An obscure beer blog about drinking for yourself
You’re not though. You just are not.
Untappd reflects how everyone thinks a beer tastes. If Allagash White is ranked 3.50 THAN IT’S FUCKING 3.50.
An Untappd ranking (with some exceptions) reflects how a beer tastes in the real world, not how good a beer is to a beer judge.
Beer Twitter regularly bashes Untappd for everything, especially the people that don’t like the style of a beer and rate it poorly.
While I agree if you REALLY don’t understand the style you are drinking you should refrain from rating it and just leave some comments to your future self like “Don’t drink this again, ya dummy!”
BUT. Untappd is whatever you (and I will die on this virtual hill), whatever you want to use it for. If I want to rate beers on how it actually tastes to me and not what a Cicerone trained geek thinks of it, then I will. I paid zero cents for the app just like you, I’ll do what I want and that doesn’t make me better or worse than Beer Geek Twitter.
While we are here, where does this want for Untappd ratings to be 100% accurate end?
The beer pictured at the top, Bottle Logic “Machine Learning” was a total label-buy. Love the label. Love IPAs and usually Hazzies. The beer? Not really. I won’t get it again.
This is my rating:
Basically if I rate something under a 3.75, I was not into it. Nobody is going to grill me for the mediocre rating. But maybe I don’t know what the hell a HDIPA featuring Galaxy, Idaho 7 & El Dorado is supposed to taste like.
Should I have NOT rated it? Of course not. So leave Untappd ratings alone, yo. Make it how you want. ✌️🍻
You Allagash White fucks.
I want just one of you, ONE OF YOU, to admit that Allagash White is not for everyone.
It is a niche style beer!!
Hello!? McFly!? Think, McFly, think.
Belgian Yeast and Wheat Beer in general, kinda fucking suck… well, suck to a lot of people anyway. Allagash White Fan always fails to mention this when complaining.
And then there is the disconnect of what the upper beer geek crust thinks Untappd is and what it actually is.
I mean really, how long is it going to take you Untappd haters to understand the app? It is not for rating a beer on how well it is made. Nope.
It is an app for rating how a beer tastes to a person. A human beer drinker. Not a brewer, or Beer Twitter, or Beer Instagram.
So when you understand the context, 3.76 is a very good rating for a shit style. Is there a Belgian Yeast inspired Wheat Beer ranking higher? I’m not going to take the time to figure it out but it’s HIGHLY doubtful.
I now present to you the most accurate Allagash White rating on Untappd:
Belgian Yeast is the Brussel Sprout of the beer world. Loved by some, disliked by most.
So Allagash White Dude should be happy with that rating. And maybe shut the hell up, for once.
Imagine your rating system having Allagash White at a 3.76/5 and you not thinking your algorithm needs a few enhancements, like weighting by style.
— Beer Cruncher 📈📢 (@beercruncher) October 22, 2021
He is talking about how if Allagash White (considered by Beer Twitter to be a perfect beer) can be rated so low by Untappd, then something is wrong with Untappd.
Yes but if you are Untappd, HOW can you weight by style?
I think everyone knows “not my style” guy is a problem in Untappd, but how in the world could you actually remove that guy’s rating? How do you fix that in reality without someone at Untappd picking through every rating and messing with it?
I don’t think you can.
One of the ticks of Untappd is it’s what the world of drinkers thinks of a beer, not just what uppity beer geeks think.
Maybe you can try, like others have, to create a more curated, “educated” beer drinker app and not let anyone rate Allagash White below a five. Good luck with your boring-ass beer app.
And also, us beer geeks aren’t perfect either:
Selection bias is always a problem, to be sure. And data always needs context. But usually the folks complaining want to be the arbitrators of "good", and bias exists just as much (or more) in those groups as well
— Aaron MJ Gore (@ale_chaser) October 22, 2021
Yeah, what that👆guy said!
I guess it would be nice to have a more accurate rating system. But I feel like you lose something if you’re tweaking things and walling off all non-snobs.
So I think Allagash White deserves that 3.76. It’s rated too low by drinkers that don’t know Belgian Wit and overly hyped by Allagash fans, making for a perfect real world rating.
BTW, Wheat beers and Belgian Witbier, like Allagash White? Well, they suck. Not my style.
Nick and I were talking recently on The Perfect Pour about Untappd badges. Somehow this got us talking about analog things.
That got us to a place where we came up with… [wait for it] … BEER SASHES!
It’s like a Girl Scout/Boy Scout sash that displays all the patches/badges earned but for Untappd badges.
Yes, like my recent badge for drinking at home a hell of a fucking lot? Make that into a patch and added to the Beer Sash!
Then I go around my local taprooms and beer festivals OBVIOUSLY impressing EVERYONE with my drinking and Untappd prowess.
Someone please get on this.