Goliath said:

Then I started to think, if the equations change my beers based on top beers, then it should also work for dislikes and maybe even shrugs.

Absolutely! Recommendations are based both on likes and dislikes. Shrugs are left out for now, for several reasons.

So I went out and bought a big 24oz can of Coors Original and sampled away. As I anticipated, it was a no go. This beer, rated at a -2 for me changed my top beers list, improving the ratings.

Awesome! So glad to hear that things are working the way I expect. Confirming a proposed dislike should make the recommender more sure of itself. Confirming one that has been sampled by so many people is even better.

To the point...Instead of just top beers, maybe add lowest rated section, or shrugs section. Point being it seems that by also giving people things they don't like they can match someone else's likes/dislikes better and give them even better recommendations.

I like it. I see in my notebook that I considered a "Devil's Advocate" interest-broadening list early on. Sounds like it's time to get such a thing fired up.

Thanks for sharing this tip with everyone!

To go along with this, is there any way you can setup the filters to work with the "all beers" list? This way I can sort by score and not display the beers I've marked as Like/Shrug/Dislike. With the choices in the recommended beers list, I can't display more than 15. I'd like to see what else is on that list. Most of the beers on the list, I can't get around me, even though I'd love to be able to try them. I'm now at the point after having tried so many beers that the list doesn't change much.