Pet Peeves of Reviews

After reading about people and their pet peeves of liquor store practices and bars, I am curious what people get annoyed by when reading a review on this site.

Are there certain things such as spacing, buzz words, comparisons or randomness that other people do which makes you disregard the review? Would love to be able to improve my reviews and am curious as to what people look for or dont like.

To start it off I guess I am nit-picky for paragraph breaks between the different categories you are rating.

Pretension in general is bothersome for me. I know it's a vague criticism, but it gets under my skin. I've never seen a pilsner that was "ecru", and it just makes you look like a tool when you describe it as such.

Lack of length and detail is probably my biggest pet peeve. Granted, there are many beers about which there just isn't much to be said. But short reviews with a lack of detail only signal a tick to me. I think the implementation of "Hads" is greatly helping that problem, though.

honestly, I give props to everyone for taking the time to carefully think about a beer and record their thoughts. I don't care about format or anything else.

This.

When I drink a beer, my favorite position is on the couch, laptop off, nothing to write with. Just enjoying the beer. That's why I never review beers.

Really, anyone who does take the time to write reviews of any kind is doing me a service. I really do appreciate them.

It's annoys the bejesus out of me when someone claims to pick up like 24 different things out of 1 beer.

Example: I get chocolate, coffee, dark fruits like figs, dates, raisins, tobacco, leather, earth/soil, smoke, brown paper bag, horse blanket, the bottom of an old shoe that's been worn by someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest, the liner for a winter coat, the rubber on the end of a pogo stick, 23 jump ropes, and finally the ink used to take someone's fingerprints.

I mean c'mon, is the human palate even capable of discerning that many flavors???

Thats cool you both are grateful for reading the reviews. Must say there is a certain feeling when I have already reviewed a beer and am relaxing on the couch enjoying it again.

"I don't like this style" or "the beer was obviously bad (only an issue if the beer is often
bad)".

Great timing! I recently read someone's review stating "insert cult favorite DIPA here" was too balanced to be considered World Class.

Or when someone bashes a brew or gives a poor rating, then goes onto state that they're not a fan of the style or familiar with it.

take a random sampling of 10 of my reviews. try to pick out 2~3 attributes of each one, especially those that appear in every review. chances are, those are my major review pet peeves.

i hate my reviews.

Clowns that say: from notes, poured into a 2oz sampler.

I lose more brain cells by reading reviews from BA Raulmondesi than I actually do from drinking beer.

...not sure why people have to tell me the brand name on the glass they are pouring their beer into.

with you on that one. i used to review a lot, but these days i seldom do. i was finding i'd get so wrapped up in the analytical aspect of it - dissecting the beer and all its components - that i'd scarcely remember to just enjoy the damn thing.

I find any review helpful in some way...
even if its just to point out that a certain brewery makes a cool snifter

I try to buy at least two of every beer I try to review. One to enjoy and one to try and dissect to the best of my ability. That being said my biggest pet peeve is vagueness. I don't have problems with short descriptions as long as they have detail.

This is a tough question for me, I'm definitely not confident that my own reviews are all that great. I think I'm trying to improve on certain things like never comparing the beer I'm tasting to another beer. Doesn't make sense since the reader might not have had that beer either. And you mentioned the breaks between the categories, I actually like them and think when I'm on my phone or tablet it helps me quickly see which category I want to read next.

I also want to be more descriptive with my flavors. I don't want to use more descriptions in a row to get my point across (unless the profile changes through the taste), just sum up the flavor more accurately. Less is more

But yes, I am very grateful for anyone who reviews as well. Especially on the lesser known beers that might only have 14 reviews.

I've certainly skipped to the next one but I haven't ever been annoyed by a review.
I wish more people specified vintage on certain beers.

I don't review but I wish everyone wrote down what vintage or bottled date etc of the beer that they were reviewing

I don't think anyone with 300+ reviews is concerned with this. Was just a simple curiosity.

Cosign! Should be a requirement!!

I wish I could like this more than once. Perfect response.

When people say how much they like/dislike the beer without giving any details on the pros/cons of it. An 2 or 3 sentence reviews, why bother at that point?

I'd have to start reading reviews to have any pet peeves about them.

It bugs me when someone rates a beer low because they are unfimiliar with the style. Also I dont like when the reviewer writes a book and a laundry list about the beer. Just make it simple and to the point of what stands out as ether a positive or a negative. I like reviews that give me insight to the beer and not insight to ones ignorance.

Here's my 2¢ : I am happy when anyone takes time to review. But! not everyone is on this website everyday. So when I see abbreviations for beers (this generally applies towards forums) I get a little annoyed. I can't tell you how long it took me to figure out what the hell a BCBCS was...

I know all those flavors, but horse blanket. I mean, common...they don't give 'em up that easy. Especially them race horses.

I want to know who licked the horse blanket and the shoe bottom and then said " hey this beer tastes similar"

what is this, amateur hour? like anyone would mistake the grainy, peat mossy character of the bottom of an old shoe that's been worn by someone who lives in the pacific northwest for the bottom of an old shoe that's been worn by someone who lives in the mid-atlantic states, which *everyone* knows imparts distinctly chalky, mineral notes. pfft.

My pet peeve? Not enough people doing reviews...

Wow, those are life changing.

exactly. try as i may, i just can't get into imperial stouts or sours. so why would i review them and give shitty ratings. also, can we please give the phrase "pull the trigger" a rest. don't know why, but to me it's worse than nails on a chalkboard.

And there's your answer, lol. Whoa, Nellie! (Beer humor...it's not just for breakfast anymore.)

when people use the words note or notes too often.

Only in Belgian ales.

Reviews are people's personnel opinions. Sure, sometimes I scratch my head at some of what is said in them, but I try not to be judgmental because who am I to tell them their beer review is incorrect, or misinformed, etc?

Getting worked up about something someone else wrote about a beer, just isnt worth the time. Don't like a review or the reviewer, then dont read it.

I've done that in the past, and I'm not sure why. Noted.

This x1,000,00

I don't review, but what kills me is reading reviews when someone is all over a beer, gives it a black eye and finishes with "I'm not a fan of this style" or "I don't ever drink this style". Then don't review it buddy, drink it in peace and don't tell anyone. I also don't think the information about how much head it poured with is really fair - that is user dependant, but I understand it is commentary on the amount of carbonation present so I can live with that.