Should we split up the Top 250 Rated Beers?

I know based off posts on this sites it’s pretty available in California as well. Not sure what other states without looking into it but I know they’re shipping to more than just PA and CA. Either way, my point was that by no means is Heady Topper a “whale” you can’t get anymore.

if you’ve really never had it, would be happy to send you some for Mass NEIPAs next time it hits here.

 

This puppy used to cost an arm and a leg in trades, though.

While I was happy to see the long dead Good Morning FINALLY drop off the Top 250, at the same time, I do like the idea of a smaller Top list of retired beers.

There's a number of beers out there that are simply vintages that are still produced annually or every other year, but when users pull an Untappd and add them as vintages here on BA, that has allowed them to drop off. Some of this is made even more muddled when a beer like Three Floyds BA DL has been renamed as Hellaboozie in 2020, but it was never named that before, yet it now overwrites all past vintages and adds my review for a version I've not yet had.

While I'm a fan of vintages on UT for the ticks, and seeing the variations in ratings, I prefer the single entries on BA, as we have the ability to have longer reviews, and can notate the differences within those reviews.

 

-Keep the Top 250 as is - too many people have invested too much effort in it.

-Create new top lists for the breakouts you already have for Availability:

• Year-round: Brewed and available throughout the year.
• Rotating/Seasonal: for beers that are released seasonally or occasionally throughout the year on a limited basis.
• One-off: as in brewed once, not repeated.

-Distribution is too much of a brewery-defined moving target - ignore it.

 

I say definitely. There's not much point in a list of top beers where only a tiny fraction can actually be purchased. In many cases, some of those beers haven't been brewed or made available in many years. If someone gets one now...ouch, hope they like blood/rust/paper/port flavors.

 

Goodness. Haven’t logged in for years, but when this came across my email, I had to jump in. As a previous serial ticker, I gotta acknowledge both the fun and legitimacy of chasing down whales. Don’t diminish that for those who enjoy it.

I do *really* like the idea of top beers by region with the ability to filter by rotating/seasonal/one-offs. Many is the time I’ll be on a trip, and wish I could generally see what’s available in the region and rated highly. But—depending on the state/region—I know to just scroll past the first several beers as I’ll never get those in my quest to simply find a new (to me), good (rated) beer.

I’d vote to largely keep the top 250 and build out better/more filtering or ratings on the region and state level.

Cheers!

 

Yeah, from a functionality stand point, being able to more easily discover new beers or breweries in different regions would be great. I looked at MA where I'm from, and something like 94 of the top 100 are from Tree House and Trillium. This is not just a MA problem. In VA, Aslin and The Veil are around 65 of the top 100. It's so concentrated.

I think most of the new breweries I am introduced to are through either friends, social media, or the forums. The rankings don't really help guide me anymore as much as far as seeing who is making good beer in a particular location. I feel like alternative lists like "New" or "Trending" were intended to help with alleviating some of the staleness of the current 250 but I feel like it's only served to provide the haves another outlet to dominate.

 

THIS! A thousand times, THIS!!! Add interactive filters for those who want to see only year-round beers, seasonal beers, etc. Some of us have painstakingly worked to travel and trade our way to trying all of the "best beers in the world", which obviously is still rather arbitrary (especially when stuff that went unbrewed for 5-7 years suddenly is brewed again and jumps onto the list despite the new batch(es) being a shadow of what once was made), but dumbing the primary list down would really cheapen the experience. Most of the best beers out there are rotating/seasonal and require at least a little effort to acquire. I don't see why this should be viewed as a bad thing. Early on in my BA days I would look at the then "Top 100" list and be wowed by it and some of the high average ratings. I didn't have any intention of completing the list at first, or even for many years after, but I was inspired to travel to some of these breweries (or in the case of Cantillon Blabaer to the bar in Copenhagen that sells it), and to make trades with people I didn't know. I met interesting people, saw cool places, had unique experiences, and in some cases made long-time friends. In short, the list as it is was the impetus to venture out from my ordinary every-day life.

 

I just want to say, I--and at least a few others I know of--honestly and brutally rate famously hyped and limited beers low if and when they warrant it. I don't care how hard it was for me to chase down. I've rated Schlenkerlas higher than quite a few unicorn BA pastry stouts.

I always love the idea of side by sides, but I've not done one with Bernardus. I have, though, done a side by side with the just as easily accessible Rochefort, and while the similarities were there, the pedigree of Westvleteren was clear, at least to me. Distinguishing them blind would certainly be a difficult if not fun challenge, but I would have to lean on which I enjoyed the most to guess which was which. To me, Abt 12 is much fruitier.

 

As one should, at least in my opinion. In fairness, I did mean "nobody" in less of an absolute sense, and more as hyperbole for the point - some folks will be more resistant to wow factor conveyed by rarity and reputation, and accordingly more fair when a beer does not quite measure up to said reputation.

Not entirely on topic, but completely blind tastings are the reason for my confidence in asserting that, to date and for me, Ayinger Brau-Weisse beats all other hefeweizens I've tried. I've gone 3 for 3 in choosing it as my favorite out of blind lineups of 3-5 hefes. Difficult, however, may be quite the understatement as far as organizing that sort of thing with many of the current Top 250! Good to know on your side-by-side results!

 

These summarize my feelings on the issue. Don't change the main list, but a "regularly available" list would have a lot of value.

Where I see some problems with implementing this is that there are a lot of beers that seem to be misclassified.

Or maybe it's more like the classification system just doesn't work well for this idea. Someone said it above, but rotating/seasonal is so broad. I think that encompasses things like:
Bourbon County - released once a year without fail (with a wide footprint)
Pliny the Younger - released once a year without fail (with a small footprint)
Duck Duck Gooze - not released every year, but not retired either
Julius - pretty much available year-round, maybe it's technically not always being brewed (IMO something like these should be moved to year-round)
King Sue - brewed very frequently (more than quarterly)
Great Lakes Oktoberfest - a true seasonal beer

 

That's not true for the Top 250 list.

Pretty much all retired or no longer brewed beers have dropped off--if you know of one that's on there but hasn't been released in over a year, you should report it.

Most people looking for any Top 250 beer know what vintage they'd prefer, which is very often one that's been released within the past 2-3 years, aside from a few outlier vintages that have become known as particularly special.

And Port is delicious.

 

Agreed….retired beers not brewed in years typically get removed from these lists, but be careful with the yearly thing. Beers like “Ann” “Duck Duck Gooze” and a few others are known to only be brewed every few years, and then ppl start reporting them as retired cause they see Ann or DDG hasn’t been released since 2019. These shouldn’t be “retired”

 

Thank you! But I have had it more times than I count.

 

Something like this might be helpful…say for a beer like VSOJ. Was retired and now recently un-retired (as it should) and added back to the Top 250 because a new batch has been announced for July. Same with BA Vietnamese stout.

I think someone else mentioned this but I’ll second it, would like to see more defined criteria for when does a beer get “retired” SR-71 comes to mind. Was retired and not to long ago re-added to top 250. What is determining this, as far as I know a new vintage or release has not been announced, and hasn’t been released in many years as far as I know

 

I read the comments and agree with almost all, especially Porter-stoutguy. I used to be an exclusive lager/pils drinker but now seem to prefer higher alcohol IPA's. Some brews defy easy labels, but I do think the lower temperature-fermented lager beers should have a separate category in a "top beer" list than the higher temperature fermenting (usually higher ABV) ones.

 

I see possibilities for more than one list, an "all-time" as it is now, and another for year-round/seasonal (i.e. findable) beers.

 

I have no complaint with a year-round top 250 list, but I'd keep the regular top 250 as it is.

 

It’s interesting that most the comments are advocating to leave the list alone, but the voting is overwhelmingly to change it.

I agree with adding lists or search criteria if that’s what people want, but leave the top 250 alone. If it included retired beer now THAT would be difficult to tick.

If the top 250 was only included regularly available beer it would look something like this...(I’m just guessing at the top 50 here, pretty much all IPA’s)
5 Heady Topper
The Alchemist
IPA - New England | 8.00% 14,979 4.76 4.41
8 King Julius
Tree House Brewing Company
IPA - New England | 8.30% 1,402 4.75 4.03
11 Very Hazy
Tree House Brewing Company
IPA - New England | 8.60% 1,129 4.74 -
14 Pliny The Elder
Russian River Brewing Company
IPA - Imperial | 8.00% 15,449 4.69 4.77
20 Julius
Tree House Brewing Company
IPA - New England | 6.80% 4,923 4.68 4.12
21 Very Green
Tree House Brewing Company
IPA - New England | 8.60% 1,531 4.69 4.34
24 Double Sunshine
Lawson's Finest Liquids
IPA - Imperial | 8.00% 2,606 4.67 4.39
Quadrupel (Quad) | 10.20% 6,776 4.66 4.78
27 Dinner
Maine Beer Company
IPA - Imperial | 8.20% 2,648 4.66 4.04
40 Zombie Dust
3 Floyds Brewing Co.
Pale Ale - American | 6.20% 11,126 4.62 4.34
43 Doubleganger
Tree House Brewing Company
IPA - New England | 8.20
49 King Sue
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company
IPA - New England | 7.80% 3,266 4.61 4.21