Lagunitas beer

That may be true (well, it is true), but ratebeer.com and similar sites have their own skewed results. These sites attract a certain type of beer afficianado, and they tend to be quite heavily tilted in favor of big, aggressive beers, as well as certain beers of a certain level of cachet that people believe they should like. The fact that such sites' favorites are dominated by huge beers is a sign of their own shortcomings.

-Steve

Huge factor, no question. And the beer websites (as well as Usenet back when it was a more active place - and as it would undoubtedly do again were it to regain the traffic it once had, even though that will never happen - as well as, IME, many but not all homebrew clubs) encourage that mentality even further. Most people naturally don't want to be the one who points out that Arrogant Bastard is a horribly muddy mess of a beer when so many people are practically creaming their shorts while singing its praises.

I see another factor, though: an awful lot of people with a very U.S.-centric realm of experience with beer. For whatever reason, many American breweires have opted for big. Take SNPA: at about 5.5 percent abv and 40-whatever IBU, it's a bit bigger than the English beers it's patterned after, and yet there are constant whines about SNPA being "dumbed down." And a lot of the traffic on these sites reflects that perspective. Largely because that's all these people have been exposed to.

But when a drinker widens their perspective, either through having the fortunate opportunity to spend significant time in great beer countries like Germany, Belgium, Czech Rep. and England (as I have) or through having been able to get a hold of good examples of such beers (as I know from our own conversations you have), there's a lot of eye-opening that goes on. When people get a chance to experience how much flavor and complexity there can be in a 3.x percent beer (as I have had with a few English milds) or an intrically balanced beer like a Kölsch or any number of Czech lagers, they realize there's a hell of a lot more going on with beer than an assload of hops or alcohol.

It is a pity that more beer drinkers don't make that last step that you mentioned. They miss out on a lot of great beer. Make no mistake, I love big and bold beers - I'm drinking a Racer 5 right now - but the beers I've truly raved about over the years, the beers I will travel thousands of miles for for the express purpose of drinking them, have more often than not been the ones that manage complexity within the constraints of balance and relative smallness.

-Steve