Diary: A really stupid review of Mahr's Christmas Bock reminds me why I avoid ratings sites.

Pretty soon Saturnalia will be here.

That's when NABC's Pizzeria & Public House taps a variety of guest beers loosely connected by seasonal, holiday themes. The point of the exercise is to survey the many different ways that a beer can be seasonal.

One of them is Mahr's Christmas Bock, brewed in Bamberg, Germany.

While I'm no longer the guest beer buyer, I always enjoy researching the choices Eric Gray makes for such events. As such, here's a recent RateBeer review of Mahr's Christmas Bock.

Couldn’t find anything special about this beer. It’s a middle of the road Bock. The aroma and the taste made me believe that this beer was just a little off. It was not as dark as I’m used to from a bock and had a giant head that took forever to go down. It might have went bad sitting on the shelf. There wasn’t really any of the spices pr flavors that I associate with most Christmas beers in the states. But that may just be because it’s not a beer brewed in the states.

Mind you, I haven't tasted this beer for a while. But here's what I know.

• If it's a Heller Bock, it isn't supposed to be altogether as dark as (for instance) a Doppelbock. That's because the word "Heller" means ... pale.
• A giant head is a hallmark of German lager beer.
• The reason Mahr's Christmas Bock is not redolent of spices has nothing to do with where it is brewed, but owes to the simple fact that a Bock is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SPICED in the first place.

There you have it. Complete and comprehensive dumbassery, contributing to a "score" from which newbies will draw a conclusion, probably mistaken, as to the quality of a beer.

And this is why I should never read beer reviews.

An accolade for Rich O's Public House: RateBeer's Best Beer Bar list "gold" for 2007.

Something akin to a press release ...

Rich O’s Public House has achieved gold status for the second consecutive year in RateBeer’s annual list of Best Beer Bars. According to the popular web site’s 2007 rankings, we finished in sixth place out of 93 establishments worldwide that were awarded gold certification.

I'm a realist, and grains of salt always come in handy at times like this, but it's very flattering just the same, and we’re sincerely appreciative of the honor. The list in its entirety can be viewed here: Best Beer Bars 2007. I've been to some of the other gold-medal beer bars mentioned, and they're high-powered, indeed.

For those just tuning in:

Rich O’s Public House, founded in 1990, is the pub arm of the New Albanian Brewing Company, which also incorporates Sportstime Pizza, which predates the Public House by three years and will be celebrating its 20th anniversary later this summer on July 14. The pub and pizzeria offer 34 taps pouring NABC house beers and rotating guest beers from America and around the world; 650+ beers have been on tap at one time or another since 1987. The bottle list includes 225+ hand-selected brands of beer, cider and mead. Our food menu specializes in pizza, lasagna, sandwiches and salads.

RateBeer is an on-line forum for beer drinkers to exchange information and share opinions of beer. In addition, users can write opinions of cider, mead and sake. RateBeer has more than 1,112,000 ratings, lists nearly 60,000 beers from 7,270 breweries, and has grown to become the largest beer information web site in the world in addition to serving as a forum for discussions about the craft brewing industry (the preceding is courtesy of Wikipedia).

Thanks to Steve Hall for tipping me. Crossposted at NA Confidential for maximum propaganda value.