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At last a new gourmet beer store...well, sort of.
General Beer Discussion by SURFSLEEZ
Maine's Food and Party Warehouse in North Syracuse is now located where Peter's Market used to be. Peter's had a large selection of micros and imports. I'd never been to the new ownership until today. Maine's has a generous selection of the mandatory macros and also has about four dozen gourmet varieties! Granted, it's no comparison to Peter's and certainly no match for those PA beer distributors...but Spaten, Franziskaner, Saranac Octoberfest, Newcastle Brown, four types of Middle Ages, etc. I bought sixers of Stella Artois and Magic Hat Blind Faith, neither of which I've ever tried. Also bought a sentimental favorite--a case of Rheingold with a "free" Rheingold beer glass (let's see--the 12 pks are 6.99 each, the case is 15.99...darn, where's my pocket calculator?). Maybe I'll save the Magic Hat for a Wed. Beer Chat. Does anyone wish to comment on the variety/selections in their area, or mine?
20 years ago
In Reply To #1 That seems like a pretty standard selection for a good beer store. Blind Faith is quite nice, but I didn't care for Stella too much. Seemed uninspired to me. Around here the stores are either hit or miss. The worst stores will carry a couple different Sam Adams, Stella, and Heineken and think they have all bases covered. The good stores carry damn near everything available in the state. Gordon's Yellow Front in New London CT carries Gray's, Dixie, Magic Hat, Paper City, Troutbrook, Dogfish Head, Victory, Rogue, Allagash, Ommegang, Cooperstown, etc etc etc for domestics. Their seasonal and special release selection is awesome, tons of hard to find stuff. Their import selection is remarkable, they organize the shelves by country, and have a ton of stuff. Cantillon, Rochefort, Huyghe, Hoss, Baltika, Casta, Westmalle, and of course, all the usual stuff like Sam Smith, Fullers, Chimay, Unibroue, Corsendonk etc. Prices aren't bad either, pretty standard for the area. It's THE beer place to stop at if you're in Southeastern CT. I've found that MA and CT have the best selection of imports of all the states I've visited. In CT, a distributing license is significantly cheaper than most states, so a lot of beers come through here. MA is pretty cheap too as I recall, so you see a lot of beers come through CT and MA. MA has an awesome domestic list as well, they get in some great micros that CT doesn't like Bear Republic, Stone, Left Hand, Heavyweight, and North Coast.
In Reply To #2 Stella Artois is touted in my beer book by Yenne. The beerpal reviews run the gamut. I happen to be one of the unimpressed, but others sing it's praises. Beerpal.com has to deal with the issue of opinion and facts re: beer reviews, for example. I've tended to believe that there are inherent limits--one person may give beerX a rating of * 1/2, another may rate it as a ***, but nobody should give it a 0 or a ***** because that's out of the "reasonable" range. My viewpoint is questionable. I want to put on a robe, grab a walking stick and go searching for Beer Truth...
I feel obligated to expand on this just a little more: A lousy beer; say, beerY rated by 10 reviewers as a * 1/2, could reasonably be rated a 0 by one person and a *** by another. BUT:For beerY to be rated by someone as a ***** "Magnificent! Best beer in the world!!" would be of questionable integrity--what hallucinogens were they on when they wrote this review? This is a fair representation of my now-questionable viewpoint. It may be that some reviewers would submit such a review, and it is no less valid than the preceding 10? If we had a sampling of 1000 reviewers, perhaps a significant # of those WOULD be favorable, and written by sane people in a stable frame of mind...
Questionable integrity? No, more like difference in perception, palate, preference, and personality. Different people have different preferences. Some people thought Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA was incredible, where as I thought it was garbage. It's very plausible for the same beer to have reviews on both ends of the spectrum. Rapscallion Creation has become a beer I enjoy immensely, but some people really dislike the bacteria funk associated with the beer. Some people think it's inappropriate, so they would give it a low score. I like to use the word artisinal instead of inappropriate, so I would give it a higher score. Some beers should be rated according to style, but if a brewer is intentionally not brewing to style, then it should be rated on preference, what else could you go by? This is where you will have discrepancies. I think what you're getting at in a round about way is the idea of a Bayesian formula with standard deviation. This would eliminate outliers and would get a more accurate average. This wouldn't be neccessary until we have more reviewers, as the site is relatively slim right now. I think Flash has plans for a future Bayesian formula, so maybe he can follow this up some.
In Reply To #5 In fact, Fr Thos Bayes' technique for estimating the true rating of a beer given what we know about a gaggle of reviewers with a wide range of palates, preferences, and proclivities has been discussed, over on the website forum. But I think it may be a while yet before we go that route.
Brought this up now, because I learned a new-to-me acronym today...YMMV [^] Your Mileage May Vary isn't merely an automotive reference. [;)]
quote: Originally posted by KendoSurf
We had an in-depth discussion going on! [^] Now, I'm more inclined to agree that beauty is in the palate of the beer holder...to each his/her own, beer-preference-wise. [8D] And last time I tried it, Stella Artois WAS bubbly CRAP !!! [:D]
Stella is still crap.
quote: Originally posted by KendoSurf Brought this up now, because I learned a new-to-me acronym today...YMMV [^] Your Mileage May Vary isn't merely an automotive reference. [;)]
quote: quote: Originally posted by KendoSurf
We had an in-depth discussion going on! [^] Now, I'm more inclined to agree that beauty is in the palate of the beer holder...to each his/her own, beer-preference-wise. [8D] And last time I tried it, Stella Artois WAS bubbly CRAP !!! [:D]