Is rare beer really that much better?

No

 

very simple.... serve your friends a rare beer blind.

for example.... I bought a bottle hommage, but it was bought before they labeld the bottles. so it was just a plain bottle... and well... we all knew it was hommage. but for your brains it's a let down because you're not 100% sure

 

I shared a bottle of blaeber the other day with my friend and we both agreed it was weak at best. I'd rather drink Cantillon Gueuze over blaeber. Nope I don't taste rarity in a beer...yes I perfer abt 12 over westy

 

If you think smaller batches of beer are made with more care, please look up all of the threads on the Lost Abbey 2009 Sinner's club beers. Or 2009 Abyss. Or the last several years of Peruvian Morning. Or many other "rare" beers with quality issues. Many small batches are simply due to the production time involved for the breweries makes the beers less profitable to produce than multiple batches of regular lines. In many cases, I would argue more care is spent on regular beers, as these are the breweries primary money maker.

 

Thank you what town? If it's not to far some one might get a gift. It looks like about an hour by I-287.

 

I say it depends, it sure helps the desire aspect of things, given that I have had a few things like Fuzzy, New Glarus Sour Peach, VSB, king Sue,etc, some times yes, sometimes no. So, I don't think rare makes it better, just more desirable sometimes. Some of the options I have listed above are great beers, but not even close to my favorites.

 

I think it is human to want what one cannot have..........does it make it better than what we have access to each and every day (???), probably not, but there is still legitimacy in chasing (in the hopes of acquiring) that which we may or may not obtain.

 

Is it just me or has beer become more about the rarity. Has the mentally shifted to "whoever dies with the most rare beer tastes wins"? It disturbs me when a case of a beer with a 100 rating is considered no where close to a single bottle that has the same rating. There are so many amazing beers that people don't care about because they're not rare or limited. Living in Colorado I'm very lucky to have such a vast selection of local beer. A prime example of an extremely under rated beer is Liquid Brain by Bull and Bush. This isn't highly sought after but is an amazing beer. Beer is a fun hobby to try and trade for different beers but is the rarity aspect becoming more important than it should? If there was no top 250 beer list would people be more likely just enjoy good beer? Anyone else feel this way?

 

I don't disagree. But as has been pointed out, there's no smoke without fire. Not always, but often, there's a reason these beers are sought after. But I guess be grateful that the beer you like to buy is easy to come by.

3 pages worth of discussion about half way down the front page of beer talk:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/is-rare-beer-really-that-much-better.222861/

 

You are absolutely right. I do have a feeling if the top 250 list was not there rarity would still be the sought after attribute. I can use another example for you. I was a beer can collector in my early days. This was in the early 70's. At that point a can was a can. If you didn't have it you traded any can for it. Then it kind of became a retired can was worth 2. Soon believe it or not dealers started popping up. It now became my can is worth 20 dollars and yours is only worth 18 so no trade. These dealers practically killed a fun and growing hobby. I know the hobby still exists today , but is not anything like the it was in the "good old days". People will tire of so many limited = expensive beers.

 

I agree with you that there's a reason why certain beers are sought after however is a KBBS 2x, 3x, 24x as good as say BCBCS or KBS? I don't know of anyone that would say yes unless they knew what they were drinking and could taste the"rarity". Maybe it's just me..

 

Since you mentioned the top 250, BCBCS is higher up on that list than KBBS. So seems (according to the rating logic on BA) that the consensus is that BCBCS is the "better" beer.

I don't think anyone would say one very well regarded and rare beer is 24x better than another very well regarded but less rare beer.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm with you in a lot of respects. A lot of the posts in the hauls / wbaydn threads seem to focus too much on the status associated with having (or god forbid, drinking) a very rare beer - and to me they miss the point about what beer should be all about. But like I said, just be grateful that this isn't something you have to give a shit about, and that your most enjoyable beer experiences are based on beers that you don't need to jump through hoops to acquire.

 

How so? Not once did the OP mention "I have a ton of X rare beer" or anything like that. He never even mentioned having or even trying a single sample of any beer at all. What could they possibly be bragging about?

 

It's in Bardonia, essentially Nanuet, not too far off of I-287. A word of advice- if you are there and don't see anything you want just ask for it, they have cases buried under other cases where only the guys know where it is sometimes.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4252/

I won't be there on Black Friday, but will hit it up soon after. Shoot me a BM that next week and I'll let you know the lay of the land. Also- they only get lots of the regular BCBS; the variants are pretty limited and sell out very quickly.

Growler and Gill is also worth a stop if you're in the area, and you can drink there as well.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29799/?view=ratings

 

Are there any rare, sought after bad beers? Probably not, they are rare because they might be good.

 

Thanks, I'm not interested in the variants but if I could buy a case it might be worth the trip.

 

Not the OP. Just that's what this thread is or could turn into. You can only give an opinion if you've had rare beer x y z to comment on.

 

I didn't read any of this, but I noticed your inequality is backwards. It goes

Beer Rarity > Beer Taste.​

Internet message boards for beer (aka hype echo chambers) are not compatible with objective evaluation of flavour. As if there could be such a thing.

 

Exactly! That is my issue. It doesn't matter that the consensus is that according to BA, BCBCS is a better beer and because of pure hype and rare flavor people are willing to trade away that 24x of that better beer. To your point taste and quality no longer matter to some,it's all about rarity.

 

Lol, my idea behind the title is I'd like to get it back to focusing on the beer vs rarity. I might as well hope for world peace while I'm at it.