Are New England IPAs overrated?

The "sunk cost" fallacy could also apply.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost

 

Up at Treehouse they'll sell 2,000 allotments between 12-3PM on a wednesday virtually every wednesday. If you go on a saturday many times their are no cans available, so you have to get there midweeek to get any. I always wonder if these people have jobs or what. I'm not sure someone could understand the hype without being witness.

You are right though, we have a nice selection of off the shelf available.

 

Racer 5 is one of the best and I like Sculpin a lot too. Not enough to pay $15 a six pack, but I like it. The IPAs I find most "heavy" tend to be double IPAs from the midwest. The most astringent seem to come from the Pacific Northwest but sometimes CA too (GF for sure). Those are broad generalizations of course. It is all relative and I have tried everything I could get my hands on for the last five years, so I go by what I've tried and liked.

 

Also anchoring:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring

If you start from an anchor (expectation) of "excellent," your rating will be closer to "excellent" than if you start off with an anchor of "average."

 

Yeah it could, but it's most common usage is in economics, and more along the lines of the post you linked to where the meaning is basically similar to "throwing good money after bad" rather than after the fact justification/rationalization of having spent all that money at all when the project is finished.

These things are like beer style categories, they have fuzzy areas and some potential overlap.

 

I think it's pretty tough to call an entire (unofficial) style "overrated," since it's hard to back up blanket statements like that with solid reasoning. Do I think NE stuff is a little overhyped currently? Sure; it's new to most of the country, so everyone is clamoring to try it. The stuff in Chicago sells out almost instantly, even from unproven/unknown breweries (even when the beers aren't amazing).

Now, to answer OP's question, do I think they're better than everything else? Nah. I'm not a fan of overly bitter beer (even IPAs), but I do like a little bitterness to balance the beer out. Some of the "truer-to-style" NE IPAs I've had in the city (going by the "looks like orange juice a la Treehouse or Trillium" definition) were bordering on cloying thanks to the lack of bitterness. I love me some Focal Banger, but that's the type of beer that embodies what I'm personally looking for--Good malt presence, lots of hops, a little bitterness to bring it all together. I get why the NE stuff appeals to people, though; they're attracting drinkers who wouldn't necessarily like typical IPAs with a new take on the style. That and they look awesome.

I think that as the rest of the country tries/brews the style more and more, we'll reach the peak of the hype, and then it will die down as we all realize that like every other style, it's not inherently the style that makes the beers good, it's the beers themselves (and the brewers). The best of the bunch will stay hyped forever (like your Heady, Zombie Dust, etc.), and the rest will become just another IPA you may or may not grab at your local beer shop.

 

Some are overrated for sure.

 

Yeah that could defintely come into play in ratings as well, but it wouldn't fit well with people creating threads like this one when their expectations are disappointed.

 

Sure. I am talking about what could contribute to "overrated" beers.

Cognitive dissonance could also be applied in both directions. You can see that "everyone" likes something, but you don't like it, so you (a) decide you actually do like it (your perception is wrong), or "overrate," or (b) decide the beer is "overrated" (other people's perceptions are wrong).

 

Ratings are overrated and overhyped

 

Yeah, but that's where things like statistics and big numbers can be our friend. Those effects are much more likely to be a problem for the beers on the top 250 list that only require relatively few ratings than they are for the beers on the Beers of Fame list. E.g., given the widespread easy availability of Russian River beers within their relatively large distribution footprint it's hard to support the idea that all those positive ratings and reviews for something such as PtE or Temptation are a result of bias.

:-)

Also if we turn the bias explanation around there's a pretty good argument that for those of us who think the ratings/reviews of something like the NE IPAs is something like a "sour grapes" effect since we can't get them, how good can they be? They have to have inflated scores and reviews.

 

I think you are extrapolating beyond my point.
Also, hooray for Bayesian statistics?

 

Yeah, I tend to do that--occupational hazard....

 

I hear ya.

 

From the ones I've had, tasty brews for sure.

 

I love the style and am lucky to live near Trillium, but this is true. Everyone's trying to clone these brews and the quality is scattered. Hill Farmstead was the first I tried that I would identify with NE IPA. What stood out, asides from it being unique to my tastebuds, was it's refinement. Truly well-crafted. Trillium, Treehouse, etc. celebrate this high standard.

Other brewers love the beer, see the success, and go to work. And homebrewers like me. Pretty sure my rendition won't put Trillium to shame!

 

It's so juicy. It's like, how much more juicy could this be? The answer is none. None more juicy.

 

I dont know, you only showed us a photo. "juicy" is a tasting note, and not a very descriptive one.

 

Well, it's one juicer, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your brew. Where can you go from there? Where?

 

And its a filtered/photoshopped one......