Hype vs. Reality

suck it non-californians!! hahahaha!!!! i get pliny the elder, pliny the younger, kern river citra, alpine pure hoppiness and nelson, and hoptimum!

 

COMBO BREAKER

 

Im going to commit heresy, and sedition, and sacrilege, and everything else profane and wanton and evil, right here, in the very next paragraph.

I have never had Heady Topper. What's apparently more egregious, I have NO desire to try it. I don't fricking care about it at all. I am sick to flipping death of hearing about it. No single beer on this planet, no beer in the history of brewing, is deserving of the amount of noise I hear about that beer on this site.

I get the hype and hero worship and coveting and all. It's not my thing. I am all about trying whatever crosses my path and following what I love. I have sought out a few things, I admit. A dear friend sent me a Westy 12 and I am waiting to try that. I have a few others I look for ( I do have a small thing for Dogfish offerings). Fundamentally though, I am in this for the diversity. I love that almost anywhere I look, there is something I've never heard of that ranges from good to great and that, friends, is what I am here to celebrate.

But damn people! I look at the forum and see endless "Stone v Pliny", or "Heady: Great Beer, or Greatest Beer?" threads, and I think, substitute nothing but names and you get "Bud lite v Miller Lite" and "Labatt: Great Beer, or Greatest Beer?". Bud Bowl Six, anyone? All of my craft examples are surely superlative beers, but come on...

At what point do we become what we despise?

 

The answer is yes, of course.
BCBS still got tons of love despite having cases sit around for months in some markets.
It's because BCBS kicks major ass, as does Heady.
I pray for the day I see either on my local shelves (again).

 

Not wanting to try Heady is ludicrous. Not seeking it out, not giving it much extra thought, or becoming annoyed by its fawning legion of superfans is completely understandable. Bottom line is its really fracking good, unique beer, deserving of all the praise it gets. It is a crown jewel among many crown jewels in this diverse beer universe.

 

Which is why not wanting to try it is perfectly reasonable. "Not wanting" does not necessarily mean unwilling. If it comes along, fine. If I travel somewhere I can find it, fine. But until then it's not worth any more than any of the other world class beers I've tried, am willing to try, or can drink when I choose.

 

Try the Westvleteren as part of a blind tasting of 4 to 6 other top rated quads of close to the same age. A small group of us did this less than a year ago and it was pretty clear it was very good, but not necessarily first among equals.

 

Yes.

 

I dont doubt that things such as access, label, name and overall hype do effect perception , but for the most part great beer is great beer. There's a reason highly rated beers are highly rated.

 

It's all taste buds for me. I can't get Dreadnaught unless in a trade, nor would I want to. Overhyped meh. Citra is good, but no heady to me. And I've been to the alchemist a few times and I'm going again this week so it's not a rare treat for me. Not saying you're wrong, but more that things that some ppl think are overhyped could very easily just be taste differences. With thousands of reviews, I doubt Heady Topper is really overhyped and it's not in my mind. Same goes for HF. I've had about 2 dozen of their beers and loved every one. But then other hyped places like RR (minus beat and T25) and especially FFF are more meh to me.

 

That's because Hopslam isn't that great lol. It's an above average DIPA, not world class though. The others are also above average (D)IPAs so I'd have to agree there.

 

You contradict your above post with this one, stating difference in taste and then calling out beers as Meh. Hopslam to some is like Heady is to you. Now I'm just stirring the pot. ;-P

 

I guess I should've clarified that that's just to my taste buds. I was just agreeing with his sentiment more than anything.

 

High demand and the "hype" you speak of frequently starts when something actually is that good. There's a reason things like Cantillon or Hill Farmstead are difficult to get. I agree that people (especially on the internet) go way overboard, but now this is turning into one of those things where people are using "hype" as a way to explain things even when its not appropriate.

 

Hype is just that. Damn near all beer is good, and a few are "great". You're lucky if you live where great ones are readily available. If not, have one on a vacation. Whales are for people with nothing better to do, that's how I see it in my mind. The most I ever did was get on a list for KBS and then have to show up within an hour of the phone call. That was too much for me. I can get 25yr old Scotch off the shelf whenever I want, if a beer is harder for me to get than that......there is a problem! I'd much rather be drinking awesome beers I can get locally and spend my free time doing other hobbies than just tasting.

But I'll drive an extra 5 mins to go to a store with a better selection, and motorcycle trips to small breweries is a weekend thing I do with the wife sometimes.

 

I don't think you can separate hype and reality. Hype is one aspect of each beer's reality. How hyped a beer is has surprisingly little to do with how good it is. Unfortunately, the only way to find that out for yourself is to taste the beer and decide.

Did I just shell out more than $60 for a couple bottles of Bois? Fuck yes. Mostly because I've had Fruet and loved it, but partly because I know at some point in the future I'll be in the mood for another ridiculously over-the-top, decadent, shamefully expensive sipper of a beer. And I don't even know that Bois can be considered a hyped beer.

Would I go out of my way to drink Heady Topper again? Probably not. I've had it and thought it was good but there are plenty of other IPAs I like more. I'd buy a 6-pack if I could get it locally but since it's not, I'm not going to sweat it.

As for label and name, I'd say they count for about 5% combined. Really not very important at all.

 

I guess people are reading more into the OP's question than he asked. He wants to know how much hype, etc. plays into one's demand for a particular beer. He didn't ask how hype, etc. plays into one's enjoyment of that beer. Given this simple and straightforward question, I would say it's even more than 80% hype. Who the hell demands a beer they never heard of?

 

The influence is pretty strong I would say. I was at the store today and looked for the beers I have seen "hyped" in these threads first. Hype can also backfire if you have a poor product. If you go out of your way to find something or wait a long time to try it and it's below par, then that will influence you in the future.

 

Anyone who thinks their tastes are completely objective and impervious to marketing and hype is delusional. We would not have a whole industry built around marketing if people really were that objective about the things they purchase and enjoy. We are irrational beings, despite our attempts to be otherwise. There's plenty of literature on the subject too, which I can't begin to summarize, but the "Judgement of Paris" is probably most relative to this discussion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_(wine)

How much we are affected by it I'm not sure, but it probably varies a lot between individuals.

 

I like your avatar.