Overrated Beers?

Ann

I’ll see myself out

I actually agree with Pliny.

 

Yesterday's classic is tomorrow's underappreciated.
Yesterday's underappreciated is tomorrow's classic.

 

Bell's Oberon.
Heady Topper (and Hill Farmstead generally).
Maine Lunch.

All three 3 above are good beers and I'll drink every last drop of them if available but IMO each doesn't live up to the hype they get in the beer community.

 

I think a lot of this is relative. Pliny the Eldar (probably true of Younger, as well) was groundbreaking when it was released. There was nothing else (or minimal) like it. Times have changed. Hop-saturated (arguably, literally) beers are commonplace now.

The scarcity / uniqueness at the time fuels the hype. Eventually the market catches up.

 

Pretty much everything I’ve had from Toppling Goliath. Took a while for my state to get distribution, and it’d been talked up quite a bit over the years before I finally got a chance to try it. And… meh. Not bad at all, by any means, just meh.

 

It's tough to measure hype for a beer until you have the beer in question. Pliny the Younger is a great beer but I think I expected too much. I enjoy Pliny the Elder much more.

Sweet Baby Jesus had heavy hype not long ago, and I recently had it. Not even close to the perceived hype!

I recently had Maine Lunch on tap (unknown age) and didn't think much of it.

Wake n Bake is a very good beer, but it didn't live up to expectations.

 

I've had plenty. Hundreds even. Thing is, it comes down to personal preference. Pretty sure there are thousands of people who would try my favorite beers and wonder what the hell I'm thinking.

 

What brewery? Would love to patronize his establishment. To answer your question; I feel this is a very relative topic. My favorite beers have reviews with negative comments. On the flip side, I’ve left poor ratings for otherwise highly rated beers. So I guess it’s hard for me personally to nail down a universally “overrated” beer. Cheers.

 

Nice catch. I mixed up Heady/Hill Farmstead and Alchemist. Apologies.

I'd say that I found both Heady (brewed by Alchemist) and Hill Farmstead to each be generally a bit overrated. All good stuff that I've enjoyed, but maybe I read too much hype before trying them and usually end up a tad underwhelmed.

 

That is a classic response!

 

That's why I always double check the calendar before I go out beer shopping.
(What makes it doubly difficult, though, is it's always "Today". What's up with that?)

Still so much of what I buy is "OK", and that's alright by me. Sure, I'm older than some folks around here but I can still get undressed solo without problems so I don't need a beer that "knocks my socks off".

 

I am exactly the same way. The Younger is on the hairy edge of being cloying sweet for my palate.

We get Pliny the Elder on draft here in the Philly area and when I see it on tap I order a pint (or two). I recently homebrewed a clone of Pliny the Elder and those beers bring a to my face.

Cheers to Pliny the Elder!

 

And don't forget:

 

At a beer festival in Madrid sponsored by Founders I got to try 3 Floyds Dark Lord. While it was really cool to drink such a sought-after beer, I have to say I was a little led down. It was really sweet, and if I'm being honest, I'd take a KBS over it any day.

 

I never had Heady Topper. Ive seen it around but never picked it up but I know what style it is so I have a good idea on what its gonna taste like and I just know if I taste it I will think its overrated just based on how I feel about the style.

 

thats a polarizing beer and probably the most famous polarizing one.

i couldn't handle it at all and the 4 people i shared it with didn't like it either because of the overwhelming sweetness.

 

Interesting pick because if youre used to traditional Euro wheat beers, the "spicy hops" in this one throws you off and youre like "this isnt what a wheat beer is supposed to taste like." I dont hate it but overrated I agree.