Your Top 250 Letdowns

December 2016 is when I logged having it. Thats surprising that a Florida brewed can would be sent to Iowa for retail.

 

And here I go clicking on the thread link expecting to see people listing the 250 beers they've tried that most let them down. Now that would be a freaking list!

 

Not yet, but all of the easily obtainable ones have.

 

CBS - thin, boozy mess. Added bonus: expensive!

Green: A friend bought me back a fresh can. Literally could not finish it. Every worst quality
of NEIPAs: sludgy, flavorless, flat.

The Abyss - just hanging on to past glories. Decidedly ordinary.

Maple Bacon Coffee Porter - One of the beers that constantly reminds me to ask, "Just because they could, does that mean they should?"

Uncle Jacobs - all heat. Very little depth.

 

Bomb! just doesn't do anything different than any other pepper stout imo. I thought it also had a metallic finish. I still liked it, just don't think it's a top 250 beer.

 

When are we going to make a 'Top 250 Taste is Subjective' list?

 

Bourbon Paradise was one of my favorite stouts I've had actually, think it's pretty fairly rated. I enjoyed CBS tremendously too, but I'm a sucker for beers with maple in them. Black note was also really good but maybe rated a little too high.

MBCP is one of my all times, again I love big sweet maple breakfast beers. I liked it better than both wide awake and morning wood


My personal letdowns were Julius (#13), Morning Wood (#24), KBS (#31) and BCBS (#32). BCBS was too boozy for me so I'm letting the remaining bottles age a bit. Breakfast stout is really good but I wouldn't throw it in the top 100.

As far as ones I think are properly rated, I really think that the Trillium beers should be bumped up a bit, they're some of my favorites. Bomb! is one of my favorite stouts. Pliny the Elder is the quintessential west coast IPA and deserves to be that high. Focal Banger should actually be much higher, it's amazing.

 

Treehouse. Good, but meh. Don’t see the hype.
Sip of Sunshine- post Vermont brewed.

 

Green and Haze, they were solid beers, but I guess I am just not a NEIPA guy. Triple Shot didn't do it for me either. Hurricane on the other hand was a great beer

 

DBHb2 was a huge let down. Total green pepper bomb.

 

I've only had 9 on the list and I'm honestly surprised it's that many. The two that jump out at me as being a let down are CBS and Abyss.
CBS just seemed like a lot of nostalgia/hype. I would be alright with it being somewhere from like 100 on but 12 is crazy. I honestly like KBS better.
I just had Abyss about a month ago and my bottle was about 18 months old and it was still kind of a hot mess. Abrasive on the back of the throat and still a good bit of alcohol heat. Wish I would have waited another 6-12 months to open it.

 

Basically all of the big stouts and IPA's...oh wait...

 

...People.
Fixed it for you.

But seriously, there have always been issues with the top beer lists getting biased as trends change. There are many beer styles that have NEVER been represented on the top beer list at all because of people's biases and not rating or not knowing how to rate beers to style. It is what it is though. There are benefits to aggregate popular ratings and there are benefits to rating to style.

Generally though, I think people focus too much on the aggregate numerical ratings. The aggregate numbers are just a popularity contest and say nothing specific about taste and flavor, which can be different for different people, as proven by this very discussion. It's the information in quality written reviews and the forums that set this website apart.

yup.

 

I've had just 10 of the top 250 (and likely going to drop to 9 in the very near future). I had 6 rated above to well above the average score and 4 below. All of those scored at least 4.25 from me, so it's not that they were bad (I mean KBS, Westy12, Enjoy By and softly Spoken Magic Spells are all excellent), it's just that I didn't like them quite as much as the average BA.

Giving a precise rating on these is certainly an inexact science. I would probably only feel let down if I ended up rating it at least half a point below the average (i.e. Rating a beer a 4 and the average is 4.5 or more). I think a similar topic with the beers of fame could be a great topic due to the longer standing nature of many of those brews as well as somewhat increased distribution across the world.

 

Couldn't agree more with your comment about the Beers of Fame.

I've had 31 beers on the Beers of Fame list. I have been satisfied with most of them. Two that I did not particularly enjoy were Dortmunder Gold and Dragon's Milk. I would say that most would be less likely to be 'let down' by that list.

 

Biggest Letdowns in no particular order:
Citra Showers
Dinner
Alter Ego-Least favorite of all the treehouse IPAs
Hopslam/Sip/Zombie-Still good to varying degrees but just shouldn't be where they are ranked
Todd The Axeman


Underrated:
Bourbon Paradise-One of the best beers I have ever tried IMO
M43
Tweak
Fort Point Pale
AB Noir

 

Letdowns....

Heady Topper: How this good but insanely overrated beer is #2 is beyond me.
CBS: Easily the most overhyped and overrated beer of all-time. Easily. Not even joking.
KBS: Still riding the wave of its past glory days. No longer a whale. So many better options.
Sip of Sunshine: Eh. Nothing special.
Dark Horse BBA Pt5: One of the weaker BBA stouts on the list.
The Abyss: Shouldn't even be in the top 250.
Hopslam: Ditto.

Beers that delivered....

BCBCS: The 2013 release was an absolute masterpiece.
PtE: First time I had it on draft was a transcendant beer moment. Out of the bottle is just OK.
Bourbon County BW: The epitome of a great BW. How this is only #97 is mind boggling.
BBA IBB: A rare and delicious treat that I would love to find again.

Beers that should be on the list but aren't....

WeldWerks Coconut Medianoche
Terrapin Wake N Bake
Bull and Bush Legend of the Liquid Brain
Dry Dock Bligh's Barleywine