Is rare beer really that much better?

There's really no way to answer this. If GI felt like doing some sort of "fuck with beer geeks experiment" and labelled 5% of this years proprietors as "proprietors gold" with some extra BS written on the label, then we'd have a sample size big enough to see what happened with the ratings between the 95% "normal" proprietors vs the 5% gold. Outside of that there's no way to really know. If people rate rare beer X higher than less rare beer Y (with both being similar variations of the same style) then perhaps it's because of the scarcity factor or perhaps it's because it really tastes better. And if rare beer X is made in greater quantities the next year, perhaps those lower ratings are because it's less scarce, or perhaps it's down to batch variation.

 

I get more excited when I find a beer I like that's easily obtainable and priced appropriately than I do when I find a crazy expensive impossible to find beer.
I suppose I have the opposite bias, and I like it that way.

 

I will agree to some extent that the perception that a rare beer is "better" can be pinned down to factors such as QC and the "experience" of being fortunate enough to try a rare beer.

However, I think there is some grain of truth to the idea that rare beers can be or are in fact "better" - particularly when a rare beer uses higher-quality ingredients or processing that necessarily limits the amount of beer which can be produced (i.e. using PvW barrels to age a beer).

 

I've bought more expensive bottles than BCBS and it still hasn't been beat, Eclipse 20 EC comes close though, perhaps equal, but I've never had the Whales of the stout world either. HDR is as good an IPA that's brewed anywhere, and it it once again plentiful. Most IPA's/DIPA's I wouldn't consider Whales because they are obtainable generally and brewed regular enough and with decent volume, but brews like DB Huna and BA Abraxas, Assassin are well beyond my reach.

 

What should we do with the other 1oz

 

Pour it out for the homies, G.

I can't taste rareity. I've had a few rare things, and I just keep goin back for more Prairie Bomb. Which is pretty much a shelf turd around here.

 

There have actually been some psychological studies on this phenomenon (outside of beer) that say that if someone knows or thinks that something is more expensive or rarer, they will believe it tastes better or appreciate it more than they would than if they were told the same product was cheap or common. I'm pretty sure it's this exact phenomenon that contributes to rating rare beers higher.

 

Possibly but I would never pay that price for either.

 

Anything you want with it. If it's me, I sometimes leave a small amount of beer in the bottle to keep the dregs from spoiling the aesthetics of the beer.

 

Hype is at least partly related to quality. There are rare bottles out there that no one really cares about (for example, that barrel aged tripel Funky Buddha just released 500 bottles of) and there are much less rare beers that people go crazy for. It has to be a high quality beer and in a style that people tend to get excited about before hype can be generated.

And BCBS is a terrible example because they make an absolutely absurd amount of it every year and it flies off the shelves in a most places simply based on quality and reputation.

That's not to say that people will not inflate their opinions on a beer based on rarity to some extent.

 

Rarity of course has something to do it. I see Speedway sitting on a shelf for $14 and other "rarer" stouts fly out the door for almost double the price. Doesn't make Heady Topper any worse though. This kind of thing is human nature.

 

Hey, I'm just on a mission to try as many different beers as possible, so if that involves me crossing a Budweiser Clamato off my 'hads' list then so be it! Although it's not even close to being as enjoyable as crossing off a coveted rare beer

 

Speedway is a great example of a beer that used to be hard to get (at least here in NYC), that's seen increased availability, and as a result, has lost a lot of its buzz.

When I joined this site, people would go crazy for Speedway. The odd case or two would make it's way to NYC and the surrounding area, and people would go nuts - it would be gone as soon as it hit shelves. There were threads on here with people complaining about guys buying it all up.

Now you can pick it up wherever and whenever you want - people rarely talk about it anymore.

 

I don't believe the rarer a beer is the better it is. I have had many brews that are harder to come by and have been blown away (Huna, Noyaux, Double Sunshine) while others not so much (KBS, Heady, Pliny). Not that those hard to get ones aren't good, just sometimes not worth the abundance of hype surrounding them.

I'll admit, I hunt for alot of so called "whales' and hard to get brews, just because I wanna try everything thats out there, but in the end my local staples are what truly make me happy all the time.

In the end, beer is a journey, enjoy it and whatever your palette tells you just follow it. It's all suggestive.

 

Is it "that much better?" No; as with anything else, you're running into diminishing returns when you get to the upper tiers. However, a lot of times you do get that extra 5% that really pushes the beer from great to special; for me (and I use this example all the time), that beer is Proprietor's Coconut Rye. I actually had a bottle a couple days ago, and the taste of the coconut had tailed off, leaving a slightly sweeter BCBS (still great, but not magic like the fresh Prop was). Did I enjoy it? Sure. Would I kill myself for a bottle that tasted like it did a couple days ago? No.

It all comes down to what you think a beer is worth. I really wanted to try Abyss, because I'd heard so much about it. Tracked it down, wasn't blown away, and I won't put a lot of effort into it again. However, the BCBS variants always really do it for me, so for them I'm willing to fly all over the city to pick them up, because no one is making something that tastes exactly like they do.

 

Obviously it depends on the beer. However, I think it's interesting that you used BCBS as your example, since BCBS is now the pinnacle example of an amazing beer that isn't all that rare. Sure, it's rarer than Corona, but as BA stouts go, it's got to be the least rare out there, and people still go nuts for it, as they should. Point being, I think that while some small batch beers may benefit from rarity and hype, BCBS proves that if your beer is good enough, people will still hype it after it stops being rare.

 

I ultimately would say no in a $4$ aspect, but comparing some of the rare beers I've had some of them are some of the more superior versions of their style I've had and in some (maybe many) cases they are no where near as good as everyday ones you can find.
EX: Dark Lord is like sucking on a overly sweet chocolate bar while Old RAsputin is beautiful and balanced.

 

I think its the experience of getting to try something that sometimes will never be made again or will only come out every few years. The hunt for a beer like that and then sharing it with a group of friends is a great way to spend an afternoon.

 

I don't know, any beer that is available in many/most areas for like 4 hours on one day out of the entire year is pretty rare in my book. I mean, sure, it's not like KBBS or Kuhnhenn BBBW or something, but it's rare for a beer that sees nationwide distro.

 

Don't know if it's been said but, the grass is always greener....