Site Help - Ratings

Trying to make sense of all the letters and numbers? Here's the breakdown for all Beer & Place reviews/ratings. You might want to also look at our help page for reviewing beers and places.

Global

BeerAdvocate Overall Score (BOS)
The BOS is a weighted point system that represents the final overall score for a beer or place. Its purpose is to help make some sense out of the rAvg (1-5 based review average) and provide consumers with a quick reference when comparing one beer or place to another. A beer or place must have 10 or more reviews in order to receive a BOS.

Score
95-100	world-class	must try
90-94	exceptional
80-89	good	try it
70-79	average
< 70	poor	avoid

rAvg (review average)
The numerical review average, based on the sum of all user ratings divided by the number of reviews. It's range is 1-5 with a two decimal range for accuracy.

High / Low
Simply put, the beer's highest and lowest rating.

pDev (percent deviation)
Is the percentage of deviation within the ratings. In non-geek terms, it represents a kind of "average deviation from the mean," and helps to validate the review average. The higher the pDev the more overall deviation from the review average (rAvg), which would be a sign of wider spread within the distribution of ratings, while a lower pDev would indicate more of a consensus within the ratings.

rDev (review deviation)
The individual reviews current deviation from the review average (rAvg), represented as either a positive or negative percentage. As the rAvg changes, so does the rDev.

WR (weighted rank)
A Bayesian estimate that pulls data from millions of user reviews and normalizes scores based on the number of reviews for each beer or place. The WR represents the beer or place's score against all others. WR is used to help generate the BOS.

Beer Reviews

ABV
The alcohol by volume (ABV) percentage of the beer (if known).

Availability
The general availability of the beer, as in winter, spring, summer, fall, year round, limited edition, rotating offering, etc.

Place Reviews

$$$$
The perceived value for money spent.

Taps
The rough number of taps (draught beer) available at the location.

Cask
Whether or not the location offers cask-conditioned offerings; call ahead for availability

Beer-to-go
Whether or not the location sells growlers, kegs, or bottles for takeout.

Beer Avg
The average for all the active beers listed for the brewery.

Beers
The current number of active beers in our database for the brewpub or brewery.

Beer Reviews
The number of reviews for all active beers for the brewery.