February 3, 2006 -- First off, let me say for the record that I like both ratebeer.com and beeradvocate.com and feel that they both fill important needs within the beer world, allowing aficionados casual and obsessive the chance to share and discuss their views about this beer or that. In short, they do for beer aficionados what countless other websites do for enthusiasts of cars, travel, dining, model trains and a multitude of other hobbies and interests.

Now let me turn to RateBeer’s latest press release touting “The Best Beers in the World,” the result of what site administrator Joe Tucker claims is “the largest beer competition in the world” with more than 48,000 beers from over 5700 brewers included, almost 750,000 votes tabulated, and 91.4% of the evaluations considered made by raters with more than one hundred listings to their credit.

As impressive as those numbers are on the surface, when you divide the votes cast by the beers rated you find that the average number of ratings received per beer is a mere 15.625. Many beers, of course, received significantly more votes, such as the winning beer, Westvleteren Abt 12, with 704, and Budweiser, with 1606, but by definition, that also means that many of the beers also received significantly fewer ratings. In other words, unlike at organized beer judging sessions and despite the “largest beer competition in the world” claim, the playing field here is far from level.

Then there’s the taste prejudice element, which is perhaps the most common criticism directed at both the RateBeer and Beer Advocate sites. Granted, taste is a personal thing and will necessarily be reflected in any sensory evaluation, but even a cursory glance at the top ten or twenty beers in the RateBeer list reveals that “ratebeerians” have an overt fondness for big, potent ales. A look at the top ten, for example, reveals an average alcohol content of a massive 10.55%, a trend which continues through the top twenty with an average strength of 10.34% and not a single beer below 8%. As for bottom-fermented beers, well, they pretty much need not apply, with only two – a raspberry eisbock and a doppelbock – counting within the top one hundred.

So RateBeer raters have their prejudices, just like everyone else, including, as much as we might try to be as style-savvy and objective as possible, professional beer writers like myself, Jackson, Protz and a host of others world-wide. But in that very sentence you can see what I believe to be the greatest flaw in the RateBeer rankings, namely the anonymity of the reviewers.

When I or any other professional reviewer evaluates a beer, you my or may not agree with the opinion, but at least you know from whence it came. Of the 704 reviewers who made the Westvleteren the number one “Best Beer in the World,” however, only a handful are identifiable, which makes me wonder why their ratings are any more valid than if I had surveyed a random 704 people in London’s White Horse Tavern or New York’s d.b.a. or Amsterdam’s In de Wildeman. All three of these places are inspired international beer destinations, and as such, all are likely to be patronized by beer enthusiasts, so could Ray Deter of d.b.a. or Mark Dorber of the White Horse, in they were so inclined, circulate a questionnaire among their patrons and claim the results as conclusive? If RateBeer can, I see no reason why not.

Of course, all of this can and, no doubt, will by some people be construed as me being dismissive of the RateBeer rankings, or defensive of my position as a professional beer writer, but honestly, such is not at all my intent. I just think that this “competition” should be called what it really is, namely a survey of people sufficiently enthusiastic about beer that they have registered their views on a given website.

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