There is, out there, on the interweb, a website called RateBeer. This site is inhabited by some hardcore beer drinkers who record every beer, and publish their opinions on it for the world to see. Now we have known of this site for a while, and like most breweries shudder slightly when anyone mentions it. This is a shudder of fear and foreboding, for the reviews of the beer are at times seemingly done by folk who don't know anything like as much as they think they do about what flavours should and shouldn't be in a beer. Or worse, they are homebrewers who think all beer should taste dead yeast and smell like a warm hosepipe. The reviews vary wildly of course, as taste is in the mouth of the beholder - with the result that the same beer, at the same event, will get some wide ranging reviews. Sometimes though they do all agree on the colour... That is not say all reviewers exceed their knowledge, but there are certainly times when you have to wonder - and this is viewed shared by many people who are far qualified to comment on such thing than we are.
Anyway, someone has played with the statistics, and come up with the answer that the English county at the top of the scoreboards beer wise is Hertfordshire, and then they have gone on to rest this result at the feet of just two breweries - Alehouse (St Albans) and some oufit called Buntingford. Mind you, neither of us appear anywhere in the 'charts' as shown on the RateBeer site (although a few that raise some eyebrows, as alluded to above, do)
Of course the exact manner of arriving at this humbling fact is not known, but we are chuffed to read it nonetheless, so thank you to all those on RateBeer, whatever you knowledge level. I have to say it is all subjective, and I take all on such sites with a pinch of salt
What RateBeer doesn't do though is align any review to the outlets themselves, and whatever the beer is like ex-brewery, the landlord/cellarman controls how it is in the glass, and so must take some of the praise, where it's due. And this maybe why we came top of this little statistic - we have a limited number of outlets, and do our best to avoid selling beer to places where quality may be an issue. After all, why should we go the extra mile, if the next one in the supply chain won't? Mind you, why should we go that extra mile when others don't and then get praised for the complex flavour profiles of their badly brewed infected beer?
Still, if it helps to show that here at Buntingford, we truly offer 'Beer Brewed In Herts' - and more on that in due course - then it can't all be bad.
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2 comments:
Wow... Could you be any more arrogant? When it comes down to it, it's not the professional raters (or for that matter The late great Michael Jackson himself) who determines how good a beer is. It's the people who buy them (or clammer for the rare and hard to get ones). We are the consumer. Without us buying your product, you wouldn't be in business. It just so happens that ratebeer.com is the number one internet site pertaining to the rating of beer (there must be a reason for that!). Yes there are people who will rate a budwieser a 5.0. But that's not the commonplace. I say the words 120 ipa and hopheads around the world start drooling, I say Deshuetes (sp?)The Abyss and russian imp. stout drinkers around the world drool... I say Buntingford's and they go "Who?"
Hmmm.
1. Yes I could be more arrogant. I could believe I know better than you.
2. We are the commercial brewer. We could fill our beer with hops, but not everyone wants that.
3. Ratebeer maybe the no 1 beer rating site - but have you seen the others. No, probably not. Believe me, brewing a very hoppy beer is easier than brewing a drinkable beer with a low hop rate. Oh, and I appreciate a really hoppy brew.
4. Deshwho? If ever you leave Texas, and come over to England, visit Hertfordshire and ask the same question.
I think my point about Ratebeer may have been proved. I stand by my comments, including the one that said SOME of the 'folk' doing the rating. Not all.
Just because someone likes a badly brewed beer, it does NOT make it good. If you ever come over this way, I'll gladly discuss this with you over a beer or several. And there'll be two less people saying who.
Steve.
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