How do really sought after beers compare?

My $0.02 = With the exception of Heady Topper, there is no "rare" or "hyped" beer worth seeking out a second time.

 

If you had to pick, which of those would you pick as closest to the top of their styles for you? For me, it's honestly Heady. For me, and my own personal tastes, it's the perfect DIPA.

 

As far as highly sought after beers go, even the ones that truly taste incredible, to me at least, suffer from the law of diminishing returns

 

I think it's easy to make a claim for any of them to be near the top of the style. But IMO you could also easily make the case for dozens of others in each of their respective styles. As for which ones I feel genuinely stake a claim to being world-class and standing the test of time? Westy 12 definitely, and BCBS possibly. Heady I thought was remarkable for just how familiar, and easy to settle in with, it was.

 

I'd disagree. There are lots of beers that I'll gladly trade for every year. Black Tuesday being high up on that list. Also BCBS Coffee was pretty easy to get this year so if it was a beer that your market did not get, probably worth "seeking"

I guess it all really depends on personal preference I guess. I'm sure I'm not the only one on this forum who gets a kick out of having a beer that is outside my distribution, even if it is just Yuengling. Hell people used to make a killing running Coors to the East Coast.

 

Dozens of other BA-coffee stouts on par with BCBCS? Care to enlighten me which they are?

Obviously it's all subjective, and judging from many of your previous posts I know this style isn't high on your list to begin with. But from my end, BCBCS is my favorite beer of all time; and while I've had other great coffee stouts, this one stands in a league of its own. How rare it may be or where it ranks on an "internet list" has zero to do with it; if I could get this stuff on the regular and drink it every week, it would be my own personal version of beer heaven.

 

I don't consider BA-coffee stout a clearly separate style from BA stout.

 

As a fellow Illinois resident, I disagree with this comment. Was much easier to get the year before.

 

Fair enough. Which easily obtainable BA-stouts do you put in the same tier as the ones in the Top 25 that you've tried?

Not trying to be snarky; I'm generally interested in your opinion and potentially discovering a new beer that I may have overlooked. I ask because my experience has been different; contrary to what some people (and sub-par brewers) think, just throwing a beer in a barrel doesn't automatically make it good. IMO, the list of truly great barrel-aged stouts is a very short list, and most of the best tend to be of the limited-release variety that are hard to track down. Even a great, lesser-known one, like Williamsburg Aleworks Bourbon Barrel Porter for instance, without having the hype of the "big boys" is still not so readily available.

 

Well, I will admit that I don't seek them out necessarily. But a few of the local ones that I have gotten to try (from places like COAST, Westbrook, and Olde Hickory) have been, IMO, on a par with the one(s) in the top 25. As far as coffee ones go, I think that even something like Terrapin W n' B manages to hold its own with the top ones -- and that from a brewery that generally IMO is not all that highly skilled.

 

I'm with you on WnB - great beer.

I think it's important to factor in when you say, "I don't seek them out necessarily." I know BA-stouts aren't really your thing, and that's fine... at the same time it's not much of a leap to see why you may tend to lump many of them together and not see the differences as clearly as someone else who is a really big fan of the style.

It would be like me considering a run-of-the-mill Pilsner to be in the same boat as the very best that you've had across the pond; you'd have a heart attack if I made a claim like that. But with me not being a huge fan of the style, I wouldn't pick out all the little nuances between the two nearly as well as you would.

 

Fair enough. Although I'm not just basing this purely on my opinion, but on those who do purport to be connoisseurs of the style. Do you disagree that Westbrook's BA Mexican Cake(s) and/or OH Event Horizon or Olde Rabbit's Foot, for example, belong in the same league as top ones? I've also had my share of lesser BA stouts (New Holland Dragon's Milk, e.g.), so I do know a bit of the differences, but I readily admit not being extremely well-versed in that style.

 

Yea locally it was tough, but in lots of markets people were buying cases with ease. I figured trading for some is pretty easy.

 

Haven't had the chance to try Mexican Cake or EH. They may not be listed in the Top 25, but I was always under the impression that they were also highly regarded and of the more limited variety. I've had Dragon's Milk once before and while I've been meaning to revisit it at some point since I had it before I really enjoyed the style, I remember thinking it was pretty bad in comparison. There's some other BA-stouts from local breweries who couldn't hold a candle to the top ones.

Good discussion though. Cheers!

 

They are just small batch brews that is all, Is heady Topper the best IPA in the world, I am not going to make that call but it is pretty damn good and I will drive 4 hours just to crack one open once in a while. They almost are better just because it is not an everyday occurrence. All I can say is Dirt Wolf, Sculpin, and Heady are all great but I would rather drink Heady. Now I want one. Cheers

 

I don't know about this...those IPA's that are listed are examples that are hard to match up to regularly available brews of like style. And it is not like Heady and Sunshine are to expensive for what they are either. Same with Fou Foune, unless you were in on the SP Fuzzy release, I have not had a beer to match that

 

I think the Apple Brandy BA Mexican Cake is the best beer I've ever had. Just a divine experience trying that beer. I really want to try Event Horizon, Olde Rabbit's Foot, and Lindley Park from Olde Hickory, they sound quite tasty.

 

Disagree on the (D)IPAs. I've had even more of that style than I have of BA stouts that can easily hold their own. As to the Cantillon, I've had many, many readily available lambics in Belgium that were certainly as good as it. But, again, this is not a competition.

The point I was/am making is that it is the rare beer indeed at the top of this ever-changing Top Beers list that truly, single-handedly defines and/or exemplifies the style -- and will stand the test of time as that type of exemplar. In other words: excellent beers: yes; world-class beers for the ages: no.

 

The Beers of Fame list is definitely a better way to see what highly rated beers will stand the test of time. I use that for reference of new beers to try more often than the Regular Top 250 because I can actually buy beers from the Beers of Fame list in stores.

 

I agree it's the lesser of the two evils (but both lists still comprise too much of a sense of competition for my liking). I still use Michael Jackson's scale in my thinking/rating of beers:

*typical of its country/area and style
**above average
***worth seeking out
****world class

Maybe some of what I've been saying above will make more sense in this context.

EDIT: also, what it took to "seek out" a beer for Jackson was *nothing* like what it takes to seek out the Top Beers now.