"whale" by definition

Excellent Question! I've been wondering this myself. I know what a "bomber" is - a 22oz (or thereabouts) bottle.
A little bit of googling produced the article below. Apparently it's a rare much sought after beer often with the intent to trade.

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/gray-marketwhite-whale/

 

it's the person you have a massive crush on but you'll never get.... in a bottle.

 

A Whale could be a beer that is Rare for you, and have always wanted to devour. Like Moby Dick. The Great White Whale. As far as I'm concern my Whales are not going to be trade bait. Unless I have an extra from a renown beer that is not to my liking/hype. It's a varied Definition.

 

To really break it down for you, "whale" from what I understand, is a reference to the white whale (Moby Dick) that Captain Ahab obsessed over obtaining his entire life to the point where it drove him mad and all waking moments were devoted to landing the whale. It's a pretty accurate analogy to any beer geek in search of "the beer" of a lifetime. At least that is how I've interpreted the phrase, someone can correct me if I'm way off base. As far as the exact definition goes, I think that is certainly up to interpretation of what an individual would consider rare.

 

It is a word used way too much on this site

 

I can say for sure what a whale isn't, and that's about EVERY SINGLE beer released in the last 2 years.

GCBrewery is absolutely correct about the maddening irrational search for the white whale. Must be something in the Connecticut water.

Whales are not "oh whatever you consider a whale" or "whatever you have been looking for." There is a very strict list of whales, and honestly 100 is too many, its more like the top 50~55 are whales.

Its in peoples nature to want, and here people want to say they have whales in their cellar, but they don't. Sorry if it makes you feel bad, no not really. It is what it is. Even Armand with his 500 Millennium Gueuze in his cellar doesn't have everything. No one has them all. But people need to stop diluting the concept of whale, just as beautiful and epic are too overused and diluted.

I thought this question had been answered repeatedly by now.

 

^^^ Me too. People need to get it straight. Just because you stumbled upon a couple four packs of Bourbon County Brand Stout at BevMo does NOT make you WHALE SLAYER EXTRAORDINAIRE, know what I'm sayin' sphyrn?

 

The thing is though dude, just because there is a pretty strict definition of "White whale" by the ultra cool beer kids club, doesn't mean you can't seek out elusive, rare, and yes even tasty beers. I know there are a lot of great beers I'll never be able to get, but I'm happy drinking regular Cantillon and any Bourbon County variants.

 

Alright now, what's this jargon of using different colors to describe so-called "wales"? Like tan, grey, dolphins, porpoises, etc.

 

White whale is the original Moby Dick. Everything else is just made-up and arbitrary

 

A whale is a beer that has very limited numbers and is normally very overrated but gets great reviews because people like to taste the "rare" rather than what's actually in the bottle.

 

hahahahaha

 

that have a reputation of being really tasty and highly sought after. if its not sought after, no one would really consider it a whale

 

That's the thing. Whale hunting is mostly for collectors and bragging rights. In this game nowadays, there are so many amazing beers that you can find so much easier, it's rarely worth it. A guy from our bottleshare brought in a BA Partridge and man, I felt so bad for him. I don't know what insane beers he probably traded for that, but there's no way it was worth it. Some WWs are amazing, BVDL is probably Top 5 best beers I've ever had, but on the whole, I haven't traded for or drank a White Whale that I felt was truly worth what it took to get.

 

every bottle that 's wax-topped is a whale.