Rate Beer

It's a little rough around the edges, but this site is a must-read for anybody who takes their beer seriously. Think Wine Spectator for the beer lover. It's a great place to get community ratings on all your regular standbys as well as a great resource to prep for the next outing at your local hofbrau. Honestly, I haven't heard of 99% of the beers on this site, but am now on a mission to find my first pint of Schorschbräu Eisbock. One gripe -- MGD rated below PBR?!? Can anybody say cold-filtered?

A pretentious little number, starts off with a big head and little froth, very full of itself with an aroma of one-upmanship and subtle tones of self-indulgence and wet beards. Faint but distinct geekiness in the background, sometimes leading to a bad taste in the mouth.

Well what do you expect me to say? They trashed Newcastle Brown Ale, an English icon. Serves them right.

Seriously, American beers totally pwned the Worlds Worst Beers list, scoring a whopping 19 out of the top - I mean bottom - 20, and rating even worse than Mexican Cave Creek Chili Beer, which is disgusting. But at the other end, the USA romped home with 74 out of the top 100 beers, which is pretty impressive. As you might expect, Belgian beers took most of the rest of the places but I was disappointed to see only one English beer make it into this rareified atmosphere. I'm sure we should have done better than this.

Still, there are country leagues too, so there are more awards to win and although it's been some years since I was there, I did recognise about a half dozen of my favourite beers in the Belgian league. I didn't recognize that many in the English competition though, which shows how much the craft beers movement has expanded in recent years.

This is a must-read if your tastes in beer extend beyond the brands that your parents drank and which still command the media. There are literally thousands of labels awaiting your attention. Although beer prices are increasing, collecting and tasting beers is always going to be far less expensive as a hobby than collecting wines, and in my experience, just as satisfying if not more so (and you can actually drink the beers, too!). And if you're accustomed to drinking Bud, or indeed anything at all from that stable (only one of the Anheuser beers made it over 3 out of 5), you could be in for a very pleasant surprise. Don't be put off by the fancy descriptions though, you don't really have to detect the. What was it now... hint of wood, leather and banana in the background. Just enjoy.