Seems to be a lot of chatter defending lower ABV’s, but the ratings don’t support them.
Look at the top 50. You can’t tell me that the higher ABV’s aren’t a plus when it comes to rating a beer.
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Joe is correct, kinda. I could see the difference of up to .5% ABV, but no more than that.
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An error of 8% in one’s measurement doesn’t equal 8 percentage points of alcohol content. I don’t know if BMan’s facts are right, but perhaps this explains the confusion if he is right. For instance, an 8% error in measuring a 100% ABV beverage could result in a measurement of 92% ABV [8% of 100 = 8]. An 8% error in measuring a 10% ABV beverage could result in a measurement of 9.2% ABV.
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Wow. I can’t say that I share that opinion.
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And I totally agree with that statement. ABV is an important factor, based on the ratings that you (as a group) have given.
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A guy saying he doesn’t like beer for the alcohol is like a guy saying he doesn’t like women for the sex. It’s not a believable statement. As far as how much ABV matters when it comes to choosing the world’s best beers, it does seem like the higher numbers fare better. I’d be willing to bet the reason is that they have more flavor, or more complexity of flavor. They have more ingredients in them per pint than their lower-alcohol kin. Higher alcohol requires more hops/malt to mask or complement its burn. MGD 64 is a 2.5% mass-produced lager that has almost no flavor. Steel Reserve is a 8% mass-produced lager that has far more (albeit crappy) flavor because it has far more (cheap) ingredients thrown in.
I’m wondering how many RB’s have been a part of more than one N/A beer judging session? Or even a low-alc. one? How many people do you think are frantically trading to get their hands on a Dugges Brandmastare Andrens Torstslackare, the highest-rated Low-alc. beer on RB? Zero, that’s how many. Why? Because alcohol content DOES matter in beer for several reasons. One is that it’s usually a good indicator of cellarability. Another is that it usually indicates a stronger flavor and may help one decide at what point in their tasting session to drink it (who tries their first Chimay Blue before their first Chimay Red?). Another is to gauge how buzzed it might make you- if you’re out for a long night of drinking you don’t want to be pounding 12%er’s at 6pm... you might opt for a pilsner. And even then, maybe a Pilsner Urquell (4.4%) over an Augustiner Pils (5.6%). Yet another is that it’s a huge discussion point for geeks, as in "Why does this Elysian Great Pumpkin taste better to me at 7.7% than it did at 9.5%?"
My point is alcohol in beer and ABV do matter. And if you’re not drinking beer for the alcohol, just for the flavor, why not start rating different colas? Or bottled waters? Or Kool-Aid?
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For me, ABV as an independent factor is irrelevant -- all that matters is taste. In other words, my rating of a beer is based on the taste/smell/palate/appearance, and the ABV matters only insofar as it affects those characteristics. IF there were tasty N/As out there, I’d be all over them. If two beers tasted/smelled/appeared/appearance the exact same and were the same style, but one had 12% ABV and the other had 7% ABV, I would want to give them the same ratings.
With respect to the Southern Tier beers that are the subject of this thread, I already know the tastes. I like them (for the most part). The fact that the underlying ABVs are different than I thought they were when I drank them has no bearing on my opinion of them or my ratings, and will not cause me to re-rate them to take into account that difference. Personally, I can’t see why anyone would regard these beers differently now that s/he has learned that the ABVs were slightly different.
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southern tier pumking (5 case stacking) was gone at our store within a week or so. hoppin’ frog double pumpkin (8.4%) is about as good.
i suspect that ST choklat will be limited in availability whenever it actually gets out here. and with the choklat’s ABV being down a bit, the new fort collins double chocolate stout (8.1%) is a great chocolate beer in a similar vein- and hopefully will remain available.
message: there are alternatives to these limited ST beers- the lowering of published ABV levels should help move some worthy alternatives.
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Brooklyn BCS changes a lot more than that when they finally lab tested it (and it went up).
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THANK you, Joe! Even if it were changes to the recipes, for most of them it would be imperceptable.
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