Your Epic Whale Fail

Fat Tire
Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Victory Prima

 

I have never had a whale fail but I don't expect them to live up to the hype in the first place.

 

Dark Lord - below average
Darkness - just ok
Bourbonic Plague - couldn't even finish it
Hopslam - just ok
Every New Glarus Sour - tastes like welches fruit juice

 

I have recently, just this week really, to try to not buy the hype too much. Because after all it is just a beer. I thought Heady would be the tastiest thing I would ever have, and although it was good, it couldn't live up to what I built it up to be in my head. So I kind of disappointed myself by having such high expectations. From now on, I am going to try to not expect anything from a beer or have preconceived ideas about how tasty it will be. Just be objective, no matter how highly it is ranked.

 

Fair enough bud, I will say that the bourbon flavor was incredibly upfront and prominent this year. I think a year on it might be best for it and it could be incredible in a year or so. Sadly I've got but 2 bottles left.

 

Agree completely, it was aggressively spicy.

 

Why can't anybody spell Pliny right? It's not Pliney.

 

Not that rankings necessarily make a "whale", but of the 5 beers in the current BA top 10 I have had, I love one (ZD), really like one (KBS), like one (Double Sunshine), and don't particularly like 2 (HTand Pliny). I think the lesson is...you just never know what will suit your tastes (especially if you only have it once).

 

On a different but related topic, one confusing thing to me is different experience with smell. For example, people rave about the intensity of HT's smell. Not only did I not love the smell, I didn't think it was particularly intense (as opposed to Abner, Chillwave, etc.). I would think that the experience of smell intensity would at least be consistent across people. Does anyone have insight about this?

 

Good point, if you weren't impressed with HT or Pliny you may just not care for DIPA's they aren't a top style for me.

 

This is true and valid. Sometimes the nature of the beast makes this impossible. Your example of Westy 12 is on point. Unless I go to Belgium, I may never have Westy 12 (I'm surely not going to pay the kind of money it takes to get one through other channels). If I were fortunate enough to try it, I would rate it or review it on one bottle, because that's all I'm likely to get. Some of it is the luck of the draw.

I don't chase, but I will enter lotteries and wait in line at my local bottle shop for a scheduled release. So my whale exposure is limited, but under my definition, if you can't generally buy it on the shelf when it comes out, that qualifies. YMMV.

 

Free Willy

 

I have two and sadly they occurred the same week (back in May).

King Henry - Had really high hopes and didnt find it that much "better" than the regular barleywine that came out last year.
Mocha Wednesday - I am a HUGE fan of Black Tuesday, Grey Monday, and Chocolate Rain. I figured adding coffee would make this my favorite all time beer... and then I had it. Very good, not great. I would rank it behind the other three.

Honorable mention:
Dinner- Not sure if this qualifies as a white whale, but I thought it was a letdown.

 

Hopslam - just a bunch of malt to me, followed by a slight fruity aroma. Probably will pass up on it next time it comes out.

FBS - couldn't taste the chocolate at all and the coffee just tasted like a fake burnt mess. I don't understand the hype at all on this one.

Zombie dust - this was good but it left me wanting more. To me it sidn't really have much flavor at all.

 

I love many DIPA's (Chillwave, Abner, Dirt Wolf, Another One, to name a few). I apparently don't love them all though, including the most lovable.

 

Westy 12..... It was really good and I bet if I didn't do side by sides I would have been impressed more but Rochefort 10 was better and I can get that beer anywhere, meh

 

Definitely Pliny.

 

Lol more than I have but I have other bourbon barrel aged stouts to fill the void

 

I honestly have heard so many people say that before that each time it tastes different I was just like here we go again. Sorry if I came off on you. It wasn't at you at all. I have just heard that a lot, and I keep thinking. Why? This is the only beer I hear people saying this about.

Thanks.