beers on the down trend.

Dark Lord?

 

Top 10 form August 28th 2010

1) Westy 12
2) Pliny the Elder
3) Pliny the younger
4) The Abyss
5) Founders KBS
6) Trappistes Rochefort 10
7) Westy 8
8) Founders Breakfast Stout
9) Bells Hopslam
10) Stone Russian Imperial Stout
The full top 250 list (fun to go back and look)
https://web.archive.org/web/20100828090327/http://beeradvocate.com/lists/top

 

I just went and counted how many I had on the old list (even though I never ticked them on here, they are just ones that I remember). Something like 85 of them. Damn.

 

There's always one more thing...this will keep happening, ad infinitum.

 

Westy 12 lost it's street cred in 2012.

 

So it's not worth it for me to go out of my way to drop $30 or trade a couple of my prized New Glarus 750's for a bottle of Westy 12?

 

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beer-holder.

 

That's an awesome link you got there

 

Sculpin. Haven't seen a fresh one in years.

 

1:1 with those NGs maybe (as long as they aren't VS variants)

 

If Belgian Red, Serendipity, Raspberry Tart and Strawberry Rhubarb can land me Westy 1:1, start flooding my inbox, please!

 

How about that Victory Storm King? - 2001
I've never even heard Celebrator Doppelbock discussed on here since I joined (and check out Hop Devil at #5). - circa 2002
Rogue Shakespeare still in the Top Ten? - 2003
Thomas Hooker at #3 and Masala Mama at #4? - 2004
An Eisbock at #2 ahead of Dark Lord and PtY? - 2005
Checkout PtE at #19 and PtY at #21! - 2007
Finally, the Top Ten sounds all familiar to me... - 2010

 

How does that mean it's trending downward? Sucks for you, but we have fresh Sculpin IL consistently.

 

Trending downward because it used to get here (Boston area) fresh and be delicious, now it gets here 4 months after it's bottled and it's borderline terrible. If I'd never had it before, I'd assume it was a below-average beer. Sorry, but time is obviously a factor in the overall quality of a beer (especially Sculpin), and Ballast Point fails there.

 

It's also possible that it's just shelf-turding around here, possibly due to the price point, but the fact remains that if I pick one up and drink one off the shelf it's going to be less than tasty.

 

Ballast Point has just finished it's new facility. They have been pumping out sculpin 24/7. expect to start seeing fresh sculpin everywhere.

 

Hopslam

 

In regards to the Sculpin, I suspect "shelf-turding" is to blame as well. There are some terrific IPA/IIPAs coming out of the east coast, and Sculpin might be taking a back seat in that area of the country. At my local beer stop here in SoCal, Sculpin is always less than a month old and tastes fantastic. Since moving out here, Sculpin and PP Swami's IPA have been my Bell's 2HA and Fatheads HH replacement. (not comparing, just my go-to AIPAs in lue of my east coast favs)

 

Just track the older list of top beers and then note when they have increased availability. It's all about the hype and/or rarity.