What beer/s exceeded your expectations 100%?

Strawberry Rhubarb Feyborn Berliner Weisse from Down the Road Beer Co.

At 1st I was not liking the color, then I tasted it. The balance of tangy sour and mild sweetness brought this beer up to the outstanding level. It reminded me of a strawberry-rhubarb pie that I also liked.

 

I can't say that I've ever bought a beer expecting it to be trash, but I am wary of some adjuncts including licorice, banana, and orange. Usually, for me, it's the other way around where I expected something great and it ended up being very mediocre or even garbage.

One beer that comes to mind where I wasn't expecting much based on the description (banana, cassia bark, and almonds) was Prop '17. I loved every sip of that beer and I wish I had a bottle of my own now. It's one of the best beers I've ever had. I also wasn't expecting much from Lagunitas Sucks and Waldos, but I thought they were both pretty good.

 

I've had a few highly flavored beers in the past year that I bought or were gifted by the owner who just wanted me to try it and tell him what I thought. Some of them tasted exactly as described on the label and I gave them a good review though I didn't buy a second time.

Honestly the beers that won me over in the past year were superbly crafted from just water, barley, hops and yeast.

 

I will say that I'm not much of a fruit ale fan. Last time I was in Wisconsin I picked up some New Glarus Serendipity for the wife. Holy crap, what a great beer. And bonus, it's only 4%.

 

@Squire beat me to it. My favorite beers are brewed without flavorings. I do not 'object' to brewers utilizing flavorings but for me a beer made from grains, hops, yeast and water hits my personal 'sweet spot'.

Cheers!

 

Ballantine XXX.

 

Plead the Fifth / Russian Imperial Stout / Dark Horse Brewing.
I thought it might suck thinking I’d gone too far to the dark side.
Would buy again in a heartbeat.

 

New Belgium Voodoo Black IPA or whatever they called it. Maybe it's that I've been starved of Cascadians, but it was just terrific. Then I went back to get more and they were all gone. But anyway, ya, so very much exceeded my expectations.

 

Two Evil....Geyser Gose

Bunch of odd ingredients. I was not expecting the beer to be great but it’s one of my favorite gose.

Enjoy

 

My first CBS sample during the first year that Founders released it just absolutely blew my mind as well as blew away my expectations, whatever they might have been for a revolutionary beer.

 

Bud light is exceptional... After trying coors and miller light I almost gave up on beer... The key was No corn syrup

 

OMGWTFBBQ was a "barbecue" beer that Short's brewed some years ago. It had a diverse grain bill and smoked hops and I expected them to try to make a beer that tasted like BBQ sauce. Instead I got a beer that was too this day the greatest compliment to BBQ meat I've ever found in a beer. Forever will wish that one was canned .

Shorts is the king of exceeding my expectations in general

 

I recently tried a commercially produced kvass at a brewery simply because it was low ABV and being sold for only $1 for a pint (because it was cheap to brew and selling slowly). I figured, what the heck? I truly thought I would hate it and was ready to chalk it up as a cheap learning experience. I had only tried homemade kvass previously, always terrible. But this commercial example, while a little strange at first, ended up being refreshing, strangely enjoyable, and good enough that I purchased a 750 ml bottle to go (for $2).

 

I picked up a can of Boxer Lager for 50 cents at the grocery store one day, just for the hell of it. It rates a whopping 2.26/5 on here, so I wasn't going in with any sort of high expectations. Well, surprise! I don't know if it's the Minhas house yeast blend or what, but this has an unmistakable hefeweizen thing going on that I found very pleasant and refreshing. I rated this 3.61/5, with an rDev of +59.7%.

Southern Tier Crème Brûlée and Wells Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale are also worthy of mention. I had much higher expectations for these, but they deliver in a big way - if you like that sort of thing. Which I do.

 

Yeah, as others have stated earlier, I don’t really buy anything I expect to suck.

But one of my local brewery’s house beer is a Lichtenhainer, which on paper can appear extremely off-putting to the vast majority of beer drinkers. My wife got it one time we went, I had a taste of it, and it just worked! I unhesitatingly ordered one for myself the next round. Never knew how well those flavors can meld.

 

Dammit, now I have to go find one of these.

 

Years ago, a friend of mine was going to Vermont and she told me she'd bring some beer back for me. When she returned, she gave me a few Von Trapp bottles. At the time, they weren't available in my state, and nobody on BeerAdvocate was talking about them (times have changed). The labels said, "By the family that inspired the Sound of Music." I dig Robert Wise, but marketing like that doesn't inspire any confidence. This was probably at the height of the pre-NEIPA Vermont mystique, and I was thinking to myself that she probably brought me some clunkers. On the first sip I thought, "Hey, this is actually great." Their status and distribution has grown since then, and I pretty much made all of their beers auto-purchases. But truthfully, my feelings for them have somewhat soured over time. I still buy their beers, but I no longer have them on a pedestal. Seems like their success has also led to them distancing themselves from that "Sound of Music" connection. Their "about us" on their website doesn't even mention it.

 

Not a huge fan of any bottled barrel aged stouts from Montana. BA Ivan leaves a lot to desire after having anything considered world class. But this one blew me away this week. It’s still about a quarter to half tier below the BCBS range but they are on the right track. Didn’t expect it at all.

 

Well, no way licorice would ever be considered an "adjunct" but it was once a common ingredient for flavoring and coloring US brewed porters.
Brewing Formulas Practically Considered, by A. L. Nugey. [1937]:

The pre-craft era Stegmaier Porter (from both Steg and The Lion) was noted for it's use of licorice, but The Lion eventually upgraded the recipe to a more "authentic" (unflavored) porter recipe and a few year later, I started missing the old licorice version...

IIFC, Bell's (?) has a porter or stout which uses licorice.

Wow. I take it you never had the original or even the Falstaff/Pabst variations that predate Miller's contract, circa 1998?

(Checked your "Profile" and..." I guess not?" ).

Every few years since then the topic comes up and I take another $6 chance (maybe cheaper if I check for a fresh 40?)- only to have to relive that greatest of all beer disappointments.

For all those years Pabst officials have discussed upgrading the Ballantine Ale recipe but never have yet. Quickly killing off the recent revivals of Ballantine India Pale Ale, Brewers Gold Ale and Burton Ale - as well as their Old Tankard Ale and Rainier Ale - made it seem even more unlikely...