ratebeer.com

[Smarrikåka]

I've noticed that a lot of people rate mead over at ratebeer.com , and I'm wondering if anyone knows how accurate those ratings are? Do people who read these forums ever rate meads there?
Seems to me that half of the time, the people who review the meads there are expecting to drink a 'beer', and are either positively or negatively surprised by the sweetness, which makes you wonder how big experience they have of other meads.

I guess a ratemead site, would be useful.

 

[Oskaar]

Welcome to Gotmead.com

Take a look around the forums and check out the articles as well. There are a ton of resources here and a lot of great information.

I haven't been to ratebeer.com but I'll have to check it out. Additional mead rating information is always good to have.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[Smarrikåka]

Thanks for the BIG welcome, I've looked around for quite a while already, and am very impressed by just about everything.
I'm looking into the possibility of importing mead to my native country, Sweden (who despite a mead-rich history, is currently not on the mead-map. The best we got is a few beer's with a shallow taste of honey that the producers dear call mead, and which also has kind of destroyed peoples[read resturaunts and other places who tried serving it] awareness and expectations of mead).
At any rate, I guess I'm trying to figure out which meads people like the most, and the various mead contests, this sites reviews, etc, are good sources of that. But in terms of public opinions concerning different commercial meads, ratebeer seemed more comprehensive than gotmead. It's a guess, but I believe the breweries themselves have some control over displaying their products there.

 

[Oskaar]

Smarrikaka,

When I looked at the site it did seem to have an awful lot of commercial meads rated much higher than the scores I would give them. Look at how many entries there are for Dragonmead alone. It looks like their entire inventory, so I would guess that you are correct about the commercial meaderies/breweries having some control of the reviews. I may even take it a step further and say that they may be writing their own reviews under a pseudonym. I saw Bunratty had a fairly high rating and to me it's not very good.

As far as mead reviews go, if you have a specific mead in mind that you're curious about, post up with a question about it and there's more than likely someone here who has tasted it that can tell you what they think. We're also in the process of reviewing many different meads, so it's just a question of time before we have a nice collection of organized and uniform reviews. We're normalizing the review process and review structure so that it is in a simple three part format. Appearance, Aroma and Flavor, and Impressions. Short, sweet and to the point.

Hope that helps,

Oskaar

 

[Smarrikåka]

I may even take it a step further and say that they may be writing their own reviews under a pseudonym.

Yes, in some cases I think you might be right about that.

As far as mead reviews go, if you have a specific mead in mind that you're curious about, post up with a question about it and there's more than likely someone here who has tasted it that can tell you what they think.

I've ordered some meads so that I can taste them, but it will take a while before they arrive. Would be good to hear from other who tasted those meads though, so that I know how they compare to others when I taste them.

The breweries I've sent orders to are:

Heidrun (very curious about this one, since they're sparkling meads)
Okręgowa Spółka Pszczelarska (Kasztelański, etc)
Apis (Jadwiga etc. Think I have enough opinions on that one.)
Medovina (Pretty popular and appreciated at ratebeer, and they mentioned that on their website themselves. This true or not?)
Dansk Mjød (Close by me, so I'm curious of course. A lot stronger than any other meads, which makes me wonder if it's really an enjoyable experience to drink it. Was popular at ratebeer, which also made me curious)
Mountain Meadows Meadery (With a mead that won the traditional category in the International Mead Festival, several years, I guess it might be good. Didn't rate that high on ratebeer though.)
Makana Meadery (Seemed very interesting, and I like roobios tea).

And of course, I'm curious about just about any mead anyone wants to express their opinion about too.

We're also in the process of reviewing many different meads, so it's just a question of time before we have a nice collection of organized and uniform reviews. We're normalizing the review process and review structure so that it is in a simple three part format. Appearance, Aroma and Flavor, and Impressions. Short, sweet and to the point.

That would be great. When do you think it will be in effect?

 

[pain]

Welcome!!!!

I agree with you and Oskaar that the ratebeer stuff seems to a be a bit off, and I've also noticed a number of reviews for meads that no longer exist as well.

You can find the Gotmead ratings here, and my apologies that there aren't many there yet, I'm very much behind on typing up our reviews. I've actually got around 30 more to post, and will be doing tastings on another 5-10 soon.

I can speak to a couple of the meads you mention:

Medovina - I visited the winery last year after the Mead Festival, and can attest that they make *very* good meads. Lightly sweet, with good body and complexity, and excellent expression of the mead character. I was particularly fond of their Stinging Rose mead.

Mountain Meadows - Ron and Peggy give a lot of themselves to their mead, and it shows. Every one of their offerings is a winner in my book, and I'm very fond of their spice mead. It is slightly sweet, with wonderfully complex spice notes that tantalize both your palate and your nose, with a lot of body and a long finish.

I can't comment on the rest, I haven't had them yet, but watch the review column for more from Long Island Meadery, Pirtle Winery, Rabbits Foot Meadery, Woodstone Creek Winery and several other meaderies that have submitted their meads for our team to review.

Again, my apologies, we've fallen down on that aspect of the site while working on some others. I hope to get many more reviews up this winter, and will be conducting tastings with the folk here that attend the International Mead Festival as well, so we'll see a lot more after February.

Welcome, and enjoy the site!

 

[Bales]

For the most part those rates are probably close, but you need to remember those people are usually beer drinkers (such as myself) and so we are going to rate them that way as well. Probably not as experts, as i am not, like these two are but more like a bunch of guys & gals showing up somewhere and drinking meads. YMMV and you never know the condition of the meads in Liquor stores.

We have done 2 mead samplings - were money was pooled and many commerical meads tasted. Had I not have been teaching meadmaking that day there would be another 40 meads listed here.

 

[Rhianni]

I think ratebeer would be more accurate if they didnt post a score until X number of reviews appeared. Rating user systems only work when you get enough scores to lower the impact of whacky taste preferences. I checked the Colorado meads. An unfortunate amount of reviews list mead flaws as "too high an alcohol content and no head and no carbonation" When that is 1 of 3 reviews the mead is going to compare very unfavorably next to something that has 40+ reviews like some of the Redstone meads have.

 

[Johnnybladers]

An unfortunate amount of reviews list mead flaws as "too high an alcohol content and no head and no carbonation" .

Seems to me someone was expecting beer (a potentially wonderful beverage in its own right, but not the same as mead or wine or bourbon for that matter).
We (myself and several buddies, none mead experts) sampled some meads including two from Dansk. The viking blod was the favorite of those two. There were also two African meads, Iqhilika(sp?), that were interesting

 

[JephSullivan]

I think ratebeer would be more accurate if they didnt post a score until X number of reviews appeared. Rating user systems only work when you get enough scores to lower the impact of whacky taste preferences. I checked the Colorado meads. An unfortunate amount of reviews list mead flaws as "too high an alcohol content and no head and no carbonation" When that is 1 of 3 reviews the mead is going to compare very unfavorably next to something that has 40+ reviews like some of the Redstone meads have.

I agree. I like the way BeerAdvocate.com does it. They use something called a Bayesian Estimate that weights a beer's (or mead's) score based on how many reviews there are. Here's the mathy details:

The Best of BeerAdvocate (BA) lists are generated using statisical formulas that pull data from hundreds of thousands of user reviews. They are not hand-picked by any one person. The general formula uses a Bayesian estimate:

weighted rank (WR) = (v ÷ (v+m)) × R + (m ÷ (v+m)) × C

where:
R = review average for the beer
v = number of reviews for the beer
m = minimum reviews required to be listed (currently 10)
C = the mean across the list (currently 3.88)

The formula normalizes scores, that is pulls (R) to the mean (C) if the number of reviews is not well above (m). So if a beer has only a few reviews above (m), its (WR) is decreased a little if it is above the mean (C), or increased a little if it is below the mean (C) in accordance with the normal distribution rule of statistics.

When you weight the reviews that way, a single review can't have a large effect on how a beer rates among all the others. Unfortunately, there aren't a ton of mead reviews on the site. Here's the best-of list for traditional meads on Beer Advocate: Traditional Mead

 

[Bales]

Medovina - Pretty good for a typical purchase in the US. Their meads I would stack up against others in the US I have tried so far. I was not too fond of the rose, but the other small bottled mead they made was tasty. YMMV. Others liked the rose and cloned it.

Dansk Mjød - Viking Bold!!!! BUY IT!!!!! ( no carraway ones though) Share it. Invite me over but don't let me drive home.

Mountain Meadows Meadery - Not bad. Average but nothing I would turn my nose up at.