So what exactly determines a beer’s worthiness? Take a look at our rating system and find out how we separate the bad from the good from the truly great. We judge beers in five separate categories, including aftertaste and drinkability, to come up with a point score that determines the overall beer ranking.

A good beer must satisfy on a variety of levels. To ensure that our rating system reflects a beer’s performance in all said levels, we have devised four judging categories with possible scores of 1 through 5, with 1 being the worst and 5 the best. The categories are as follows:

Feel and Drinkability - How enjoyable is the texture and feel of the beer?

1. This is undrinkable.
2. Too light or too heavy.
3. Normal, not above average or below it.
4. Not bad, I’ll take another.
5. Just right, give me a case.

Taste – How’s the initial flavor and beer taste?

1. Tastes like cheap beer I had in college.
2. Not the worst I’ve had, but I wouldn’t order another.
3. Didn’t impress me much.
4. Not the best I’ve had, but pretty good.
5. Tastes like what the beer gods meant for beer to taste like.

Aftertaste – How’s the finish?

1. It leaves a terrible taste that completely spoils the beer.
2. A disappointing finish.
3. Not the best but not the worst either.
4. If not great, at least it doesn’t ruin the initial taste.
5. A perfect ending; beautifully compliments initial flavor.

Overall – All things considered, how does this beer rank?

1. I’d rather drink water.
2. I would not buy, but I would drink for free.
3. It was good but not spectacular.
4. I would buy this occasionally.
5. This is my new go to beer.

All four categories are added together to come up with a final rating, with the lowest rating being 4 and the highest 20.