Beers that exceed, met, and failed their hype

Exceed the level of hype it has, all the way back to around 1980:

 

Go get some Heady Topper & Parabola. You will taste perfection.

 

Sounds like Samichlaus to me. only malty soy sauce instead.

Having heard that, I still want to try Dark Lord for myself if I'm ever lucky enough to get my hands on some.

 

Ruination 2.0 exceeded the hype for sure.
Victory at sea met the hype for me. So good.
Pliny was good don't get me wrong but I think it's kind of outdated as far as perfection. Enjoy by is better, imo

 

Exceeded: Julius, Good Morning, Trillium Fort Point Pale Ale
Met: Heady Topper, Double Sunshine
Failed: Zombie Dust (I think I gave this a 4.75, but it still falls short of the best APAs that I've had)

 

Exceeded: PseudoSue - Tried this last year around the time that people said the quality had fallen off. I had high expectations for this one based on what I've heard. Turned out to be the best APA I've ever had along with the Fort Point variants.

Met: Julius, King Julius & Juice Machine - Had high expectations for these beers and wasn't sure they'd stack up against some of the other great IPA's I've had. Each one lived up to the expectations and are some of the best hoppy beers I've ever had.

Failed: Dark Lord - Was pumped when I finally got to try this legendary brew a few years back. It turned out to be a huge disappointment. A soy sauce mess and not worthy of the trade value, hype or rating. Same goes with the BA variants, nowhere near as good as the ratings or value commands.

 

Exceeded: Julius, Alter Ego, Zombie Dust
Met: KBS, Hunahpu
Failed: Heady Topper, Supplication - they were just so overwhelmingly disappointing to me. Oh well.

 

Exceeded: Morning Wood - holy amazeballs, this was breakfast perfection in a glass.
Met: Chocolate Rain - was basically a booze and chocolate bomb, in that order.
Failed: Le Roar Grrrz Berry - tasted like a bandage and adhesive.

 

Its funny to see how different peoples' tastebuds and perceptions can be. I am a PhD student in Massachusetts and Julius gets hyped very very hard up here, so its surprising to me that people say it exceeded expectations when it doesn't come close to meeting the amount of hype up here; Especially now that tree house gets really packed.

Exceeded: Fort Point variants (DDH, galaxy), Sip of Sunshine
Met: Focal Banger, Congress Street. Heady Topper
Failed: julius, it's good, but i will never understand the amount of hype surrounding this beer or what the people who said it exceeded their expectations were expecting. I know a lot of people who say it is their favorite hoppy beer of all time.

 

Exceeded: Russian River - Pliny the Younger

Met: Russian River - Beatification

Failed: Ballast point - Indra-Kunindra

 

Bell's Two Hearted Ale-Exceeded its hype
Flower Power- Ithaca - Exceeded its hype
Mad Elf-and Nugget Nectar- Troegs- Met their Hype
Breakfast Ale- Founders- Exceeded
Old Rasputin- North Coast- Exceeded
I would say that pretty much everything I have had by Sierra Nevada and Lagunitas met or exceeded the hype.

 

Again my memory sucks so these are more recent:

Exceeded: societe the coachman; Black Tuesday reserve
Met: SoS; Alpine Nelson
Fell short: Abraxas - this shocked me. Maybe the lines were compromised?

 

Big Bad Baptist and Saison Brett .... Exceeded

Jai Alai... Met (good stuff, not mind blowing, but very solid as expected)

Prairie Bomb! ..... Fell below expectations (an off, slightly metallic or oxidized flavor; others mentioned this also)
Surly Furious ..... Fell below expectations (maybe I had too high of hopes, but just a bit too much interestingly flavored malt)

 

Exceeded:Tesseract,SoS,Parabola,FW 17,Todd the Axe Man,BA Speedway,Dark Apparition w/Coffee & Vanilla,BA Wood Burner,Perennial Mint

Met: Pliny,Abrasive,Old Guardian Extra Hoppy,Enjoy By,Zombie Dust,Smore Money Smore Problems,Last Snow,
Green Diamonds,Marshal Zhukov,
Ozark BADC,White Rajah,Uncle Jacobs,
Reforged,Bells 30 Anniv,Victory Harvest,
Dark Apparition reg & BA,BA Velvet Merkin,Helldorado,Sucaba,

Fell Way Short: Dark Lord,Heady,BCBS,
Event Horizon,WootStout 3.0,Silva Stout,
Yum Yum,

 

Exceed: Heady, Cascade Apricot, Drie Fonteinen OG, Backwoods Bastard
Met: BCBS, Xocoveza, Second Fiddle, Eclipse
Fell Short: Snow & Tell, Jammer, Paradox Skully 31

 

Ruination 2.0 is a stellar beer, I think they did a great job with it.

 

My all-time favorite beer...still have 4 bottles cellaring