Size Doesn't Matter

Any kind of beer-related web search will probably come up with a hit on the RateBeer site, the main feature of which is a crowd-sourced ranking of every beer in the world (pretty much). It's an amazing resource - they've reviewed a lot of beers! What interested me was to take a look at the top-ranked beers in the world, in the opinion of the many reviewers. This is a very American centric site, so the perspective was very interesting.
What you notice straight away when you view the top of the list is that it dominated by Big Beers - the Biggest of Big Beers! Half a year ago it was all Imperial Russian Stouts (or interpretations thereof) - mostly at the top end of the strength range. Now American Double IPA seems to be in there too - plus a few Trappist styles. I must admit that the only example of the double IPA style I've tried was a British one - brewed by those Brewdog boys (interested to note they were trained at Heriott-Watt brewing school - part of my old university). Can't say I was that keen - sorry. A bit like chewing hops (If I want to chew hops I have a fridge full of them - but I actually don't...). Also interesting was the comments attributed to some classic mid-strength European ales... De Koninck (Antwerp's classic pale ale) is dismissed by one reviewer with "Weak caramelly and minerally aroma. Weak caramelly taste with minimal hoppiness. Shockingly bland"... Schumacher Alt (classic Düsseldorf Altbier) gets a comment "Okay fresh malt. Not much else to see here". I'm speechless  It seems like in the world of RateBeer its got to be Big to be worth a second look. Belgian beers especially only seem to be worthy of attention if they're super-strong Trappist beers like Rochefort Trapistes. The Belgian dislike of excessive hops doesn't chime well with the US raters of beer. Fortunately there's plenty of craft brewers in the US who know better and brew beautifully balanced beers in styles that span the beer world - I just hope the less vocal US drinkers of beer hang in there. I guess this is just the pendulum swinging the other way after decades of ultra-bland lite lager. Maybe the pendulum has reached the other end of the swing... Personally I kind of hope so - although I hope it never swings back the other way... If extreme beer is just a sign of a vibrant beer culture I'll take it as a positive - but leave the drinking of it to those who like that kind of thing.