Your Top 250 Letdowns

Oh. It seemed to me that you were trashing some great beers and the people on here that rate them.

Drink what you like.

 

I hate your screen name and cover photo with a passion, but you make a very good point. Even the most lackluster of NEIPA's have an inflated score because of the devotion to the style. I know I've been guilty of it!

 

21. Dinner
41. SOS
67. Black Note
106. Bomb!
136. Crusher

 

Everett from HF, had very high expectations for this one, big letdown.

 

I agree with others on Founders Breakfast Stout. Not bad by any means, but nothing special either.

 

Zombie Dust and canned (contract brewed) Pseudo Sue. Both good but overrated.

I've had many NEIPAs from breweries like Other Half, Tired Hands, and Trillium, and I just had Julius for the first time last week. It was a 9/10 to my palate. Definitely not a joke. Green is better, though.

Permutation #44 was amazing. I don't know if it's top 250. But, the point remains: Non-Street IPAs can be very good.

 

I always view threads like this as a a perfect example of why reviews are worth checking out, and numbers are pretty much valueless.

Can't help but wonder how many folks would have even tried those beers they found overrated if they had read reviews that might have warned them of features of the beer they were likely not to enjoy.

 

Pliny the Elder, Parabola, probably Sucaba if it is still in the 250

I'll have to check the list for the rest

 

I'm not finding fault whatsoever with anyone who cares about the top 250 list, but despite all the time I spend on this website, I'm more likely to look at the ads than the top 250... and I tend to ignore the ads.

That's why a thread title like: "Your Top 250 Letdowns" just makes me think of my personal top 250 letdowns in life... as in a list of letdowns. I don't even think of beer.

 

Green is actually the one I find disappointing, at least in it's recent iterations. It's just too de-bittered for me and it comes off as astringent and watery.

 

I've only tried Dinner once but I didn't think it was particularly special. Definitely some serious rarity inflation there.

Pretty much every Tree House beer is overrated, same deal. I don't really regard them as "disappointing" though, Tree House makes extremely good Tree House style beers, the over-inflated ratings are a social network effect that doesn't actually have much to do with the beer.

I don't like Heady very much, personally. Crusher even less. Focal I would call underrated though.

I typically like the DDH Trillium stuff less than the standard versions, even though they're consistently rated higher.

Hill Farmstead's beers are mostly underrated I think, but the one time I've had Ephraim I thought it was awful. It was a post-expansion batch though, and a lot of their hoppy stuff was a little off at that time. I'd be excited to try it again now.

I'm not going to name every bourbon barrel stout that I think is overrated, because it's basically all of them. Weirdly Dark Lord is the one that's most consistently lived up to the hype for me, even though it seems like it's the one people complain about the most.

I don't know, most of the list is "overrated". That's sort of by definition when talking about extremely highly rated beers.

 

The first time I had Hop Venom was about 3 years ago, and it was phenomenal. The last time I had it, I felt it was good, but not groundbreaking. I'm curious if the increase in production has changed the flavor or maybe my palate has just changed.

 

Your list had me but for a few exceptions listed above.

My Top 250 letdowns are:

Heady Topper -- guess I had one too many NE IPAs before trying this far more grounded, realistic (and dirty fish tank looking) variation

Pliny the Younger -- we have Hop Juju here in abundance at least once a year, and it's quite similar to Younger. After finally having the opportunity to try it, and better still, as a side by side with Juju, Fat Head's was head and shoulders better.

All of the amplified versions of Tree House's "regulars" (except Doubleganger) -- they're all far thinner, more astringent, sharp and acidic. They are not better versions of the flagships, they're simply unbalanced.

Fuzzy -- peach sours are a dime a dozen, and there are some far better versions out there, even just keeping it in the US alone. de Garde absolutely excels at anything they do with peaches, and Casey isn't too bad either.

BA Grand Negro Voodoo Papi -- actually, anything by Voodoo. They have thoroughly let me down with every single beer of theirs that I've ever put to my lips. In visiting their brewery, it's also pretty clear they don't actually have a lot of experience making stouts, and seem to have a much greater fondness for Belgian yeast--and their Belgian style beers aren't even that good. Kudos to Pittsburgh for driving the hype behind this totally undeserving brewery, and scoring truck loads of stellar beers via trade in the process.

I'm not sure Abyss and Hopslam have any business being on there. Beers of Fame...? Okay, fine.

And finally, I agree with the consensus that the Bruery nukes shouldn't be anywhere near this list, doesn't matter which weekday and what flavors were added. They too might be more fitting for Beers of Fame as opposed to Top 250, but that's about it. In that same sentiment...how about Utopias?! Bah!

What's sad is very little of this will ever change at this point. Some have far too many high ratings from their early days to ever budge. And nowadays, more undeserving beers are being given stupid high scores by the joose and pastry hoards.

What is deserving?

Kane. They should be on here more often.

Jester King isn't on there nearly enough. Some of their regular, unhyped stuff is absolutely stellar.

Hill Farmstead has a solid representation and hell, they should have more. Although, I admit, some of their stouts are underwhelming--I feel they are overly hopped and those hops sometimes taste stale or overly biting. But everything else they do is absolutely top tier.

Cigar City is still killing it after all these years.

I think it says something that there is so much Tree House, Trillium and Other Half, but no Tired Hands or Monkish, and I don't think what that says is good.

I ain't mad at Bottle Logic either, putting out less ostentatious versions of the gloppy pastry sewage that's cropping up elsewhere.

Jackie O's sours are actually far better than their stouts, and are no where to be found.

And hey, let's give some love to Hoppin' Frog! Yes, local here. But honestly, they have dozens of beers they put out regularly that are, personally, all far better, consistently, than large swathes of this list.

 

I have had 20 beers on the current 250, and would rate 18 of them as very good to great. The bottom of the list for me is Black Tuesday, which I found borderline undrinkable after about a year of aging. Just too hot for me to enjoy even as a dessert beer. The other I was disappointed in was CBS, which I thought had clashing flavors and was overly sweet. While both of these beers are barrel aged stouts, I have loved many other beers on the list in this general style like Parabola, BCBS, KBS, BA Ten Fidy, and Parabajava. I have also liked plenty of other beers from the Bruery and Founders for that matter, just not those two whalez.

 

My experience was pretty similar to yours with the bottle version. It wasn't bad, but a bit of a letdown for sure. The thinness is something that turns me off to a lot of 4 Hands beer. I did get to try Volume 1 (on your recommendation), and reviewed it here. Mouth feel was better on that one.

 

Same - I saw the title and thought "fuck there are going to be some long-winded answers" (and there are - just not in the way I was expecting)

 

I've way more than 250 top 250 through the years if you know what I mean.

I counted around 15 Trillium beers on the list. Never understood the obsession with them. They're fine but maybe one is top 250 worthy.

I've had dinner a few times. At least three different batches. Never liked it. One of the worst beers MBC makes.

Aslin is horrible garbage.

Don't listen to me. I'm just an old hater.

 

Haha - I also thought the title was overly ambitious - who can list their top 5 letdowns, let alone 250 of them?? Edit: in fact, that huh? moment is why I clicked the link in the first place

Has anyone mentioned the Beers of Fame list yet? I skimmed the responses only, and it has to be mentioned at some point. Because that's how these threads work.

 

Can't argue with you too much except for newness or inaccessibility be disqualifiers of excellence

 

I like this thread idea. I've had 48 on the list, probably more but I've limited/stopped rating on BA when I use untappd so much. I think the biggest issue, that some have stated is that batches can vary so much. The first time I had Julius maybe 4 years ago, it blew me away with mango and papaya. I had it again a month or so ago and it was nothing like it was. Good, but not worthy of the 13 spot its at.

With that said, here are beers I think should be lower / not on list:

13 Julius
12 CBS - Again, most recent batch is a big drop off from how amazing the first time I tried it 7 years ago was
26 Parabola - again 2014 was unreal, 2016 / 2017 - mehh
32 KBS - same story but I feel the quality was gone down little by little the last 5 years I've tried it.
50 Swish - this was so unimpressive. Weak aroma, watered down taste. I'd replace it with nothing gold personally, which was amazing.
136 Crusher - tasted way too bitter for me and seemed unbalanced. I can see those who would love it though, but I gravitate toward heady which is perfectly balanced IMO
227 Dialed In w/ Savignon Blanc Juice - I'd just replace this with the variant with guertzminer juice but that's being picky.

As to some beers I think deserve to be on the list, one recent beer that comes to mind was
TH - Catharsis. One of the best porter I've ever had. No coffee or chocolate or anything added, just a damn good porter I'd put next to anything I've had (Haven't tried Everett) It is interested to see how few beers that are non adjunct that are on the list.