It seems to me that certain breweries get pumped up in the trading forums for their beers, while other breweries fall to the wayside and slip by unnoticed. Both can produce amazing beers, but only a select few repeat over and over on the forums. What causes this?
Generally (in some order): 1. Small but elite brewery 2. Low total bottle count 3. Low bottle limit per person 4. Exclusivity of getting the beer, either geographically (Hill Farmstead, Toppling Goliath) or some society membership involved 5. Barrel aging, especially in hard to obtain barrels 6. Taste of the beer There are lots of things that, in my opinion, totally warrant the hype (i.e., some of the stuff Sante Adairius is putting out right now is stupidly good) and some doesn't (most of the old bottles on the white whale list, with the exception of some of the lambics). You can easily get by and drink great beer while avoiding hype almost entirely. ...but what's the fun in that
What was said above, and the lists here. It seems the "Top New Beers" list drives some hype in the trading forums. Starts small and then snowballs as people want the newest and greatest beers.
good beers, a proven track record (consistent hits), fanboy-ism, limited releases, seasonal affective disorder, tidal gravity cycles, FCOJ futures, the weight of a pound of sand, and http://adam-jackson.net/beer/
I am glad you recognized that the taste of the beer is lower than those other factors. As for avoiding hype... I generally drink whatever is available off the shelf locally on whatever day I decide to go to the beer store. I don't really make much effort to get even the limited shelf releases anymore. People hoarding beer they don't plan to drink, people hyping what they have, people shitting on what they don't have, people needing to "win" every trade. I traded actively for like 2 or 3 years completing over 100 trades between both sites. One day I decided I had enough. I haven't done a trade in about a year, and have only exchanged boxes with 2 people since then because they are good dudes. The hoarding of every limited bottle combined with the growing douchebaggery in the trading forum pushed me to just stick with shelf beer. I don't go out of my way to get out of work or spoil other plans just to be at a store when a limited beer drops. If it is there when I happen to be at the store, great I'll grab some, otherwise I will grab whatever interests me. Funny thing is... I enjoy beer more now that I don't care about limited releases. For example, Surly Wet is one of my favorite IPAs, and I may post an ISO for it even though I can only offer locals. It wouldn't surprise me if I got 0 bites.
It's unfortunate that taste sometimes (often) rates that low. I wish my list didn't look like that...
