Your Epic Whale Fail

I've never liked any of the Dark Lord or Huna variants. Just not my thing.

 

Mine would be KBS, Heady Topper, and the Abyss (and maybe Zombie Dust). Massive hype behind all these beers, and by the time I got to drinking them, I'd found beers in the style that I vastly preferred. I'm actually apparently one of the few people on BA that actually enjoys Dark Lord, but after the first sip or two, I definitely got why other people hate the beer. Even for me, it straddles the line between too sweet and just sweet enough.

That's not to say they're not all great beers; they are. They just didn't change my world like my favorites have, and thus didn't live up to the hype for me.

 

KBS

 

Cantillon Blabaer '11. So much meh

 

Heady. no doubt.

 

I had Pliny twice. Once it was spectacular, the other time not so much. If it's not fresh, take your chances.

 

Aw, no need to pout -- if you wanted to take a peek, all you had to do was ask.

And, speaking of pouting, if you really think that someone pointing out/questioning your reasons for not liking one beer, when another beer you claim to like lacks those exact same qualities, makes them a troll, maybe it's time to have a nice warm glass of milk and finally get that nap in.

 

Pannepot Wild – original batch, thin, tastes infected, just straight up bad
Pannepot Wild – second batch, the combination of flavours didn’t work at all for me

Hair of the Dog Michael is just awful – I have had 2 different batches, tasted like a spoiled beer to me, granted the newer batch was better, older one was a gusher & just awful

Heady Topper – it isn’t a bad beer but plenty of other better DIPA’s out there, I have had maybe 5 times now

Närke Konjaks! Stormaktsporter – solid but there are a lot better stouts out there that are as good or better

 

King Kenry, but I expected too much from it... It was fantastic and I gave it a 5 but it may have been more fun chasing it than actually drinking it lol. I'll stick to my beloved bcbbw which is way more plentiful haha. I thought the same of Westy 12, I greatly enjoyed tracking it down and having it but I would rather go to Nature's Way and pay 10 bucks for an ABT12 anyday.

 

120 minute dogfish head. Took years to find it

Would have been equallyhappy drinking a bud Weiser turned into a boiler maker.

 

How you no get hop flavor from 120??

 

Disappointment in Abyss convinced me to stop trading years ago. I can find similar stuff that on store shelves near me and skip the trading hassle.

I agree 100%.

It's more fun to find the unknown whale-quality beers in your own backyard, which are usually fresher and cheaper than the hyped beers.

 

Peche is super meh. Most stouts that aren't American suck to be honest lol.

 

KBS was my first big disappointment... still doesn't stack up to Black Note, BCBS and others. I grabbed up a few at release this year, but really just to trade away.

 

You're not wrong, but it just seems irrelevant to me in the context of this thread. It was pretty clear after the first handful of responses that this was really a thread about what hyped/sought-after/highly rated beer did not meet expectations. I imagine most of the commenters got that without having to be reminded that these aren't whales. So yeah, maybe a silly title, but the distinction probably didn't need to be pointed out a dozen times by every person trying to sound more knowledgable than those commenting about their disappointment with Hopslam, etc.

 

Wow... is anything good going to come of this thread?

 

Not sure I would call any of these whales but they did let me down to a degree:

Heady Topper - Great beer but not #1
Pliny the Elder - See above, been lapped by more modern brews
Hopslam - Really don't get the hype. Good, nothing more.
Gose Gone Wild - Could barely finish a sample.
Double Bastard - Gimme a Miller Lite any day over this (yes, I'm serious).

 

Hipsterbeeradvocate.com should be its own website.

 

I have to believe that many who did not like PtE were stuck in the hype mentality. PtE was excellent. Drank it with tempered expectations and it definitely went above and beyond. For anyone who hasn't tried it, don't expect it to be God's gift to man, but its still worth getting out to CA to drink a few fresh bottles.

And man, all you have to do is mention the world "whale" on this forum and suddenly we've got drama!

 

For me it was Prop. Mine was flat, very sweet, and very little coconut if any at all. May have just had a bad bottle...I certainly hope so.