I feel a huge dissatisfaction / abandoned rate of Germany-based-users here on RB. I remember when I first moved here (5 years ago) there was a lot of activity, even if the sene was not so vibrant as it is today.
When I wanted to review a new beer, it was already there and reviewed by 2 people at least. Now I am the one adding new beers to the database, beers there are not listed here which have already 20+ ratings on UT.
In Berlin only we are (I suppose, I could be mistaken) 6 active users, while on other platforms there are hundreds (by looking at the check-ins).
What can be done to promote this website? I know some boycott it because of Ab InBev, but still this is a nice platform to talk about beer, to share experience and expertise, info about events and new releases
(and not to forget, to trade beers) and it’s a pity the site is slowing dying.
My question is: do you have any idea on how we can promote RB to our local beer scene?
To admins: is it possible to receive some stickers and promotional material to leave in craft beer bars?
I am not sure, ratebeer has always been a small community. The main reason why beers are not in the database anymore, as it appears to me, is because there simply is too much beers nowadays, and the userbase has not increased.
We have about 6 active users in Munich too (plus 2 I have never met that seem to be coming from here).
Untappd grabs more people because of the social media approach they take. I don’t think you can compare the nature of checkins with the nature of ratings.
It appears to me that countless people use the site as a resource, but nobody wants to actually review beers on here. If the number of new beers increases even more and our couple of handful of active contributors stay the same, then we will have a huge problem.
There is the same problem in the US. Best thing you can do is to convince a few people (mother, wife, children, friends, priest?) here and there to log some ratings. It would be nice to see a few raters with less than 1000 ratings.
How many new RateBeer users in 2018?
Of the newbies, how many have rated more than, lets say 20 beers or 10 places?
More and more new beers available and the RateBeer users are getting older…
I cannot find out how many have rated more than 20 beers, but since we only have 7308 users with more than 100 beer ratings, probably not many. It also appears that the forums, at least, doesn’t really attract anyone of these new users.
I remember around 2010/2011 in Rome everybody was talking about RB, publicans encouraging reviews of their places and breweries encouraging ratings (there were also breweries sending box of beers to top raters in order to have a review from them). Now seems like nobody cares about it, the actors of the scene, I mean. At least in Berlin. Everybody uses UT to show their taplist on the official website and only Vagabund is hanging the two medals received as top place on RB in their Taproom.
I am sure that if pubs and breweries will start again to encourage customers to review the place/beers here, it will help a lot. And the German CB Scene can only benefit from that.
I saw that Ferment Magazine just issued a number dedicated to Germany, hope this will be a good start,
Some of the issue is traditional German beer is boring by most users here. (Not I) They all want overly hopped IPA’s, Ice cream parlor flavors and and these crazy extreme flavors. Germany is changing in this direction but it will never take hold. I myself like the old traditional beers. I was a moderator here for a long time @Bierkrug I had more mayors than any one and traveled a lot getting really rare beers. I was tired of going out of my way for drinking some horrible stuff just for a rating and another country visited. I had enough of it and the comments. All I wanted was and nice (boring) Helles or a Weiss Beer. So I dropped out mostly. So many of the visitors from Ratebeer to Germany say that the beers are boring.
So now when I am not running around the world you might find me in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. There is a new Brewpub there.
If you are in town I might be available for a beer or two.
That’s normal progress. Most beer geeks start appreciating good, fresh lagers again at some point, if they haven’t all along. Industrial lagers > pale ales, wheats and stouts > IPAs & imperal sours > wild & sour beer > good lagers.
And one has to take into account the shape in which people get the lagers. The same beer that will be an absolute joy to drink will, in a bottle, several months old, kept in a non-temperature-regulated warehouse be shit. Most ratings will be of those.
Often the same is said in the UK. I agree with Stefan… Too many new releases. If I have a backlog of 20 rates, I have to add at least half. But then, I do seek out new releasesmost of the time.
On the subject of recruiting new raters to RateBeer, Ive tried and everyone I speak to simply cannot be bothered writing words and thoughts on each beer. Checking a beer in on Untappd with a simple rating out of 5 is much easier. Though personally I don’t see the point. Surely its a record of your thoughts of each beer, not simply a tick.
You are correct about the storage issue. Faced it many a time while traveling. Last week I had a nice Bavarian Helles in a swingtop bottle, in wonderful Iraq. Disappointment to the max as it was ruined by the storage for sure.
As far as the community goes we had a good thing going on here a few years ago. We would meet up 3-4 times a year. It was fun. I remember showing up in RateBeer shirts and watching many a Brewmeister get very nervous when we walked into a Brewpub. In Nürnberg, Stuttgart, and Idar-Oberstein there were more than 10 of us. I would do it again for German Traditional beers. But not Craft Beers, others can enjoy them if they want. I consider Craft Beers. “Bier Misbrauch”. I am not here to argue about that since it is a matter of individual taste.
If we wanted to start meet ups again that would be great.
All it takes is will and somoene to take the initiative. RBESG 2019 was a great event (if I may say so myself and I may) in just about the bleakest time for Ratebeer as a site, and people who weren’t on RB anymore showed up, and I’m sure that Germans at least would for something in Germany as well.
