Have you ever tasted a beer, gone to review it and been absolutely shocked by the ratings given by others? Taste is subjective, but I find the BA reviews to generally shake out to be accurate and helpful. I'm rarely surprised by them. Then I tried Sea Hag IPA from New England Brewing. I'll just say it; it's one of the best (single) IPA's I've ever had. This is a world class brew in my opinion and I'm just shocked to see it rated as "very good." Anyone else have a beer that's inexplicably unsung in your opinion?
Since they also make Gandhi-Bot, Sea Hag is easy to forget. I live 5 minutes from NEBCO - I recently got back into getting growller fills of Sea Hag and it has become my go to beer for this summer. I think they tweeked the recipe a bit because it did not taste this good a few years back...whatever it is I am happy they did it.
I wondered if perhaps the recipe had changed. The BA community is generally not THAT far off from my own tastes. At 10 dollars a six pack, it's a bargain for such a good beer and I'd love to try the citra version.
Gandhi-Bot is, of course, fantastic. It's just awesome that they also have a really tasty IPA with lower abv.
Not any particular beers. More like styles. I think lighter styles like helles lagers, hefe's, dunkels, pilseners, ect. get a lower rating than they deserve much of the time. I know I had a tendency when I first got into good beer to think Imperial-everything was the way to go. Now I appreciate the more subtle styles. Because these beers tend to be more accessible and less expensive, I think they get tried at the point when a lot of BA's are in full on IIPA and RIS mode.
No doubt. I think a lot of people tend to forget they should be rating based on the style and the lighter beers suffer for it.
I think more than that American craft beer drinkers tend to expect more, more, more...but these are styles that thrive on subtly and are actually harder to make based on less opportunity to cover up mistakes. I love a good DIPA, but have found a simple Pale Ale or Blonde ale to be more satisfying in general.
Sometimes it's hard to go against the grain and be the one person that didn't like a beer but you have to be true to what you taste. I've disliked a couple of highly rated beers. I always like to give a second chance to a beer if it was past it's prime when I had it; and through my own fault. The style guidelines are invaluable and free you as a taster and a rater. Recently I had a local beer and thought "this beer has all the makings of a great beer but I don't like it." The style guidelines allowed me to rate it fairly by telling me that the beer was exactly as it should be.
Yeah, I still love DIPA's, but especially in summer, I'm really starting to seek out those beers that have the hop flavor, without all the alcohol.
I think Lowenbrau deserves another fair shake. It's really quite a good lager. But you wouldn't know it by the ratings.
Yes! I also really like St. Pauli girl, and has an "OK" rating here. It's not the best beer in the world, but it's a crisp, refreshing pilsener with good flavor. Suprised so many don't like it.
In general, I wish that many drinkers understood traditional styles before seeking these flavor-packed options. Big beers are fantastic, but any idiot can understand them.
