Your Top 250 Letdowns

I’ve never really been let down by a beer in the top 250 cause I generally don’t build anything up to be godly. I have however been letdown my lots of middle of the road beers that I thought were poor.
If you were twisting my arm I would say KBS isn’t worth the money and is at least ten times worse than BCBS and that’s from a huge founders fan.

 

Agreed. Mexican Brunch, Morning Bell, Party Wave, Sneakbox. They're one of my favorite breweries.

 

I agree with ovaltine.
That said, the people have spoken.
I believe the hop-bomb IPAs (east and west coast) have swayed the market unfavorably.

Keep voting, let your voice be heard.

 

HopSlam - I’ll never understand this beer. It tastes more like strong, honey mead rather than an IPA to me.

Citra Showers - Loved this beer when it first came out in 2014. Tried a canned version a few weeks back (this is after Noble lost their head brewer, among others) and it was more like Syrup Showers (see what Raul did there?)

Kern Citra - Ah, Raul’s want for so long. Finally tried it after years of futility and it was just average to me.

 

OK, I looked at the list and my biggest Top 250 letdown is that it’s essentially all-American with a sprinkling of lambic, a couple of quads, and maybe one German beer.

 

So I dance around this issue a lot and find most of the top rated beers I have had are a little bit of a disappointment. No because they are bad beer, but ultimately all the extra work to find the beer was not really worth it.

I would put Sip of Sunshine and Swish in this category. I think the bar for readily available mid level beers has risen so high that I now often question my efforts to find these "superior" beers.

 

Also, no british beers

 

Ones I was simply letdown by:
PtE
Westvleteren 12
Coffee cinnamon b-bomb
Sucuba
Parabajava
Grey Monday
Wide awake it's morning
Crusher
Abyss
Consecration
Mocha Wednesday
Stickee monkey
Nelson
Uncle Jacobs
B-bomb

Ones I can't even wrap my head around being on the list at all:
Pseudo Sue
Abrasive ale
Bodhi (I'll never, ever understand this one)
Peche mortel
Yellow rose
Oro negro (blows my mind it's on there)

 

Even though I feel founders breakfast is overrated, I wouldn't include them on a list like this. It may not be an elite stout, but it's easy to get off the shelves and is still really good. It's no where near my favorites, but I still drink it every now and again.

 

Space trace for me, I traded a very nice bottle for it and was let down. It was good, but no where near my expectations from bottle logic. Ground state was incredible and I was stoked to try anything for them I could, but the coconut in space trace wasn't as pronounced as I would like and the beer wasn't really anything special. I've had better coconut BA stouts locally.

 

Hmm, a few of their IPAs are just good, not great. But I had Everett in bar in VT once and I would drink that all winter all the time if I could buy that in bottles

 

So has every beer on the list been mentioned yet ?

 

There are too many on the list that only a few hundred people have rated. It's hard to disappoint too much if it has only been released once or has only been at a brewery for a short time.

 

King Sue (my god how I hate Citra hops)
Parabola (Clown Shoes seems to release a better barrel-aged stout every other week)
CBS (I waited for this?!)

 

Was the pseudosue you had a contract brewed batch? The Florida sue wasn't great, but the decorah sue definitely belongs on the list.

 

I can't say for sure but my buddy sent it from Iowa so there's that...

 

Okay, for a while when TG was trying to expand they contracted out to brewpub in Florida. If you had it in cans longer than a month ago it was Florida sue.

 

34 Westy XII - By far my biggest letdown. I admit I drank it relatively fresh and would like to try some older vintages but, regardless, it didn't hold a candle to other world class quads like Rochefort 10 and La Trappe Quad
225 Framboise for a Cure - Just a sour bomb with very little complexity
240 Yellow Rose - Quite the head-scratcher since I could name literally hundreds of IPAs more deserving of being on the list
247 Mexican Cake - Although I'm admittedly a wuss when it comes to heat, this was a huge chore for me to finish.
79 Saint Lamvinus - Ok, ok, calm down. I've loved most Cantillon beers I've had. But I've tasted this one multiple times, and it just isn't outstanding to me. Definitely last on the list though because it's still a great beer.

Dishonorable Mention - Julius. It came as no surprise to me, when I wondered where the pDev break from positive to negative was as I scrolled down my top beers list, after Pliny the Elder (which I rated very highly so that was a surprise; man that beer has some everlasting street cred) it was Julius with a -1.6%. It's a great NEIPA but, again, I could list off dozens that I've had since then that are as good or better.

And, after looking at the Top 250 for the first time in a while, I must say it's absolutely criminal that Tilquin Gueuze and absolutely no beers from The Veil are on there. I guess, in the case of Veil, they do so many one-offs and don't repeat the exact same beers as often as Tree House and Trillium that there aren't enough ratings to get them on the list. Still kinda weird.

 

Of the 39 I've had:
#91 Founders Breakfast Stout, certainly not a "let down" but IMHO too high on the list.
#108 Surly Abrasive Ale.
#145 Deschutes The Abyss, would not be in my top 250.
#217 Stone Enjoy By

Two that I think belong higher on the list:
#150 Prairie Apple Brandy Noir
#97 Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Barleywine Ale