Fans of under-appreciated styles ...

If you like Paulaner's OF (as do I), you should see if you can find this locally in PA:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/213/61577/


To the OP's question, I think it's definitely the rarity/inaccessibility and hype of some styles that draws crowds. I'm an east coast guy and don't travel a ton, and I can tell you that if and when I make it anywhere within 200 miles of Russian River for any reason I will do whatever needed to get to the taproom and get my hands on some Pliny the Elder. I do the same any time I'm within range of Alchemist, and plan on taking a trip to Hill Farmstead in a few months with similar reasoning.

People who go crazy for BA stouts and the like will do the same when they find out their favorite brewery is making a one gallon batch of barrel aged smoked maple bacon stout brewed with moose tears and actual unicorn mane that will be available only at the back of the brewery if you can answer three riddles and come within the allotted twelve second window.

That said, I don't think I would camp out Black Friday style to pay $15 for a 6oz pour of any beer, regardless of the hype. Nothing against those who do - I think we all have our own "obsessions" that seem completely sensible for ourselves but over the edge to others.

 

I drank two tasty Munch Helles beers yesterday: Straub Helles and Spaten.

I did a review/write-up for New Beer Sunday: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-518.251670/#post-3218222

Cheers!

 

I'm a huge Dunkelweizen fan. In fact, one of my favorite all time beers is Piece Brewing's Dark 'n Curvy. I will drive an hour just to drink that beer along with their epic pizza
My experience is few to any breweries do that style well, which sucks...

 

Agree. One of the few lagers I actually still love. The ones I have had lately all suck.

 

I'm a big WeizenBock fan...wouldn't mind seeing that catch on with American Craft Brewers

 

What did you make of the (to my palate) big melanoidin, Munich malt character in the Spaten as compared to the Straub (which, I believe, utilizes only Pilsner malt)?

 

I am a big fan of Scoth Ale/ Wee Heavy beers. They can Vary lastly in taste and color and age decently well. I am a huge fan of OB Old Chub.

 

I love doppelbocks and noticed Ayinger Celebrator had just arrived back in my area. It was the same day Abrasive arrived. I bought both but was much more excited to pop open the Celebrator.

 

I have thought about this. I think some of it has to do with intensity of flavor in general. I feel like DIPA's and barrel aged stouts or other strong ales simply provide the most robust flavor. Although strong beers with intense flavor take some getting use to, they are easier to understand than many of the styles that require more subtle appreciation. The beers with strong flavor really offer an easily achievable experience. If you sit down and enjoy a BBA Imperial Stout, you really are going to have an experience. You just can't offer the same for something like an English Mild. So what Im really saying is that the big beers people seem to talk most about are beers that offer entertainment and are easier to understand.

Anyway, that is just a thought I have had. People like cheap thrills and although a BBA Imp Stout isn't cheap, it's easy to understand. It's easy entertainment.

And for the record: Not saying I don't talk about and enjoy DIPAs and Stouts less than anyone else. They absolutely are beers I enjoy very frequently when I can.

 

Celebrator is one of my favorite Doppelbocks!!

Cheers!

 

What most of these extremely trendy beers have in common (whether it's BA stouts, DIPAs, barleywines, sours, etc.) is that they're very full-flavored. I think part of the problem is that the majority of craft drinkers don't have a sophisticated enough palate and end up confusing bold with high-quality. Not as many people can appreciate that many smaller beers are just as complex and even better-crafted, just not as in-your-face. Bell's Mercury was an excellent example; it was actually a pretty good beer, but a very popular opinion (I'm basing this off of what I've read on these forums, reviews, other beer groups, and in person) was that it was bland and flavorless.

Obviously there are exceptions, such as all the people in this thread screaming your support for Helles or Kölsch or similar styles. Personally a well-crafted <5% English Bitter is one beer I will never turn down; extra points if it's cask-conditioned.

Edit: I only read the first half of replies, then saw that @WillemHC said roughly the same thing I did.

 

I always get tripped up on the riddles!

 

Under-appreciated styles are most of what I drink. Unfortunately, I'm finding them to become more of a crapshoot as time goes by, when trying newly introduced beers.

Take the list JackHorzempa gave above. I tried the SN Vienna lager, and found it to be incredibly hop-forward, more of an appeal to the hoppy beer crowd to try something slightly different than a typical Vienna lager. I'm told their Oktoberfest takes the same approach, and I've tasted another brewery taking that same approach with the Hinterland Oktoberfest out of Green Bay. Reviews also place the Pivo Pilsner as fairly high up there on the hop scale, though that's more acceptable for a pilsner.

While I can appreciate that perhaps those beers can serve as gateways to bring the "bigger badder bolder flavor" crowd into some of the less over the top styles, at the same time, these beers tend to leap right to the top of the style-specific ratings for those beers, which I can only hope does not influence subsequent new beers in those styles. In addition, these beers tend to be unpleasant surprises when in styles not known to be hop-forward. I dread the seemingly inevitable day that I order a new doppelbock and get a heavy dose of something floral from the aroma.

In short, yes, we are seeing non-stout, non-IPA beers being introduced. But it almost seems that innovation in styles these days is becoming more "let's add some more/new/multiple varietals of hops", and less of toying with malt compositions, yeasts, et al. At least, from what I've seen.

 

“I tried the SN Vienna lager, and found it to be incredibly hop-forward…”

I respectfully disagree with that statement. I found the Sierra Nevada Vienna lager to be malt forward with just enough hops to provide some balance. IMO, Sierra Nevada brewed a “traditional” Vienna Lager that was true to style (i.e., malt forward).

I detailed my impressions of Sierra Nevada Vienna Lager in a previous thread:

“I had my first Sierra Nevada Vienna Lager from the SN Fall Pack.

This beer has a very, very pleasant aroma! Nice aromas of bready/toasty. Hop aroma was barely discernable.

The flavor very much followed the nose. Nice pleasant flavors of bready/toasty with just a hint of caramel. The hop flavor was a tad more prominent than what was present on the nose but definitely in the background here.

It has a nice light-medium mouthfeel with a dry finish.

The strong suit for me was the aroma. This beer is very much malt forward which is what I personally look for in the Vienna Lager style.

If I had to use one word to describe this beer it would be süffig.”

Cheers!

 

As much as I appreciate and support what Straub has been doing with these sampler cases, I'd take Spaten over their Helles pretty much for the depth of malt character you describe. The Straub Helles is nice, but it's not on that level.

 

If anything, I've found that the prevalence of trendy styles has made searching and finding more traditional brews all the more exciting. There are many great breweries near me doing excellent and underrated work (if you can believe it) and I frequent those way more than the "big 3" saturated locations. Burlington Beer Company has an incredible brown ale, Queen City Brewing does great rauch styles, 4 Quarters do session sours, Zero Gravity has amazing lagers and gruits... all great stuff, and usually cheaper too.

 

Michael,

I enjoyed drinking both the Straub Helles and Spaten. One of the ‘features’ that I appreciate about conducting a ‘side-by-side’ tasting event is that it mitigates the aspect of beer memory which can be an imperfect thing. By sipping one beer and then immediately sipping the other beer I do not have thoughts like: I wonder how this beer compares to xyz beer that I last drank x months/years ago.

I suppose this would be a good time to use one of my old sayings: we all have our unique palates and differing expectations on what we want in a given beer style.

Cheers!

Jack

 

Dunkel and Dunkelweizen

 

Love bocks....feel they get very little "love" on BA

Just found a sixer of Anchor Bock at a Whole Foods in Columbus over the weekend...assume it must be 2014 version, as I thought it was (sadly) discontinued.....like the whole "bock family"....doppelbock, maibocks, etc

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/32/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/35/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/33/

Hey, spring is less than 8 weeks away now, and Bock's are typically considered "spring beers", so enjoy!

 

Dubbels and Tripels, dubbels and tripels.