hand, I now feel more motivated to actually write up reviews for more Charlevoix beers (I've tried 5 or 6 but only wrote about 1). The Milk Stout only needs 7 more reviews to bring Charlevoix into the top 50... get writing people!
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cratez
- Beer Superstar
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While it's a nice ego boost to know that I've tried 44 of the new Top 50, I feel that the increased emphasis on number of ratings defeats the purpose of 'best' lists. Best means there are very few or none that are better, so to me it's an inappropriate label for a relatively good beer that also happens to be popular. Others have already said it: the old list was perfectly fine - not to mention accurate - and the limited distribution of some beers made them all the more fun to pursue.
So... turns out they were half-fucking with us:
* For all lists other than the Buzz list, (m) minimum reviews required to be listed is not some number we pulled out of our asses; like 1,000 for the experiment. It's now the average number of reviews of all of the beers within the set and will grow as the set's overall number of reviews increase. We feel this is fair vs. constantly having to pick an (m) that seems right for years to come. For example: Top Beers on Planet Earth (m) is currently 105, but will dynamically change, as will the list as a result; achieving what many want. This is up from a fixed (m) of 10, which we can all agree was way too low.
So apparently Canadian beers have an average of 50 reviews. Seems that it's up to us to write more reviews for the better, harder to find beers if we want them back in the top list. No more reviews for Fin du Monde
* For all lists other than the Buzz list, (m) minimum reviews required to be listed is not some number we pulled out of our asses; like 1,000 for the experiment. It's now the average number of reviews of all of the beers within the set and will grow as the set's overall number of reviews increase. We feel this is fair vs. constantly having to pick an (m) that seems right for years to come. For example: Top Beers on Planet Earth (m) is currently 105, but will dynamically change, as will the list as a result; achieving what many want. This is up from a fixed (m) of 10, which we can all agree was way too low.
So apparently Canadian beers have an average of 50 reviews. Seems that it's up to us to write more reviews for the better, harder to find beers if we want them back in the top list. No more reviews for Fin du Monde
I agree... and those one-offs will be on the top buzz list.markaberrant wrote:I like this way better - I don't want to see all the limited release/distribution beers in the Top 50/100 lists. It just muddies it up.
I've tried 75 of the top 100 overall, and 34 of 50 in Canada.
Previously I tried to keep over 50, but I was fallling behind. Now I'm at 76!
For Canada I had them all... now I'm at 45/50... so the shopping continues!
I guess if anyone cared enough what appeared on that BA list they could 'goose' the ratings representation by getting those beers to more people. I'm sure even casual local raters could make up the missing numbers.notdan wrote: For Canada, at least we now have a top 50, but you need to have 50+ reviews, meaning some awesome new beers like St. Ambroise RIS aren't on there
In Beerum Veritas
Yes and no. I've beermailed them with my complaints/criticisms and am still therecratez wrote:Just make sure you don't discuss any of this on BA itself, especially if you have critical opinions of the new lists. The Bros will instantly jump in with some weird justification as to why they have to close the thread, then lock it down before you can respond.Fall in line, comrades!
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cratez
- Beer Superstar
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Yeah. I wasn't referencing their banning of members - which is a whole other topic - so much as their tight control of discussion in the forums. I reiterated something that was first posted on here and they immediately shuttered the thread before anyone could respond, most likely because I mentioned Rate Beer (God forbid). Hence the "fall in line" comment.papat444 wrote:Yes and no. I've beermailed them with my complaints/criticisms and am still therecratez wrote:Just make sure you don't discuss any of this on BA itself, especially if you have critical opinions of the new lists. The Bros will instantly jump in with some weird justification as to why they have to close the thread, then lock it down before you can respond.
Yeah. I wasn't referencing their banning of members - which is a whole other topic - so much as their tight control of discussion in the forums. I reiterated something that was first posted on here and they immediately shuttered the thread before anyone could respond, most likely because I mentioned Rate Beer (God forbid). Hence the "fall in line" comment. [/quote]
Hmmm. I've mentioned ratebeer before and have seen it before in the forums without it being removed. I believe the context and subject with which it is used is more of an issue. I know they have a tight control and i don't always agree with some of their policies but i still prefer it to ratebeer.
[/quote]Hmmm. I've mentioned ratebeer before and have seen it before in the forums without it being removed. I believe the context and subject with which it is used is more of an issue. I know they have a tight control and i don't always agree with some of their policies but i still prefer it to ratebeer.