{"id":4859,"date":"2018-03-07T16:59:28","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T16:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beer-syndicate.com\/blog\/?p=4859"},"modified":"2018-03-13T16:01:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T16:01:25","slug":"data-chug-outlier-breweries-beeradvocates-top-250","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/data-chug-outlier-breweries-beeradvocates-top-250\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Chug: The Outlier Breweries in BeerAdvocate\u2019s Top 250"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/data-chug-analysis-beeradvocates-top-250-beers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Previously on <em>Data Chug<\/em>,<\/a><\/span> we took a broad look at the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/beeradvocate-top-250-beers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Top 250 beers<\/a><\/span> listed on the beer ranking website BeerAdvocate.\u00a0 We highlighted the top 10 beers, identified popular beer styles, ABV trends, the countries and states with the most beers in the Top 250, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">There were charts, jokes, and a cliffhanger ending that revealed two breweries that appeared a rather <em>curious<\/em> amount of times in the Top 250.<\/span><\/p><!--CusAds0-->\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Today, we pick up where we left off by taking a closer look at what we affectionately refer to as \u201cthe outlier breweries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>Now on with the Q &amp; A\u2026<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><strong>The Outlier Breweries<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Q1.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Last time you mentioned that there were <strong>210,023<\/strong> different beers listed on BeerAdvocate, so to have a brewery with even a <em>single <\/em>beer in the Top 250 was impressive.\u00a0 But there were actually several breweries that had more than one beer in the Top 250. What can you tell me about those breweries?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>A1.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Right, so there were <strong>86<\/strong> breweries in total in the Top 250, and <strong>45<\/strong> of those breweries had more than one beer on the list.\u00a0 In fact the average number of beers per brewery in the Top 250 was <strong>2.91<\/strong>, so it wasn\u2019t all that unusual for a brewery to have more than one beer in the Top 250.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">However, <em>what was unusual<\/em> was that two breweries, namely <strong>Trillium Brewing Co. <\/strong>and <strong>Hill Farmstead Brewery<\/strong>, both had exactly <strong><u>20 beers each<\/u><\/strong> in the Top 250. This means that nearly <strong>1 out of every 6 <\/strong>beers in the Top 250 was either from Trillium or Hill Farmstead.\u00a0 If having one beer in the Top 250 is impressive, what do you call having 20?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Q2.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> <em>Really impressive<\/em>? I don\u2019t know&#8212; it seems a little bit more than unusual to me.\u00a0 But Trillium and Hill Farmstead weren\u2019t the only outlier breweries with a statistically high number of beers in the Top 250, so what were the other ones?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>A2.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> We identified a total of 8 outlier breweries.\u00a0 Basically any brewery with more than 6 beers in the Top 250 would be considered a statistical outlier as you can see in the box plot graph below:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Box-Plot-Chart-of-Outliers.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4860\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Box-Plot-Chart-of-Outliers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"473\" height=\"488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Box-Plot-Chart-of-Outliers.jpg 587w, https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Box-Plot-Chart-of-Outliers-291x300.jpg 291w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 473px) 100vw, 473px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Of the outlier breweries, there were four that had <strong>7<\/strong> <strong>beers each<\/strong> in the Top 250 which included\u00a0<strong>Russian River<\/strong>, <strong>Toppling Goliath<\/strong>, <strong>3 Fonteinen<\/strong>, and <strong>Prairie Artisan Ales<\/strong>.\u00a0 Next, you had <strong>Brasserie Cantillon<\/strong> with <strong><u>8<\/u><\/strong>, <strong>Tree House<\/strong> with <strong><u>13<\/u><\/strong>, and as you know, both <strong>Hill Farmstead<\/strong> and <strong>Trillium<\/strong> both had <strong><u>20<\/u><\/strong> beers each in the Top 250.\u00a0 By the way, 3 Fonteinen and Cantillon are both Belgian breweries, the rest are American.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/The-Outlier-Breweries.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4872\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/The-Outlier-Breweries.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"412\" height=\"580\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Interestingly, even though there are only 8 outlier breweries out of a total of 86 breweries in the Top 250, those 8 breweries contributed a combined total of <strong>89<\/strong> beers to the Top 250, or <strong>35.60%<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Outlier-Breweries-by-Number-of-Beers.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4863\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Outlier-Breweries-by-Number-of-Beers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"872\" height=\"605\" srcset=\"https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Outlier-Breweries-by-Number-of-Beers.png 872w, https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Outlier-Breweries-by-Number-of-Beers-300x208.png 300w, https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Outlier-Breweries-by-Number-of-Beers-768x533.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 872px) 100vw, 872px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Q3.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Okay, so there are 8 outlier breweries. But still, having 20 beers in the Top 250 like Hill Farmstead and Trillium did just seems crazy. So what\u2019s going on with those breweries?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>A3.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Alright, so imagine that Hill Farmstead and Trillium only produced 20 beers per brewery, and also imagine that every single one of those beers were in the Top 250. Basically, we thought it would be pretty strange if 100% of the beers brewed by any given brewery were all in the Top 250.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Q4.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> So that\u2019s what you found? Every beer brewed by Hill Farmstead and Trillium were in the Top 250?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>A4.<\/strong><\/span> Not exactly. After we looked at the total number of beers currently brewed by each outlier brewery, we found there wasn\u2019t anything <em>necessarily<\/em> unusual about either Hill Farmstead or Trillium when compared to most of the other outlier breweries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">For example, when we pulled the numbers in mid-February of 2018, Hill Farmstead was currently producing <strong>124<\/strong> different beers, and of those 124, <strong>20<\/strong> were in the Top 250. In other words, <strong>16.1%<\/strong> of the beers currently produced by Hill Farmstead were in the Top 250.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Trillium<\/strong> was at <strong>14.9%<\/strong>. As for the rest of the outliers, <strong>3 Fonteinen<\/strong> was at <strong>26.9%<\/strong>, <strong>Cantillon<\/strong> at <strong>22.86%<\/strong>, <strong>Tree House<\/strong> was at <strong>20.96%<\/strong>, <strong>Toppling Goliath<\/strong> at <strong>14.28%<\/strong>, <strong>Russian River<\/strong> at <strong>11.67%<\/strong>, and <strong>Prairie Artisan Ales<\/strong> was relatively low in comparison at <strong>4.7%<\/strong>.\u00a0 If you look at it this way, both Trillium and Hill Farmstead weren\u2019t sticking out, but were right in the middle of the pack of the outliers.\u00a0 The average percentage of beers contributed per brewery of the outliers was 16.54%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Q5.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> So what you\u2019re saying is that it\u2019s just a numbers game?\u00a0 Basically, the more variety of beers that a brewery produces, the more that the chances increase that one of those beers will make it into the Top 250?\u00a0 If that\u2019s true, then those percentages that the outlier breweries were putting up would be similar for every brewery, including the non-outliers in the Top 250.\u00a0 So what do the percentages for the non-outlier breweries look like?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>A6.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Okay, so there were initially 8 outlier breweries identified out of a total of 86 breweries in the Top 250, which means there were 78 non-outlier breweries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>The Lost Abbey<\/strong> was one of the non-outliers, producing a total of <strong>57<\/strong> beers, <strong>2<\/strong> of which appeared in the Top 250.\u00a0 In other words, <strong>3.5%<\/strong> of the beers The Lost Abbey produced were in the Top 250.\u00a0 Likewise, <strong>Avery<\/strong> was at <strong>1.7%<\/strong>, <strong>Deschutes<\/strong> at <strong>0.56%<\/strong>, <strong>Firestone<\/strong> at <strong>3.2%<\/strong>, <strong>Other Half Brewing Co.<\/strong> was at <strong>2.02%<\/strong>, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">After chugging the numbers, it turned out that an outlier brewery was now any brewery that had more than <strong><u>9.79%<\/u><\/strong> of its beers it currently produced in the Top 250.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Q7.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Wait, so where does that leave Prairie Artisan Ales?\u00a0 It was originally an outlier brewery because it had 7 beers in the Top 250.\u00a0 But because those 7 beers represented only 4.7% of the brewery\u2019s total production, it\u2019s not considered an outlier anymore?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>A7.<\/strong><\/span><\/span>\u00a0 That\u2019s right.\u00a0 However, looking at the numbers relative to the quantity of different beers produced per brewery just reinforced the fact that the other outlier breweries were unusual, and appearing in the Top 250 wasn\u2019t just a numbers game.\u00a0 In other words, greatness in the brewing world isn\u2019t simply a matter of throwing enough stuff at the wall until something sticks, at least not according to an analysis of BeerAdvocate\u2019s data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">What\u2019s more, we identified <strong>4<\/strong> new outlier breweries that had more than <strong>9.79%<\/strong> of the beers they currently produced appearing in the Top 250. Those breweries were <strong>Alpine Beer Company<\/strong> at <strong>10.71%<\/strong>, <strong>Brouwerij Rodenbach N.V.<\/strong> at <strong>12.5%<\/strong>, <strong>Brasserie de Rochefort<\/strong> at <strong>33.33%<\/strong>, and <strong>Brouwerij Westvleteren<\/strong> at a staggering <strong>66.66%<\/strong>. Of the now <strong>11<\/strong> outlier breweries, <strong>5<\/strong> were <strong>Belgian<\/strong>, and the other <strong>6<\/strong> were <strong>American<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Relative-Percent-of-Outlier_Breweries.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4861\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Relative-Percent-of-Outlier_Breweries.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"777\" height=\"548\" srcset=\"https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Relative-Percent-of-Outlier_Breweries.png 777w, https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Relative-Percent-of-Outlier_Breweries-300x212.png 300w, https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Relative-Percent-of-Outlier_Breweries-768x542.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 777px) 100vw, 777px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\">Q8<\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\">.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Alright, these percentages just seem insane. I mean, is there some conspiracy type stuff going on? What does all this mean?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>A8.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Ah, now there\u2019s a question. In statistical analysis, sometimes the juiciest information can be obtained by looking more closely at the outliers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">In this case, if you take the data from BeerAdvocate at face value, it could mean that the outlier breweries like Tree House, Toppling Goliath, Trillium, Hill Farmstead, etc. are simply out-preforming all other breweries in the world at a statistically significant level, with respect to specific beer styles.<\/span><\/p><!--CusAds0-->\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">There\u2019s certainly a case to be made that a brewery like Cantillon, founded in 1900, simply specialized and excelled in a limited number of beer styles over many years, and became a world leader par excellence in those specific and relatively sparsely produced categories like Gueuze and Lambic, which are the only kind of beers Cantillon makes.\u00a0 <strong>8 <\/strong>out of <strong>35<\/strong> beers from Cantillon appear in the Top 250.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">This pattern is similar for the other Belgian outlier breweries such as <strong>Brouwerij Westvleteren<\/strong>, a brewery that at first glance seems remarkably unusual with <strong>66.66%<\/strong> of its beers appearing in the Top 250. However, we should also consider that the brewery, founded in 1838, only currently produces 3 beers in total, 2 of which were in the Top 250. One of those beers, Westvleteren 12, was rated a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ratebeer.com\/beer\/westvleteren-12-40xii41\/4934\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">perfect 100\/100 by RateBeer,<\/span><\/a> and is considered by some sources to be the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Westvleteren_Brewery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">best beer in the world.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">You may include <strong>Rochefort<\/strong> (founded 1595), <strong>Rodenbach<\/strong> (1821), and <strong>3 Fonteinen<\/strong> (1887) into that list of Belgian breweries that produce a relatively small variety of beers, but have perfected those beers over generations, and are consistently recognized as world-class breweries, often epitomizing the beers styles they produce.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Similar to the production range of Brouwerij Westvleteren, <strong>Rochefort<\/strong> only produces <strong>3<\/strong> beers, <strong>1<\/strong> of which (or 33%) was in the Top 250. <strong>Rodenbach<\/strong> essentially invented and mastered the Flanders Red style, the only style of beer it brews, so it wasn\u2019t surprising to see <strong>1<\/strong> of the <strong>8<\/strong> beers it produces (Caract\u00e8re Rouge) in the Top 250. \u00a0Likewise, <strong>3 Fonteinen<\/strong> specializes predominately in Lambic and Gueuze, and contributed <strong>7<\/strong> of its <strong>26<\/strong> beers to the Top 250.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Q9.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Okay, maybe that explains the Belgian breweries somewhat, but what about the American outliers?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>A9. <\/strong><\/span><\/span>Unlike the Belgian outlier breweries that typically only brew a small variety of beer styles, most of the American outliers brew a wider range, but they tend to specialize or excel at one particular beer style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">For example, the majority of beers contributed by <strong>Alpine<\/strong> (founded 1999), <strong>Tree House<\/strong> (2012), and <strong>Trillium<\/strong> (2013) in the Top 250 are hop-forward beer styles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Russian River<\/strong>, founded in 1997, is widely known for its <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ratebeer.com\/beer\/russian-river-pliny-the-elder\/8936\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pliny the Elder<\/a><\/span> and <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ratebeer.com\/beer\/russian-river-pliny-the-younger\/43181\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pliny the Younger<\/a><\/span> double and triple IPAs, both of which appear in the Top 250 and were also rated 100\/100 by RateBeer.\u00a0 In addition to mastering the double IPA, <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Russian_River_Brewing_Company\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a beer style the brewery is credited with inventing,<\/a><\/span> Russian River was one of the first American breweries to specialize in sour and barrel-aged beers, and led in the American Wild Ale category with <strong>5<\/strong> beers in the Top 250.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Toppling Goliath<\/strong> (founded in 2009) is a bit of a mixed bag with <strong>3<\/strong> examples of imperial stout in the Top 250, along with <strong>4<\/strong> examples of hop-forward styles. Likewise, <strong>Hill Farmstead<\/strong> (founded 2010) has <strong>12<\/strong> hop-forward styles in the Top 250, and the rest are a mix of saisons, stouts and a single porter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">But even though Hill Farmstead produces a variety of beers compared to most of the other outliers, it was awarded the title of \u201cBest New Brewery in the World\u201d by RateBeer in 2011, and \u201cBest Brewery in the World\u201d every year from 2013-2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Q10.<\/strong><\/span><\/span>\u00a0 Interesting, but when I looked at BeerAdvocate\u2019s list of all American IPAs and there were literally beers there with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beeradvocate.com\/beer\/style\/116\/?sort=avgD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">PERFECT<\/span><\/u><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> scores.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">\u00a0<\/span> None of those perfect scoring beers appeared in the Top 250, so what gives?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>A10.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> You\u2019re correct, you might find several beers with perfect scores listed under many different beer style categories, but many of those perfect scores came from only one reviewer.\u00a0\u00a0 The fact is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beeradvocate.com\/community\/threads\/beeradvocate-ratings-explained.184726\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">BeerAdvocate\u2019s ranking algorithm<\/span><\/a> weights a beer\u2019s score based on the number of reviews the beer has had, which is why those higher rated beers don\u2019t appear in the Top 250.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">What this means is that there very well could be and probably are better commercial examples of certain beer styles out there than those that appear in the Top 250, but it may take a little while until more of the BeerAdvocate user base has a chance to weigh in on those beers.\u00a0 What this suggests is that the many of the current outlier breweries will not be there forever.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Nonetheless, we should probably expect to see some of the Belgian outlier breweries in the Top 250 for a while, particularly those breweries producing time-intensive beers styles like Lambic, Gueuze and Flanders Red.\u00a0 These beer styles often take upwards of three years to produce, not to mention the perhaps <em>generations<\/em> of knowledge needed to perfect those styles.\u00a0 All of this makes it cost-prohibitive for other breweries to attempt, which limits the respective competition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">For now, what we can say with certainty is that there are a relatively small number of breweries on BeerAdvocate\u2019s Top 250 that are contributing a statistically significant number of beers to that list.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">And outliers typically demand attention especially in situations where it\u2019s clear that the outliers were not due to simple data collection errors.\u00a0 By the way, <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/beeradvocate-top-250-beers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the data we used<\/a><\/span> is open to the public to independently verify.\u00a0 We\u2019ve even made it easy to sort the data by state, country, brewery, score, etc.\u00a0 In other words, feel free to chug the numbers yourself.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s the link: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/beeradvocate-top-250-beers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BeerAdvocate&#8217;s Top 250.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Q11.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> You know, we spent all this time talking about the \u201cTop 250 beers,\u201d but did you ever consider the source of that data?\u00a0 What I mean is that if the user base is predominately English-speaking Americans, doesn\u2019t that skew the data in favor of American breweries?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>A11.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> You\u2019re not wrong.\u00a0 I wonder, is that the same as saying \u201cyou\u2019re <em>not<\/em> <em>not<\/em> not wrong?\u201d\u00a0 Anyways, what I mean is that you\u2019re right, or <em>not<\/em> not right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Basically, it\u2019s more likely that the results of the beers in the BeerAdvocate\u2019s Top 250 had less to do with a conspiracy, and more to do with the demographics of the website\u2019s user base and how the algorithm functions.\u00a0 Even so, outliers still exist within this particular data set, and statistically speaking, those outlier breweries deserve a spotlight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Of course, interpretation of that data can be tricky.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Q12.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Okay, so you\u2019re admitting that BeerAdvocate\u2019s Top 250 is just one data set and it may be limited by certain factors including its user base which you speculate is dominated by American English-speakers.\u00a0 Rarity and hype might also be factors.\u00a0 Come to think of it, if you\u2019re trying to independently verify if there is anything special about those outlier breweries you mentioned, don\u2019t you think you should look more thoroughly at other data sets?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Like, did you even think to analyze Untappd\u2019s list of Top Rated beers to see how it compares to BeerAdvocate\u2019s list?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>A12.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> <em>\u201cUntappd\u201d<\/em> you say?\u00a0 You mean the geosocial networking service and mobile phone application that allows its users to rate beers and earn digital badges to increase the users average time spent on the app?\u00a0 <em>That<\/em> Untappd?\u00a0 Why, yes, we did think to analyze that data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">In fact, we did more than just think about it.\u00a0 We pulled the data, chopped it up, ran a statistically analysis, and put it all together just for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Q13.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Alright, let\u2019s have it.\u00a0 <em>Anything juicy?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>A13.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Oh, it\u2019s juicy alright&#8212; juicy like a big hazy NE IPA.\u00a0 <em>Let me see<\/em>, I know I put that article somewhere for you\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Ah, <em>there<\/em> it is:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><em>Next on Tap\u2026<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/data-chug-analysis-untappds-top-rated-beers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Data Chug: Analysis of Untappd&#8217;s Top Rated Beers<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Hi, I\u2019m Dan<\/strong>: Beer Editor for\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Beer Syndicate<\/a>,<\/span> Beer and Drinking Blogger, Beer Judge, Gold Medal-Winning Homebrewer, Beer Reviewer,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a class=\"external external_icon\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewersassociation.org\/membership\/american-homebrewers-association\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American Homebrewers Association<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Member, Shameless Beer Promoter, and Beer Traveler.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2205\" style=\"width: 376px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2205\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2205\" title=\"Daniel J. Leonard and Jean-Pierre van Roy of Cantillon Brewery\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Image-1026.jpg\" alt=\"Daniel J. Leonard and Jean-Pierre van Roy of Cantillon Brewery\" width=\"366\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Image-1026.jpg 897w, https:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Image-1026-296x300.jpg 296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2205\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Dan with Owner and Brewer Jean-Pierre van Roy of Brasserie<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Cantillon Seen Sporting a Hill Farmstead T-Shirt.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Previously on Data Chug, we took a broad look at the Top 250 beers listed on the beer ranking website BeerAdvocate.\u00a0 We highlighted the top 10 beers, identified popular beer styles, ABV trends, the countries and states with the most beers in the Top 250, and more. There were charts, jokes, and a cliffhanger ending [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[589],"tags":[1097,1101,1105,1092,1089,1087,1099,1102,1103,1104,1094,1098,1095,1096,1100,1093],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v14.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Data Chug: The Outlier Breweries in BeerAdvocate\u2019s Top 250 - Beer Syndicate Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beer-syndicate.com\/blog\/data-chug-outlier-breweries-beeradvocates-top-250\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data Chug: The Outlier Breweries in BeerAdvocate\u2019s Top 250 - Beer Syndicate Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Previously on Data Chug, we took a broad look at the Top 250 beers listed on the beer ranking website BeerAdvocate.\u00a0 We highlighted the top 10 beers, identified popular beer styles, ABV trends, the countries and states with the most beers in the Top 250, and more. 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