In their Best Brewers of the World compilation, Dogfish Head of Milton, Delaware scored #28, just edging out the popular Port Brewing/Lost Abbey of California, and Flying Dog of Frederick, Maryland (the third brewery in what started as Blue Ridge Brewing Co.) rated #92. Several Pennsylvania breweries, including Victory, Weyerbacher, and Troeg's, also scored in the top 100.

The obvious question arises from such ratings: Are these ratings worth a warm Natural Light? Are they the least bit meaningful, or are they just the rantings of a bunch of hoity-toity beer geeks and electronic ballot box stuffers?

As it turns out, it's probably better than it looks. RateBeer has a few checks in place to avoid what would otherwise be the inevitable vote tampering that makes many such review sites utterly worthless.

First, a reviewer must complete reviews of at least ten different beers or places before his or her scores are counted toward the total of a beer or place, which helps to cut down on the one-off reviews from folks whose friend works at a place or who are desperate to trash a place that they feel was lousy.  Second, the aggregate scores are weighted mathematically against the numbers of reviews.  These scorings do mean much more than, say, the comments section of a random blog or news site.

One can still find much to criticize in the system, though. If one pokes about in the right places on the Web site, they can discover that Pennsylvania has garnered three times as many beer ratings as Maryland.

The most puzzling thing I found in a cursory examination of Maryland's listings was a "fair" rating for DuClaw's Arundel Mills location and an "exceptional" rating for the chain's Bowie Town Center location -- in spite of serving the same beers in the same decor. The same situation befalls the Pratt Street Ale House and its ancestor, Fells Point's Wharf Rat: "fair" for the brewpub and "exceptional" for what had been the "tied house."

All in all, serious beer geeks could rant on as much about these ratings and their worth as people will no doubt rant about Olympic scores in a few days or weeks, and for the same reasons: All of these places and beers are so high in their fields that the differences can come down to a few hundredths of a second or point, the prejudices of one judge over another, or one random "oops" at the wrong time.

They're still doing far better making or selling good beer than just about anyone else reading these words ever will.

But if nothing else, RateBeer could probably use a few more Maryland contributors.

(AP photo)