the drop off effect?

Not as often as you think. Inconsistencies on both sides.

 

Hopslam has lost its luster because so many better DIPA's have come down the pipes in the last three years. I don't think it's that great of a beer to begin with (the nose is the best aspect, IMO). The Oracle is Bell's premiere DIPA as far as I am concerned.

 

that's just crazy talk

I've gone YEARS in between Pliny the Elders and it's the same magical brew it's always been to these tastebuds. I could replace my blood with it and be perfectly happy

 

I get that. Every time I see Mount Rainier, its size shocks me. And I'm expecting it to be huge.

 

Hopslam seems different every year to me.

the ones from 2-3 years ago were much better, IMO. However it seems to be better on draft than bottles almost every year, to my palate at least.

 

This is how I thought about Sucks this year. I was overjoyed the first release, and now I think it's just another really good IPA, among many, many...

 

I agree with you on this. The first time I had Sucks, I was saying it was better than Hopslam and cheaper to boot. Now, it's just another above-average awesome smelling DIPA. When I did a blind tasting between Sucks and NG IIPA, the Sucks smelled better but after drinking some IIPA, the Sucks basically tasted like water. That speaks more to the palate changing over time when consuming all kinds of different beers- there's just no way to truly replicate the first time you had a particular beer.

 

that's called chasing the purple dragon.....

 

this is me every two weeks ... hell, i'm starting to like stouts and porters. THAT is new.

but in two weeks? who knows? i can't even imagine what I'll like/expect in a year ...

 

I dunno man, this year's Hopslam definitely tasted different and not as good. I had a pretty vivid memory of last year's 'Slam being very "planty" and full bodied. This year's tasted lighter and more catpissy.

I'd concede that a lot of that is probably in my head/due to palate change, but there was at least some variation between those batches.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this year's Hopslam as much as I did last year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯