OK, one is about beer and one is an alien attack... but which is which?
Boak and Bailey got me thinking with this graphical representation of data. In this case it was a five point illustration of a variety of imperial stouts. You will immediately see a most interesting point being asserted. Tsar Top and Sam Smith have beers that overlap less than 50% in this diagram. Yet both are suggested and likely marketed to be of a kind. So, either the graph is miscalibrated or, more likely, kind and class are fools' errands when considering continuums like good beer, so much of which can now be considered of that one "international style."
Graphs are great. So much more useful that words. Ethan referenced the Beeriodic Table, dubbed by Martyn as fatally flawed. Even so, it is a useful analogy and one that conveys the seriousness and authority of chemistry even if good beer has no such scientific solidity. There must be different diagrams, however, that are more familiar to us that better represent the themes, interconnections and wandering ways of the results of brewers' work. The most obvious that comes to my mind is the famous London Underground map. The ordered, stylized, schematic diagram of Harry Beck's, first dating from 1933, replacing something more realistically organic. With its maze of interconnections, the expanding reach of the system out into new territories overtime as well as the familial patterns expressed in colour and location it is a great model upon which the full expression of all good beer could be overlaid.
Now, just if I could find the time to do it...
Comments
itslunchtimeca - February 22, 2012 8:58 PM
Those maps are incredible! Tufte has some great examples of graphs and you may have something there. It sounds exciting. Maybe you should get a kickstarter going for it.
Tim - February 22, 2012 10:32 PM
I dislike the star graphs, whether represent beer or personality. They are seriously restrictive, have no intuitive meaning, and can handle only a small amount of data. (You have another Tufte fan here.) What is the hop character? The water contribution? There must be a better way to represent what happens in the theater of the mouth.
Bailey - February 23, 2012 4:53 AM
Diagrams or "Alan bait" as they shall henceforth be known...
We're going to keep playing with graphs. Words generally work for us (that's our "learning style", groan) but graphics work better for some people.
For the example above, we put our ratings for each stout into a table and then generated the graph. Although it showed roughly what we expected, it turned out to be a better representation of the point we were trying to make than we had hoped.
Alan - February 23, 2012 8:50 AM
I am all for graphs. I would make this an entirely drawings based website if I could.
Originally, I was thinking that the Tempest screen shot was actually a valid extension of the spider diagram as, recalling the 80s, one is taken through one level to the next which could illustrate each phase of the sip to swallow. But then I thought a smart assed caption was funnerer.
Bailey - February 23, 2012 9:13 AM
Stan H is on to something with his suggestion that 3D is the way to go. He suggested it might be a fun way to display beer history. Gets very messy very quickly without controls to turn off layers, though.
Bailey - February 23, 2012 9:14 AM
Stan H is on to something with his suggestion that 3D graphics might be a fun way to display beer history. They get very messy very quickly without controls to turn off layers and elements, though. Still, worth continuing to investigate.
Bailey - February 23, 2012 9:23 AM
Hmm. Two slightly different versions of the same comment. Can you delete one, Alan?
dave - February 23, 2012 10:06 AM
Isn't this graph something similar in nature to the "33 Beers - Beer Journal" (http://www.33beers.com/) idea?
Craig - February 23, 2012 10:24 AM
Just when you thought beer couldn't get any nerdier.
Alan - February 23, 2012 10:24 AM
Bailey: I like the illustration of nuance.
Dave: the web diagram is but I am serious in my preference for the Tube Map model. But If Stan is really into 3D maybe the model is more like Star Trek chess.
Alan - February 23, 2012 10:25 AM
Craig: maaaaaaaaaaps. I love maaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhpppsssss.
Bailey - February 23, 2012 11:54 AM
Dave -- it is a little similar, yes, although actually generated with one of the standard chart types in Excel.
Ethan - February 23, 2012 12:36 PM
"Alan bait"; love it!
I'm another Tufte fan, and I love maps, so yeah: I share your enthusiasm for a graphical representation. I like the 33beers book a lot, though I think I would name a different set of 16 relative dimensions; still, it's the consistency that's key, making it a handy time-travel device.
So a style/type/kind/sort of beer occupies a form in N-dimensional space; the question is simply how many of those dimensions can one effectively show at one time? Note as well: in order to satisfy the beer historians of the world, you'll also want to include a time dimension; it is a demonstrated need by virtue of their very scholarship.
Alan - February 23, 2012 1:19 PM
Well, there are two representations being discssed, a flavour describing graph and the "rock family trees" of beer.
For me, they are intersecting conceptually as we move from floundering "style" to the much more useful "flavour" to describe the relationships and experience of good beer.
Bailey - February 23, 2012 1:37 PM
"Family tree" is ringing alarm bells. Happy alarm bells. I can sort of see how this would work but not quite. Will perhaps test it on a post soon.
Alan - February 23, 2012 1:42 PM
Just make sure the Ukrainian beer blog post thief credits me.
Michael - February 25, 2012 5:49 PM
I just started learning graphic design. I tried my hand at a simple History of beer poster.http://www.beergeekery.com/archives/144
I am thinking of attempting a vin diagram that organizes most of beer styles by characteristics (bitterness, maltyness, ABV).