Hype is not a flavor...

Agreed.

A friend of mine conducted just this brand of blind IPA testing (18 people at the tasting) and Zombie Dust, Pliny and PseudoSue got crushed by Greenbush Brother Benjamin, which is available on the shelf half the year with no wait.

You can learn a lot about identifying ingredients in taste comparisons, but until you remove your preconceived ideas about what is or isn't good by name alone, it won't be a valid test.

 

Hype exists because people love the product and tell their friends about it.

Did we forget that?

Can't stand all this "it was really really good. But didn't meet the hype."

Uhhhhh. Whatever.

 

These conversations always amuse me. Of course hype influences people--it's basically a word that attempts to describe a beer's reputation based on a combination of peoples' direct and indirect experiences with the beer.

Hype, deconstructed:

• Brewery X advertises the flavor profile and release details for Certain Beer
• Person A, B and C all think the flavors sound interesting, Person D likes the name and label and is a fan of the style
• Person A, B, C and D go to release and drink Certain Beer and are impressed to varying degrees
• Person A, who loved Certain Beer, shares his experience with Persons E, F and G
• Person B, who also loved Certain Beer, writes a review of his experience on BeerAdvocate.com
• Person G reads B's review and decides that Certain Beer is worth seeking out.
• Persons A through G are now all seeking the beer out to varying degrees, increasing the ratio of people who want the beer to the quantity of beer available
• Persons E, F and G ask friends and local bottle shop guys about Certain Beer and try to acquire it
• Bottle Shop guy asks around within the industry, having been tipped off by a few of his customers.
• Etc...

Those are all "data" points in the phenomenon of hype. And I list them out to demonstrate that the core of hype is people enjoying and wanting to spread the word of said enjoyment to other beer enthusiasts--classic beer advocacy. I think it sometimes is discussed as sort of a dirty word because of the marketing component to it. Case in point: the very first item in my list is a brewery advertising and repping the quality of their product. But without the actual enjoyment of that product there is no hype. It's not limited to "rare" beers either--case in point: Grapefruit Sculpin. Hype is really a cocktail of having a product that 1) sounds interesting/worth seeking, 2) delivers on that initial promise, and 3) is good enough to get people excited about the product to the point of talking about it to others.

So count me as someone who is influenced by hype. I'm influenced to seek out beers, both by the marketing that describes a beer as something I might like and by the people who espouse their love of a given beer that gets me excited to try it. I try not to be influenced by hype when it comes to actually tasting the beer, but I'm positive I've been either let down by high expectations for a beer before. I've probably also been influenced to think a beer was better based on hype as well.

If you aren't influenced by what you've heard from other people in this hobby where we all obviously are, at the very least, interested in what other people think, then I'm genuinely impressed.

 

The simple reality for me is that KBS is indeed a little hot an boozy. It's a good beer, very good, but I've had it side by side with Parabola and BCBS and it's not in that category. It is something of a bargain I suppose, but then again, around here the stores set 2 bottle limits and it ends up being much harder to get than BCBS. Breakfast Stout is arguably a better beer than KBS, despite being easy to find. I don't bother to buy KBS anymore, even when I get the chance.

Maine Beer I is superb. Expensive, but very good.

 

Your deconstruction of modern usage of "hype" clearly encompases almost all possibilities so noone escape the brush. :-)

It also illustrates very nicely how much the meaning/use of the word has changed since it was first introduced to mean an advertising or promotional ploy having little or nothing to do with the quality of the product.... :-)

 

Wait...you can't #TasteTheRarity?

 

My tasting group has discontinued our IPA night. We used to just drink all hop masterpieces that night, but palate fatigue sets in really quickly with IPA's, and the later in the evening worse it got. I wonder how many award winning IPA's were chosen by judges whose palate fatigue affected their ability to taste subsequent beers?

 

You found a use for the debunked tongue map. Rare must be retronasal.

 

Hype is not something that enhances the drinking experience for me, but I would say availability certainly is. If I'm enjoying a beer that I know is only released once a year, or is produced in small quantities, or does not get distribution in my area, that is exciting to me because I know the opportunity of having it again is limited.

The funny thing is that about 10 years ago the beer you mentioned, AleSmith IPA, was rated one the Top 20-25 beers in the world on this site. It wasn't as accessible and I'm sure beer lovers were snatching it up every chance they got!

 

Why is this dialogue trash? Because there is no actual evidence here to discuss. No data. No nothing. Just a bunch of assertions. Barbershop talk. Conversations that are entertaining but intellectually trash.

All you guys have done is declare "I taste a popular beer that I'm not impressed by; I consider my tongue to be the oracle when it comes to all things beer; therefore 'hype' must be the only possible explanation as to why this beer is popular and if anyone disagrees with me then prove I'm wrong or else I'm automatically right"

It would actually take a full essay to convey the depth of fallacy in that sort of thinking. The only empirically documented effect of "hype" is an increase in the number of sales and reviews; I can point to data regarding the Westvleteren 12 and the Heady Topper that prove demand and sales increased with notoriety. There is no other data to point to, therefore people's opinions can only be taken at face value.

 

I'd like to think hype goes both ways. A good brewery can get hurt quite a bit from a couple of bad reviews. If anything I'd be more inclined to try out something to gauge my own opinion if there's a lot of hype around it, good or bad.

 

I can understand that hype and excitement may cloud things up. But what i don't understand maybe because ive never had beers like kbs and julius is that are those beers really that good. The hype behind certain beers causes people to note review fairly here. If i have a hyped beer, i dont even think about it. Plus if its gonna be an arm and a leg just to find it. im sure there are local examples just as good. Kind of an example, i chew tobacco and when Copenhagen mint came out after only being available in two states, people went nuts. But. Almost everybody i know says grizzly is better when compared.

People always want what they cant have and that can cloud judgement. But its not just beer. Its a lot of things in life. If you really want that beer bad enough then go ahead and drive across the country or stand in a two hour line its your choice. I just wish people were honest about it instead of getting mad when it doesnt live uo to someone's thought.

 

True. There's Beach Haus in NJ that I've been told numerous times is god awful. I got some for myself and thought it was ok. Thats just the way to do it.

 

Pretty broad brush strokes you are painting with there. Especially making blanket assertions about everyone on this site.

BTW, Westvleteren did not grow in notoriety, it grew in how widely it was known and in its reputation for quality (which is somewhat different than becoming widely known for poor quality).

 

Maybe this is a case of someone seeing the glass half full and the other seeing it half empty, but I don't think the full content of the thread can be summarized as such (even with taking your hyperbole into account).

 

I love trying a hyped beer. It's fun! I like knowing what all the buzz is about. But it's doubtful I will "chase" a beer more than once unless it's amazing. Conversely, it used to be really easy to get Parabola and Pliny, but now those beers are too inconvenient for me to acquire regularly.

Here out west, it's been fun the last few years getting Bell's and then Founders and hopefully Cigar City before too long. But there is so much good beer close by, that I don't have to waste hours of my life anymore seeking out limited releases of stuff. The more years I drink beer, the happier I find myself with the beers I can easily access.

 

That's a stance I find curious, if I'm understanding it correctly - are you saying you don't expect a beer to necessarily be better than other beers you can acquire with less effort, but you're still willing to put forth the extra effort to get it?

That suggests to me that factors beyond just taste are involved with what we commonly call hyped beer, like enjoying the pursuit of a beer, or the feeling of having something exclusive that other people cannot have. If those two examples are true for some segment of the beer-drinking population, then scenarios where a beer suddenly becomes easier to obtain, like where Plead The 5th can be seen on grocery store shelves here in Ohio this year, should cause a concurrent drop in hype. Alongside comments about how much better it was back when it was harder to find, of course.

I can see that sort of thing being a valid source of enjoyment. It isn't for me, but I can see it.

 

Social media is the perfect conduit for hype. Whether it is supply side hype (e.g., Rare beer on sale tomorrow! 1 PP!) or demand side hype (e.g., omg, that beer looks so juicy), craft beer has fully taken advantage of social media & its ability to create hype at a moment's notice.

 

I think Hype for a beer goes both ways. We really should approach a beer with no hype and no expectations. Let the beer speak for itself, and don't bring your preconceived notions or hype to the party. Being "underwhelmed" by a beer is as much a fault of your own lofty anticipation as it is about the beer's failure to "wow" you.