Visualization Home Brew

THE PROCESS OF MAKING A GOOD VISUALIZATION IS A LOT LIKE MAKING A GOOD BEER: you need to VISUALIZATION HOME BREW identify the right ingredients and combine them in the right proportions to ferment something greater than the sum of its parts. HERE ARE FIVE FULL-BODIED BEER GRAPHICS BASED ON DATA ABOUT U.S. BEERS FROM BREWERYDB.COM, AND FIVE CORRESPONDING VISUALIZATION TIPS. FOR ALL! CLOUDY AND UNFILTTERED 0.00005 Gold Anniversary Hefeweizen Cream Beer American Hop winter BREWERIES PER CAPITA Big Amber Double Pale Lager MRed White Barrel A flight-a sampling of a few different beers lined up on a board-is a great way to drink with variety. In much the same way, a bar chart lets you line your data up and drink it down point by point. 0.00004 Chocolate Black Light Bock IPA Ale Stout Honey Rye India Pilsner Imperial Belgian Barleywine Wit Brown Summer Style 0.00003 Blonde Bourbon Big Porter Wheat 0.00002 Oatmeal ESB Pumpkin Saison Dark Irish Bitter Release Aged Irish Golden 0.00001 Some brews go better with barbecue than seafood-some kinds of data are better visualized with qualitative methods than quantitative ones. This word cloud of the most common words used in beer 0.00000 names is a sweet way to take a refreshing look at your data. A MATTER OF STRENGTH HITTING THE SWEET SPOT Knowing your desired potency for a brew is as important as knowing your audience for a graphic. A simple chart approach like this, identifying the average and range of alcohol-by-volume percentages, is great to highlight key data points. ABV % 24+1 ABV% 23 22 American-Style India Pale Ále 21 20 With a thick center and a light finish on either end, a distribution chart of alcohol-by-volume percentages provides a rich, palatable look at the frequency of different strengths of beers. American-Style Pale Ále 19 18 American-Style Amber / Red Ále VISUALIZATION 17 16 15 Imperial or Double India Pale Ale BREW 14 13 American-Style Brown Ale 10 Brown Porter American-Style Stout French & Belgian Style Saison South German- Style Hefeweizen Light American Wheat Ale NUMBER OF BEERS 500 1K 1.5K 2K 2.5K 3K 3.5K 4K ABV 0% 10% 20% YOUR LOCAL TOP-10 CITIES FOR BEER WATERING HOLE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT BEERS 2. SEATTLE PRODUCED IN EACH CITY 1. PORTLAND Pinpointing the right flavor profile for a beer is just as important as narrowing down your visualization data set. A map with minimal layers of data provides a textured perspective without unnecessary complexity. 412 387 6. SALT LAKE CITY -7. FORT COLLINS 3. CHICAGO 8. COLUMBUS 10. SAN FRANCISCO 4. DENVER 242 AVERAGE ABV BY STATE 296 188 168 161 7-7.99% 5-5.99% 259 6-6.99% 4-4.99% 9. AUSTIN 6. SAN DIEG0 210 166 Beutler Ink HE LATEST BREW BY SOURCES: BreweryDB.com, 2010 US Census