Is there a site (or app) like Beer Advocate that lets me give just an overall rating?

Question

Beer Advocate used to allow you to give an overall rating for a beer, rather than giving score breakdowns (appearance, smell, mouth feel, etc). They have recently changed this and you can only supply a rating if you rate all the factors. That makes sense if you're a site owner trying to gather better data, but it's not so great for the casual beer-drinker who just wants to keep track of what she's had and how she liked it.

The value of a site like Beer Advocate, rather than just keeping a file on disk, is having access to the descriptions (including categories like "winter warmer" and "amber ale" and suchlike), other items from those breweries (useful when looking at a menu, or shopping), and, out of curiosity, the variance between my rating and the average for people who rated that beer. Also, I want to be able to see and add ratings from multiple locations, so if I just used a file it would have to live in the cloud somewhere. Alternatively, I'd be happy to use an app on my Android phone.

What's the easiest way for me to track what I've had, with information about the beers (and breweries) and my own ratings? I don't care if my ratings are shared with the world; I'm happy to contribute them if that's helpful, but I'm looking for a way that I can track information about my own tastes.

Answer 1

RateBeer is the other big rating site. It also has a 5 point rating system but you can also just "tick" beers 1-5 stars, which may be helpful for you.

There's also Untappd which is pretty popular. It operates more on a 4square-style check-in system and has a lot of social features as well as badges for various types of beer, origins, location, timing, etc. But their rating system is a simple 1-5 stars with an optional notes field and location tagging. They also include a recommendation system but it doesn't take locality into account making it largely useless since the majority of the beers they'll recommend are impossible to find in your area.

There are a few smaller ones kicking around as well. A buddy of mine did littlebeerbook.com, which is fairly up your alley based on the description. However it's pretty rough on mobile, and even outside of that the User Experience isn't the best. Work is being done, but it's slow going with day jobs and families and all that. So if you don't mind the interface, it'll track what you want pretty well.

Answer 2

There is Untappd, which is a social network for beer drinkers (web and app). Quite straightforward, actually. You check you beer in, rate it and leave a short comment (like Twitter). And you see a timeline with your check-ins and your friend's ones.

The rate is what you're looking for, an overall score from 0 to 5 (multiples of 0.25).

It's nice for keeping a log of what you have had and see what you friends are having, too. But, it's very simple when it comes to features, don't expect much of it.

Answer 3

Beer Citizen allows you to rate Appearance, scent, taste and mouthfeel. You can look at individual reviews or get an average rating from everyone who has reviewed the beer. Each beer has brew facts and show you similar beers to the one you are reviewing. Great app