Rating breweries for selection

Beer Talk
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I’ve sometimes struggled when giving selection ratings for brewpubs, especially those which only brew 5 of their own beers. As tick whores, I realize more taps are better, and I often rate places with only that thought it mind. That works for bars. But with breweries, it’s sometimes harder. Does a brewery which brews an excellent 8 beers at a time get docked huge on selection for example?

I’ve started to think more it depends on what that selection is. If some breweries brew 20 beers but every single one is the same IPA (Other Half I’m looking at your…) that should probably mean a fairly bad grade on selection. If they brew 8, in a variety of styles, that should mean a lot better.

Then there are other breweries which have a fair amount of taps, but also have a ton of guest taps and bottles for sale which seem to nail the selection grade on any measure.

I’m kind of ranting, but just wondering how you guys approach this selection rating for breweries or brewpubs?

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I think it depends on the place. A modern microbrewery should have a good amount of beers on tap at any moment. Ideally, you would prefer that a bunch of taps not be dry. An old school place in Germany that only makes 3 or 4 beers, I would be more lenient to. A 90s style brewpub in any country with just Blonde, Wheat, and Red, I would give a low score to. Similarlyan American microbrewery that never rotares would receive a low score. OH, yes it is mostly haze, but it rotates ao frequently that I can easily go weekly.

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I do throw general quality into the selection number. 6 very good beers is a better selection than 12 drafts of shite or general boring stuff

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A couple of my favourite rated pubs are lovely old buildings with really friendly locals. Even the football hooligans in the German one. Only a couple of beers on but from old-school brewers.

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some of my favourite places are one beer only. Sometimes that one beer is all you need. Those places get a full 15 in selection.

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Otherhalf beers are great to se out and about, but i really wasnt taken at the brewery where i could have tried several sets of 3, shuffled the three and strugged to work out which was which

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Variety, quality and quantity all come into it for me. If they only have 4 beers but they’re all different styles and they’re delicious they can have a high grade. If they’ve got 10 mediocre pale ales then low.

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Part of my selection scores takes into account how likely the beers are to change. If it’s the same 5 beers every time I visit I’ll probably mark it down. If I can expect at least a couple of taps to change it would get a higher score. If it’s a horrible beer hall which only serves 1 beer then I’m afraid that’s a 1.