Our Ranking System is on a 10-point scale with 10 being the highest level
- Sparkle Biscuit The coveted Sparkle Biscuit designation is reserved for a select few outstanding sours that the authors can find absolutely nothing to fault and that makes their mouths giddy
- Damn Fine An excellent sour, well-balanced and creative in a not-gross way, that we would buy again and again and be proud to serve to someone we like.
- Great taco beer After we review our weekly sours, we always reserve one to pair with our post-evaluation tacos. There is no shame in being a great taco beer just as there is no shame in eating as many tacos as we do. No shame!! We tend to put a lot of gose style beers in this category, although some do attain Damn Fine and Sparkle Biscuit status as well.
- Bless your heart Awww angel, we can see what you were going for here but you didn’t quite get there did you?
- I’d buy it at a bar if it was the only sour These beers are a step up from Forgettable but not a big step. We’d pay money for it if we didn’t have any better options. You’re not a bad beer but you’re not anything to write home about.
- Not my thang This is a tough category that we debate about often. These are beers that we think are gross but that some reasonable person that we don’t think is insane or stupid or both might like. For example, we loath chocolate in sour beers but we know people that we respect that enjoy it. This category is as gracious as we get.
- Forgettable This is an easy one. Any beer that we look back at and can’t remember having any opinion at all goes here. Although we do give beers a second chance if they had the bad luck of being the fourth or fifth in the review process. Might not be on the beer.
- I’d drink it if it was free and I was already drunk Pretty self-explanatory
- I’m already sitting down A lousy sour but it’s been a long day and it’s not worth the effort to get up, pour it out and find another
- Slug beer If you keep a garden you know that a tried and true way to kill slugs that are eating your seedlings is set out a dish of beer. The slugs are attracted to the beer, fall in and drown. Opal tends to use Mickey’s Big Mouths for this purpose because slugs will drink anything. Sadly, some few sours fall into this shameful category.