Searched to see if this has been posted yet (or maybe this is really old news) but I just saw that Heady Topper is now #1 most popular on this website. http://beeradvocate.com/lists/popular
I also thought it might have to do with the Westy XII bricks being released and the score going down. Westy is down to #6 now.
I'm pretty sure it was #3 before the merge, so the hads/wants thing didn't change Heady's place much.
... what? the entire point of this thread is noting that Heady is now #1. all my post was saying is that the reason Heady is now #1 is because of the Hads/Wants merge. like you yourself noted, Heady was #3 before, and #1 after. that is all.
i dont like the merge. the scores should be based on people who take the time to make a proper review. i liekd havign the different scores to glance at
before the hads/wants merge, Westy was #2 still. but yeah, I imagine the bricks impacted the Hads pretty considerably.
Actually, comparing the rankings to a scrape I did a few months ago shows huge movement within all of the lists. It also looks like we're seeing some ratings creep, in that all the ratings for 'Hads' on average were higher than the full reviews. The lowest rated beer in the top 100 a few months ago was rated 4.34, now the lowest rating is 4.42. A 4.42 on the old list would have been good for spot #50.
Yep, people drinking and reviewing a just-brewed beer that is meant to be aged is bound to bring down the score. Let's get everyone to drink really old Heady Topper so it too is being consumed when not at its best.
I'm always surprised when someone would click on a thread clearly about the ranking of a particular beer just to say that they are surprised by it
Because to me it's crazy that someone would come on a beer ranking website and talk about the rankings of beer. WILD.
better get some of this before the ranking system changes again and this one falls off the list entirely!
I am always surprised when people get surprised by what surprises other people on this site. That stuff shouldn't surprise anyone anymore. I shouldn't even get surprised at all.
Funny you mention that, I accidentally deleted a bunch of them a while ago. I was trying to use them to track my tasting notes for a while but it was easier to just use Untappd. I write reviews pretty sparingly but I don't care about how it affects the score, I like reading reviews. FWIW I don't like the new combined scores, the full reviews should have .25 increments now so there's parity between reviews and hads
I'm surprised that people actually waste their time counting how many of their local beers are in the list Vermont has 9 beers in the top 51
Anyone else just go through all their Hads and delete them? I used that just for thoughtless tracking, and I am assuming that I wasn't the only one....those Top Beers now mean less than they ever did before.
The rankings are only a small part of BA. Its not a "beer ranking website", rather its a forum for discussions regarding all things beer related while also allowing users to review, rate, and track beers. They also include rankings and lists based on review scores. There's a lot to BA besides Top Beers List.
I just went through and dropped a bunch of my 5 hads down a bit. Knowing now that hads effect the overall score of the beer, I can't see giving something like Heady or Zombie Dust a 5. Great beers, but are they on the same level as Rare and Younger? Not IMHO.
my hads have been a mess since they were initially integrated with only whole number scores. i ended up giving a bunch of things 5s instead of 4s bc that was the only option, but now i really need to go through and change them bc everything has been lumped together.
Agreed, and im a huge fan of the beer. I buy at least a case every month. There has to be more than 6 beers that deserve to be rated higher than Zombie lol
The way I see it, is if any brewery were to brew a beer that they didn't want the consumer to drink until years down the line...They would just hold onto it with their own aging program until they felt it was satisfactory enough. Don't get me wrong, Westy I'm sure is good fresh as well, and improves over time(never sought after it), but to compare your example of old Heady in which a majority of people here would have enough sense not to tick it, and obviously The Alchemist wouldn't sell old heady, seems to be a bit of an unfair comparison... ...But I totally understand what you're trying to say.
Only a blind man or woman could give Heady a perfect score. Amazing beer, but not perfect to look at.
Even ignoring the price & rarity, if I had unlimited supplies of those beers, I'd drink a lot more HT and ZD than Rare. So, I'm personally comfortable with them being more highly rated.
I think my quick rating of my "hads" is still an accurate rating of what I think overall of the beer...but I do also agree now that it means less. I'm still not going to let someone tell me what the world's best beer is, that's all a personal preference anyways (as we all know). When I see a beer on the shelf that I've never had or seen, the first thing I do is bust out my cell phone and check BA. I go through and read the actual reviews to see what people are writing but the score is generally a good guideline.
