Polls on "difficult" beer style choices

Beer Talk
1

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

SOUR STOUT

  1. Sour / wild
  2. Stout

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Sour / Wild
  2. Stout

0 voters

2

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

SOUR SAISON

  1. Sour / wild
  2. Saison

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Sour / Wild
  2. Saison

0 voters

3

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

SMOKED PORTER

  1. Smoked
  2. Porter

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Smoked
  2. Porter

0 voters

4

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

IMPERIAL NEIPA brewed with Cherries

  1. Imperial NEIPA
  2. Flavored - Fruit

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Imperial NEIPA
  2. Flavored - Fruit

0 voters

5

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

RYE PORTER

  1. Porter
  2. Specialty Grain

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Porter
  2. Specialty Grain

0 voters

6

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

WITBIER brewed with Cherries

  1. Witbier
  2. Flavored - Fruit

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Witbier
  2. Flavored - Fruit

0 voters

7

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

BROWN ALE brewed with COFFEE

  1. Brown Ale
  2. Flavored - Other

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Brown Ale
  2. Flavored - Other

0 voters

8

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

SOUR WHEAT ALE

  1. Sour / wild
  2. Wheat Ale

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Sour / Wild
  2. Wheat Ale

0 voters

9

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

IMPERIAL RED IPA

  1. IPA - Red
  2. IPA - Imperial

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. IPA - Red
  2. IPA - Imperial

0 voters

10

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

IMPERIAL IPA brewed with Cherries

  1. IPA - flavored
  2. IPA - Imperial

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. IPA - flavored
  2. IPA - Imperial

0 voters

11

I don’t think you can have 100% good rule in these kind of styles. If it is fruit beer then it belongs under fruit beer category (if you can only taste cherry juice, it doesn’t really make sense to put it under NEIPA or witbier…). If it is mostly base beer, then it belongs under base category.

1 Like
12

Actually where would you enter this beer on the website

AMBER ALE brewed with Buckwheat

  1. Amber Ale
  2. Specialty Grain

0 voters

And if it was up to you, where would you enter it?

  1. Amber Ale
  2. Specialty Grain

0 voters

13

In every case I mean if it’s marketed as such at the Brewery.

14

I don’t really understand the difference between the two questions

3 Likes
15

Where do you enter the beer right now (if you follow any rule from the website or per style definition)

And where would you personally put it, only up to you.

16

If beers can have only one style, I don’t see a good way to solve this kind of problem for every case. Breweries put all kind of bullshit on the label for marketing purposes.

17

Yeah but in the end, it ends up in one style on the website.
I used existing styles here.
I just want to see users habits and wishes…just for fun.

18

Beers like the hypothetical ones you mention in these polls are always going to fall between two main style choices, regardless of how many or how few we end up with. Most can be argued either way and brewer’s intent, marketing, actual ingredients, or a mixture of all these things play a part in the style we ultimately choose, don’t they?

Taking the smoked porter example since I’ve come across this more often than the others. My thought process is this:
Smoked Porter = Smoked
Porter with smoked malt = Porter

Because of the implication… that the first one is where smoke is the dominant flavour profile (it’s the first word in the style name). The second is a porter which happens to use a portion (small in relation to the rest of the malt bill, unless otherwise stated) of smoked malt to add flavour, therefore porter is the dominant style.

Is this considered “correct”? I mean I think it’s very hard to create exact definitions when so many beers crossover styles these days, and honestly, if I saw one of these in the style I didn’t vote for, I don’t know if I’d even bother submitting a correction, most seem fine to me either way. :man_shrugging:

EDIT: And regarding Imperial versions of flavoured IPAs and other styles. Not sure if was a RB-wide rule or just one the UK admins go by but I was told to always use the Imperial category over any other one that fits. I see I accidentally chose flavored for both poll options when I only meant for the second (I’d rather it be in flavoured as strength is less relevant imo), I can’t change my answer now.

4 Likes
19

At the moment in Estonia, while I generally put it under the style that brewer intends, I also use common sense. Basically if there is no evidence of any fruit in the beer, I don’t see a reason to put it under fruit beer even if the label says it contains fruits. I recently had a beer that claimed to be “robust porter” (or something like this) and it was actually a cinnamon bomb, I put it under spice/herb/vegetable category. IMO styles should not be only the thing brewer claims on the label. Otherwise the style info itself is kind of pointless. The style info should be at least somewhat helpful for the people who look up beers in ratebeer. In my porter case a person can see from the name or description that the brewer claims it to be a porter, but he or she can also see that it is categorized under spice/herb/ category. Hence he or she knows not to expect traditional pure porter.

1 Like
20

You cannot edit your result after you click on Hide Results? Is is only an Admin right?