Why are Bell's beers either World Class or really "average"?

For me Bell's dark stuff is king, save for Cherry Stout. However, Two Hearted & Hop Slam are right up there as well. I can't disagree, but Bell's good stuff far out ways the road apples in their stable.

 

I think the other Bell's beers are mediocre because they get sloppy and don't make sure the labels are straight

 

I don't completely agree with the world class/average groupings of the original post (although I do think Oberon is extremely overrated). It definitely think it has something to do with "big" beers being able to make an impression upon your palette easier than "smaller" beers -- most of their more notable beers, indeed a lot of domestic breweries' most notable beers, tend to fall within styles with the name "Imperial" in them. I think Oarsman is a really nice beer, but I'm generally not blown away by many of their beers.

 

I think all of Biff Tannens future postings should be marked with an asterisk alerting viewers of pure stupidity



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I found the Oracle to be a sloppy nightmare. Two Hearted is a dam fine beer. Oberon, disgusting! Their brown ale isn't to bad, Hopslam is ok but NOT WORTH 18.99 a sixer. Bell's makes good beer but they do not blow me away.

 

I've come to enjoy Two-Hearted more over the past year or so, but other than that everything I have had from Bell's makes me think that they're incredibly overrated

 

I've not read through all the posts (I've never had a Bell's beer, thought they made Scotch ) but really the word "average" is pretty meaningless. It all hinges on what's around. I'd be pretty happy if I earned the average Norwegian salary but rather less so if I earned the average Lesotho one. Remember that half of all beers are below average.

 

You salary example made me think of the saying, a guy with his feet in a bucket of ice and his head in an oven is one the average comfortable.

What many don't get is that average beers are perfectly fine, it is the ones that have technical flaws or just not "right" are below average.

 

Sounds like my barbecued meat. Blackened on the outside, raw in the middle, on average perfect.

Joking apart though, if you live in a land of superb beer then the average pint will be superb too.

 

Well stated. 90% of the beer I consume is from Michigan. There are simply too many good brewers in my state that I do not have to look far to find an above average beer. Having said that, I drink an awful lot of Bell's beer. If it was merely average, I wouldn't be drinking it.

 

But it's like the Stuart Smalley version of beer advocacy truth. I wake up at night and ponder how deep these musings really are!

 

Best brown is the best and it's a 16oz format. A bunch of the others are great too. The failure is two hearted is only good on tap, at least in my experience, even when uber fresh bottles are lacking something.

Midwest is horrible. I got suckered in again when the label changed.
Porter is solid
Cherry stout is great
Kalamazoo stout is great
Coffee stout is great


Enjoy

 

Above average

 

two hearted has nearly 13,000 ratings here with an average score of 95. I don't think most of those scores were given based on draft pours. Two hearted is great out of the bottle, can, or on tap

 

Your opinion. Mine is draft only.

Enjoy

 

But we used to get great bottles a few years ago..

Bottled within a week or two. It was probably the first IPA besides The OG Green Flash West Coast IPA that showed me "what's really good" or what an IPA can be. I also had an amazing sixtel or two that me and some close amigos killed on handpump taps in a weekend before I had a kegerator.

 

Even week kid did not do it for me in a bottle. Not tried the cans yet. All I see are old.

Enjoy

 

This is turing into my favorite thread of the year so far...5 pages discussing the merits of the subjective terms "world class" and "average"...keepe 'em coming

 

So in order to keep this one going a few pages longer, 2 questions for Biff.

1. If, in your opinion, both Bud Select and BCBS are "brewed the hard way", how come there is so much more Bud Select out there than BCBS?
2. Do you like turtles?