All in all, all said and done, the reason why these awards are such hit and miss is the lack of ratings and a lack of active people. Angry, surprised, disappointed something won or didn’t win something? That’s okay, a lot of us are. Frustrated too. Did you, however, rate anything in the last year - like, do anything that might change the outcome? Try to bring people to Ratebeer? Encourage them to rate fairly and thereby support the (best) local craft breweries, putting their name out. Like, they don’t even need to type anymore and they can still do that with a couple of clicks. You did none of that? Then your opinion is even less relevant than Ratebeer Best 2020 is so STFU or do something in 2021 to change that.
Now, one can blame Joe & RB LLC for a few things when it comes to this whole RB Best thing. It could’ve been done better in several ways. In may ways they are still doing that I guess just for the sake of doing it. In many places it doesn’t make any sense. They are not listening to constructive criticism sometimes or not reacting in time. But this “AB InBev conspiracy” angle is bloody tired and tiring. Like with all the hysteria of 2017/2018 largely not becoming true in any way or shape imaginable some people are always trying to find some angle to fit that narrative in where it doesn’t fit, by force.
Funnily enough, by scaring people away with talk of “the evil megamacro that will destroy craft beer”, making fun of Ratebeer around or whatever, you’re just helping limit the influx of people and making the awards even potentially worse. People who don’t give a fuck will just come in and rate whatever they can get at their local grocery stores, raising the score numbers (potentially scores) too, like they have in 2000, like they do in 2021. People who do give a fuck about craft beer and the craft beer scene maybe won’t, being discouraged by, among other things, that type of talk. Who wins? The macros. Congrats, you’ve just helped limit the potential exposure of your fav breweries, like the (imaginary or not) “evil craft scene hating ABI executives” would want you to do! <3
Now, a lot that could be dismissed by claims of not giving a damn about RB or whatever, but the people obsessing the most about this whole debacle I’ve heard were generally people with either 0 ratings in 2020 or people who don’t rate here at all, non-users. If they don’t care, then why all the fuss? Go, rate your share of stuff and then have every right to bitch about this. Otherwise you’re just randomly insulting, among others, a bunch of people who are trying to help the craft beer scene as much as they can.
Mind that the “you” is plural, not one particular person.