quote: Originally posted by Flashpro [:D] I added a field to the style database to hold the average ABV for each style.

Well, I dunno. Sometimes a question mark is better than an average value. Consider: A drunk walking down the highway weaves from side to side. His "average" position is the centerline. That doesn't mean he is in no danger of getting hit by cars going in either direction! That said, it is a nice bit of coding, and I have to admit, I squandered 20 precious minutes of my Friday night trying to find the actual ABV of Tecate Light--to no avail! And since you've greyed it out and clearly marked it as an estimated value, no one is going to get confused. Still... In my line of work, I've learned that once you put a number out there, it tends to stick!

Yeah, well, I can't please everyone all the time [;)] I didn't see any risk in suggesting the average. No one is going to die (I hope!) or base any important decisions on our assumptions.

quote: Originally posted by Flashpro Yeah, well, I can't please everyone all the time [;)] I didn't see any risk in suggesting the average. No one is going to die (I hope!) or base any important decisions on our assumptions.

Geez, Foam is driving a hard bargain... Fine, 50 caps to flash. LOL.

I don't mind this idea.... seems pretty cool.

quote: Originally posted by Flashpro Yeah, well, I can't please everyone all the time [;)] I didn't see any risk in suggesting the average. No one is going to die (I hope!) or base any important decisions on our assumptions.

No worries, mates! Just wanted an excuse to repeat Sam Savage's clever, and true, centerline analogy--about the perils of using "average" values. Drive on!

quote: Originally posted by FoamDome In my line of work, I've learned that once you put a number out there, it tends to stick!

LOL, when I went to bed and thought about this I had to chuckle. A month ago the project manager of a job I was doing asked me for my best guess at a cost of one of the air handling units the job needed. I thought for about 5 seconds and said $500,000. Later we were supposed to get a quote from the vendor for the final report, which was a +/- 10% estimate. The project manager knew the vendor wouldn't have enough time to price the biggest of 2 units (the half million one) so he never mentioned it to me again and I went on my merry way. This week I got to see the estimate for the job and... what the heck? The sheet was full of dollars and cents, with a big, even half mil sticking out like a sore thumb! So, I couldn't agree with you more on the sticky number theory. However, I'm still not sweating over the abv average, but I suppose I could show a range (maybe one standard deviation). I'm interested to see what this is, anyway. P.S. My half million dollar guess was still probably within 10%, but throughout the project it changed often! [:p]

Looks like a good "placeholder", until someone (sometime?) gets around to finding the real ABV% of the beer. In other words, it's better than nothing, but not a subsitute for the real facts, of course.... Cheers! //TB

Why is it so hard to find the abv of a particular beer? It's borderline ridiculous. Whenever I've added a beer, or was just curious about a beer, it's sometimes like searching for a needle in a haystack when looking for the abv. Are brewers that afraid to advertise it? I never even see it listed on the can or bottle.

quote: Originally posted by southerncoronas Why is it so hard to find the abv of a particular beer?

Two things spring to mind, Southern: (a) Actually, abv is not all that hard to get, relatively speaking. Maybe half the brewers out there are posting it openly on their website and lables. (Unfortunately, Tecate is not one of them!) It's much harder to get gravities, bitterness, and color scores. Only brewers that are trying to appeal to beer geeks are putting out actual IBUs and SRM scores. But I am seeing an increasing number of brewers' sites with the full statistical description. And I love it! If I were a commercial brewer, I would put it out there! And by the way I'd love to see our database full of these interesting and important descriptors as they become available; and (b) So, why do the other half chose not to share the stats? Well, I'm sure some brewers just don't feel that their market is interested in those kinds of details. Other brewers may prefer to maintain some mystery about their beer. You won't find anyone advertising their yeast--that's proprietary! However, a lot of it has to do with a third reason, our tax law history and the "sting" of the prohibition years. Brewers were taxed on the percentage of alcohol in their beer. Alcohol is lighter than the same volume of water. That's why American brewers started reporting alcohol content as a percentage of weight instead of volume. A 4% abv beer is only 3.2% abw, and that meant a lower tax bill. Plus, certain higher alcohol beers were placed in higher tax brackets, like malt liquor and barleywine. So you can see the historical motive behind the reluctance of some brewers to advertise abv. I suspect that a disproportionate percentage of the older, established brewers are more secretive about their stats, while the newer brewers are likely less protective. What do you think? Then you get the Stone Vertical Epic series, where the commercial brewer actually posts the entire recipe on their website and encourages homebrewers to replicate it! They are even sponsoring a contest to reward the brewers who come closest to copying their beer! Brewing in the age of Weblogs and Napster...

Close enough for government work. [}:)]