During our recent site updates, I rewrote some of the code in the Beer Finder's "Similar Beers" engine to spit out more accurate results.  It ain't perfect, but it does a good job of leading you down the right path.  Think of it more like a beer compass instead of a beer GPS: you may not get turn by turn directions, but you'll know which direction is North.  You also might get lost along the way, but you'll have a great trip!

Imagine this: Winter is just around the corner and you're dreaming of Barleywines.  You remember that delicious Old Tavern Rat you had at New Old Lompoc and you're wondering what else is out there.  Simple.  Click on the Beer Finder and select New Old Lompoc from the brewery drop down list.  Find Old Tavern Rat in the list and click on Show Details.  You'll notice that the bottom says that there are 7 other similar beers.  Click on that to start your journey.

Now, these beers aren't hand-picked matches (we're not made of free time).  We've hired monkeys to roll some dice and then flip some levers.  Actually, they're retired space-monkeys, so they've got a little bit of smarts: they'll match beer style and point you toward a range of IBUs, and ABVs (as well as fiddling with some other beer-related variables).  Again, it's not an exact science, but it's meant to be more of a pondering experiment where the result leads you to beers you might not have thought of before.

As with everything else on the site, these tools are here to help you discover the great world of Portland beer.  Comments, suggestions, and lambasting welcome!