Hype vs. Reality

Hype adds a lot to my overall experience – I am always very exited when I get the opportunity to try something highly sought after. It is a whole experience – the taste is whatever it is. Most of these beers have been good to great but very few have been all that & few have justified the time, effort and price etc. involved. I do quite enjoy the experience but not enough that I actually seek out them myself. Pretty much all of these beers I have obtained thanks to tastings.

Within the beer geek community, the quality speaks for itself, hyped beers are overall great for one reason or another hype gives that just that exta something. Some beers don’t deserve them at all.

 

The point is, most hyped beers arent much better than things I can find fairly easily. Some of the only exceptions I can think of off the top of my head are CBS, Parabola, and Russian River's sours. Those all really backed their reputations up. And the point was that most people go out of their way for Hopslam, which I think qualifies it as hyped. The same cant be said for hop wallop and sculpin.

 

There's plenty that I don't think is hype-worthy (most recently, TG Assassin, BCBVS, and CW Fifteen), but there's also plenty that's been hyped that I think totally lives up to it (Voodoo PVW Black Magick, Murda'd Out, BVDL). That's only BA stouts, but the same can be said about just about every category. I don't really think Pliny is anything to write home about, but I don't think it's "all hype" either.

I'd say in my acquiring of beers, hype/desirability definitely plays a role, but when it comes to actually consuming them, hype doesn't affect my rating that much; and when it does, it's usually in the "oh, this isn't as good as I thought it was going to be" direction.

 

Hype makes getting it, seeking it out, and trying "said beer" fun. But it all comes down to taste and product and each palate which can differ vastly.

For example, my first Pliny was out of a keg and not all that fresh. safe to say I was very disappointed. I then tried it out of the bottle right from the brewery (so just a week old) and it was one of the best beers I have ever had. This is a case of the hype working against the beer.

I also went to my first tasting of Younger many years ago and the bar had a super fresh keg and served it out of beautiful wine glasses. another one of my favorite beer tasting moments as Im sure the hype, buildup, and presentation all played in to my overall enjoyment.

ZOmbie Dust made it out to the west coast a month ago (3 Floyds does not distribute out here) and I can say that it tasted like a very basic Pale Ale. All the hype around it left me somewhat disappointed even though it was a very good beer

Once you have tried everything (or a LOT) and especially a lot of the "top 250" beers on here, you can really put aside the hype and let your palate dictate what you like the best. I can say that my favorite beers range from very hyped to very underrated, and thats cool with me.

 

Just my opinion here, but every FFF beer I've had has failed, to some degree, to live up to the hype surrounding it. ZD came closest to meeting expectations, but in the end even that one fell just a bit short of all the accolades. I'd definitely drink it regularly if I could buy it locally with no effort, but wouldn't go further than that. At this point I basically have zero interest in trying another FFF beer (although I suppose that could be exactly what all the diehard FFF fanboys want). Hype is definitely a double-edged sword.

 

You know what Capitalism is? Getting Fucked - Scarface

 

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I actually like this fifteen times. Well said. I have better things to do than chase down beer.

 

I just picked up Pliny the Elder, Sculpin IPA, Blind Pig, Fresh Squeezed IPA and Ruinten. All from a liquor store down the street on my way home from work. It's going to be a great night.

 

As Yogi Berra would say, "Its half hype, half label, and half taste".

 

http://stevereads.com/papers_to_read/brochet_wine_experiment.pdf

That article notwithstanding.... Ignorance is bliss. If it takes jumping through hoops to trade for that next wale, I want to enjoy the experience regardless of where/how it is derived.

 

Three Floyd's has been pretty much way overhyped in my opinion. They make good stuff but
Nothing to go crazy over like people do...