Several years ago when we were getting more studious about beer, Tammy started carrying around a list from The Brickskiller and checked off and rated each new beer she had. Her first scale, which was unique at best, meaningless at worst, had the following ratings: Super+, Super, Super-, OK++, OK+, OK, OK-, and Yuck. Bruce helped develop a slightly less ridiculous version that went: Superb, Super, Great, Good, Not so Good, and Bad.

Needless to say, a better system was quickly needed. In addition to moving to a pocket Moleskine, Tammy figured out that rating a beer somewhere between “the most amazing thing I’ve drunk EVER” and “not…terrible” was useless.  Ultimately descriptions of each new brew were what proved helpful anytime we wanted to look back at an entry.

So now we take the time to describe all new beers, but only “rate” a beer if it’s really, really good or really, really bad. As a result, the scale has been shrunk to Super and Yuck. Our Jedi beer skills usually help ward off beverages we are likely to find distasteful, so we don’t come across Yucks that often. But our passion for beer has us drinking a lot of it and we consistently find brews worthy of the coveted Super rating.

We have decided to start sharing our “Super” List with you, in monthly installments. We think we can have some fun with this and hope to hear about what beers would be on your Super and Yuck lists. It should also be an interesting exercise in seeing where our beer biases lie, and how our palates change over time. You can look for last month’s Super List on Monday. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend.