The algorithm that broke the beer industry

Today's rant is about beer-industry damage caused by poor algorithms and bad programming. Who agrees or disagrees?

Let's imagine a vegan walking into a restaurant and choosing a steak. Does the resultant 0.5–1.0 rating mean the steak is bad? No. Opinions that result from self-inflicted, foolish decisions lack credibility.

Let's imagine a lover of homogeneous, bland beers who decides to order a lambic instead of a Heineken. Does the resultant 0.5–1.0 rating mean the lambic is bad? No. Opinions that result from self-inflicted, foolish decisions lack credibility.?

How do tools like Untappd deal with non-credible ratings? It seems they are not smart enough to recognise obvious drinker-deviations.

For fairness and accuracy, tools ought to ignore anomalous low and high ratings. But they do not. They include every rating outside Normal Distribution. And therein lies a flaw damaging the industry.

And here's the important part for people who love beer. Businesses choosing which beers to stock or buy use both rating AND number of check-ins. So choosing to check-in beers with no rating makes it worse.

Beer lovers checking-in beers without a rating create an unintentional bias. Their balanced, fair, unbiased aims quicken the industry decline. They skew the balance between rating and check-in numbers, meaning non-credible ratings prevail.

And that may be the big-beer brand plan. While artisanal breweries attract higher ratings, they cannot compete on check-in numbers. True 'craft beer' disappears, and big-beer brands fill the vacuum of their own creation. Clever stuff.

So, let's wake up, fans of authentic beer. Isn't it time to support rather than damage the industry we love? Let's stop using these tools "only as a record of what I drink". Either add a middle-rating every time by default, or use a pen and notebook – it is less harmful.

#beerindustry #brewing #untappd #industrydamage