Welcome to the site and you have a great point. Generally, I have a very loose rating structure that rarely sticks to just the standard aroma, appearance and taste requirements. You’ll find that I, for better or worse, tend to let outside factors tinge my judging: other beers I’ve had in the genre, the environment and even my mood.

For instance, I don’t necessarily think that the Drifter is a better overall beer than the Anchor, but given the other beers in the pale ale genre or the time of year, I may rate it as such. The same goes for the Anchor vertical. The ratings for those vintages are more in relation to each other at the time of the tasting.

Your point has me thinking that perhaps I need to standardize my rating process — which sounds like a daunting task, but stranger things have happened.

Thanks for the input.