Greg the Frozen Food Master wanted to know why I called a “top of the line” stout an 85 and how that could be better than a 90? I don’t think I was very clear with my explanation on the show, but here it is:

As you go up the scale, the ability to drink the beer goes down. Some people like to drink Budweiser for a reason. It’s easy drinking. There isn’t much complexity about it from a taste perspective. The way I rate beer is like this: If a beer has 2 or 3 of the following ingredients: it is highly complex, made with special ingredients, is expensive and/or ridiculously potent, then chances are it’s going to be in the 90-100 range (if they succeed in making it taste good or at least I think it could taste good). There’s a reason they can charge a premium for the beer and there is usually a reason that you cannot drink many of them in a row (aka session them). Some of these rules may not apply to guys with more money than Ted Turner.

Portsmouth Brewery has that classic New England brew-pub atmosphere, incredibly smart beers, great swag and unbelievable mussels. You can’t go wrong.