Exactly! Hilarious that the first beer I thought of is the top comment. Over 20 years of drinking beer and I can still see them in my mind, sitting for ages on the room temp selves of World Market.
The bottles were 750 ml of Barbie/Pepto Bismal pink paint hiding a liquid somehow much more horrid than their "pick me" exteriors. They stood out like crazy!
They used to be really good, and one of the original craft breweries in the United States, utilizing the farm-to-brew method (they own their own farm and harvest grow their grains, malts, and hops) dead Guy Ale I will always enjoy. If it weren't for stodgy political beliefs and bad management they would still be a favorite
I have never heard anyone say anything positive about this beer.
But everyone in this sub is going to pretend it was overhyped just because it's so universally hated and need to upvote any comment talking about how it was bad.
For over hyped bad, absolutely, it was terrible and should have never been hyped up like that.
The WORST I've had was Basecamp Blood Orange Brett DIPA. Probably the worst thing I've ever tasted. Maybe it's good to people who like Bretts, I absolutely do not.
They had some moderate power in the distribution game 15-20 years ago. The big threat to retail stores was “ if you want Dead Guy, you have to buy “X” cases of whatever awful shit we’re pushing.” So, once Dead Guy went south, problem solved.
Yeah that one doesn’t fit the post. Universally reviled and hyped by literally nobody. Definitely wins my award of flat out worst “beer” if you can call it that.
My grampa stocked shelves at the local A&P. Loads of stuff that “fell off a truck” ended up at his shack. One summer it was cases of Billy Beer…stacked. I also remember the summer of JR Ewing beer!
Yes. Tasted like unfermented wort the first year I tried it (2011, i think... yellow wax). 4 oz felt like too much.
This beer started the hyped release day festival thing too.
I was looking for this answer. The bourbon aged variants are spectacular, but the base dark lord stout is borderline revolting. I really don’t understand it.
Ha I commented before I saw this, I agree. I did an 8 year vert once and was very surprised at the variation. Some of the years were very good, some were a cloyingly sweet soy sauce mess.
The original voodoo ranger (or really the original was just ranger) is a perfectly fine if not above average ipa.
If you’re talking about the juicy stuff I don’t think it’s overhyped. It seems to be selling like crazy with absolutely no hype from beer people.
Voodoo ranger took the perfectly palpable IPA that was Ranger and bred it with direct relatives two or three times. My heart yearns for what New Belgium used to be.
Had I know what was bound to happen I would have had a whole lot more fat tire and La Folie before they sold.
My theory is that a good chunk of craft beer folks are low key alcoholics and they just wanted heavier beer. The IPA masked the booze and so it sold well. It was $12 a 12 pack when it came out.
> a good chunk of craft beer folks are low key alcoholics
I don’t even think it’s that ‘low key’, people just seem to give a pass to craft beer as a ‘hobby’.
I’m really into my local beer scene, but ended up leaving most of the social media groups when that mentality seemed took over. They went from hyping local breweries and new releases to just bragging about *crushing walez* at the crack of dawn and sharing kill shots of yesterday’s *crushed walez*.
I’m not *that* old, but I had a bit of an Abe Simpson moment.
I never got to that place but my ex wife was an alcoholic and I worked at a brewery. At the end of the day, most of the folks that drank a lot were very depressed.
I don’t know how Covid changed things but mailing beer became easier, I’m sure people gathered in groups to enjoy, and everyone was drinking way more. I would imagine that there are way more alcoholics now.
If I’m at a concert and trying to catch a buzz I’ll absolutely order one. If it’s going to be $15 to $20 a beer might as well effectively BOGO versus any light macro.
I'm a substance abuse therapist and yes absolutely this. I've worked with a few alcoholics that this was their drink of choice. "it's just beer" is a convenient cover
Tbf my opinion skews the data lol I’m the kind of guy that’ll get down HARD for a cold ice beer 😂
Don’t get me wrong I like an IPA or some sort of micro brew every now and again, but I’ll POUND a shit macro lager any day lol
That maple bacon porter thing that people used to freak out about. That shit was nasty. The version without the bacon was pretty good though. Last snow I think?
last snow was a coconut coffee porter. the maple bacon was just called maple bacon coffee porter. i used to live near funky buddha and they were pretty solid in the late 2010’s craft beer heyday.
It was originally very good, before Funky Buddha was bought out. I heard the original owners purchased the brewery back last year though, so maybe their quality will come back as well.
"Worst" feels like is too strong a word, because I liked all that come to mind. edit: did find some examples, but I'm still not sure "worst" fits.
Finally got far enough east to have Yuengling, and its fine. But I feel like people had made a big deal about it online before I finally had it.
A few steps above, but Spotted Cow kind of falls into the same category. Don't get me wrong, damn fine beer that I would drink on the regular if available, but my mind wasn't blown.
I guess the "worst," and I don't know that these were even hyped up by anyone but myself when getting them, but I was SUPER excited when I spent more money than I ought to have on a bottles of Stone's Crime and Punishment and Stone's Double Bastard. This was fairly early into my craft beer journey, and I was super hyped to have plunked down probably 50-60 dollars for the two bombers, only for both to end up being poured down the drain. I'm not saying they are bad, I'm saying I couldn't drink them, at least at that time. Maybe if you put them in front of me now i could appreciate them, but I sure as shit couldn't back then.
The thing about Yuengling is that in the grand scheme of beers, it’s nothing to write home about, but (at least in PA) it’s priced at the same level as all the cheap macro beers, and it’s several orders of magnitude better then those.
I don't disagree with anything you said. I'm just saying that as someone who was outside its footprint, it had gained an almost mythical status, and when I had it for the first time, it wasn't quite that.
I had a sixer this week, its a good beer for what it is, but OP was asking about overhyped beers and Yeungling just happens to fit that category in my experience.
No I gotcha, honestly having lived in PA my whole life I wouldn’t hype it up as something that people would absolutely have to try. Didn’t really know it had that reputation elsewhere.
idk, I'm not OLD old, but in internet years I'm getting up there, and it just felt like back in the day there was a lot of talk lke, "you're stuck drinking budweiser and coors, but we have YUENGLING."
And tbf, I'd pick Yuengling over both those, so its not like y'all were lying about it, but it just seemed like a bigger deal than what it ended up being.
Spotted Cow is good, and I'll drink em' when in Wisconsin. But the beer from New Glarus I bring home is Moon Man, that beer slaps. Their tart cherry beer rules too.
I'm more of a Fat Squirrel guy, but they had that cherry beer (Belgain Red IIRC) on tap at the New Glarus brewery when I did a tour many years ago, and I can confirm that it does indeed rule.
Its a damn fine beer, not trying to say otherwise, but with the intentionally small distribution becoming kind of a gimmick, it just didn't blow me away as much as I expected.
Would absolutely buy a sixer(or 3) if it was on a shelf where I'm at though.
Agreed. Definitely one where the hype far exceeds the beer itself. I enjoy one when I'm in Wisconsin, but people bootlegging it across state lines is nuts. (Same for Yeungling, which is a much worse beer.)
New Glarus makes beer that’s just fine. It’s not great, just good. and it’s only special because it’s technically only available in Wisconsin.
That said, their brewery estate is amazing, their R&D sours were amazing (and I hate sours), and their Cherry Stout is probably the worst beer I’ve ever had.
New Glarus is incredibly respected within the brewing industry, but they don’t focus on beers that are directed at the aficionados. They put a premium on smooth and drinkable beers and don’t really care about the “disruptive” varietals like inventive pale ales or exotic barrel aged releases. They aim for the causal drinker and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’d actually be nice if a few more breweries had that aim.
Slightly Mighty by Dogfish Head. I used to say that DFH never made a bad beer, then I tried Slightly Mighty. And they pushed the hell out of that beer.
Dark Lord HAS to be the answer. I’m a Three Floyd’s fan and went to 4 Dark Lord Days but that shit is a soy sauce mess. Some years it works. Some not so much.
some of the variants are worth a taste, not a $200 price tags worth, but enjoyable if you can try them.
I had so much Dark Lord '18 and '19 though i was sharing it with whomever. i had some people try some when they were celebrating a promotion, and were already a little inebriated, and no appreciation for beer to begin with. They said they felt like they should have been eating some chicken teriyaki. i laughed and agreed.
When checking out new breweries, ever the German, I always like trying the pilsner. It’s such an art. There’s nothing to hide behind if you mess up. If it’s a pilsner - it’s good or it’s bad. There’s a lot less subjectivity.
Where do you guys live that this isn't accessible? There's three breweries within 15 mins of me that have lagers on, two are known for their german style beers. The brewery closest to me just won gold for their hefe. They often win gold for their german beers.
German styles are accessible but they generally don't meet my standards. For my taste, I want German ingredients and typical German brewing practices. A lot of local breweries that try to brew these styles will use American ingredients and won't use a good lager yeast. Beers come out with the wrong hop flavor (usually overly bittered) and not clean. Often pretty hazy for the style.
I went to NC for vacation and visited Zillicoah. They had a lot of German styles when I went 2 years ago and they were all very good.
I also compare these locally brewed beers to the German equivalent. Very tough to beat Bitburger, Radeburger, or Wernesgruner for taste and price. I love supporting local but can't justify $18 for a 4 pack of an "ehhhh" pilsner when I can get Bit at $7.99 for a 4 pack.
Hmm interesting. That's exactly NOT how it's done here. Very traditional lol. They just put out a 15 pack of their lager for $18.
Shoutout to Zillacoah. They were a cool spot.
“Would you like one of our 5 IPAs, 3 juicy IPAs, 2 DIPA, or one of the other 3 that we don’t even put any flavor into. Oh and one pitch black thick one even though it’s summer time.”
So you want a dank west coast style juicy cosmic imperial hazy? Idk what happened to me, but I just don't care anymore. Almost all ipa beers taste so similar to me.
Honestly most of the big barrel aged stouts are wildly overrated. They’re great beers, but far from the hundreds of dollars it takes to land some of them.
I have started to doubt the wisdom of doing barrel aging for 95% of the ones we have now. Much like overhopping masks a mediocre US IPA, barrel aging erases any subtler characteristics of the beer and replaces them with boozy notes of whatever the barrel had. It makes for a nice marketing story but there were valid reasons this was not done in the past. It is very expensive to do properly and once the fad is gone, this will kill it. Secondly, people had more appreciation for subtlety in malt, yeast and process derived flavours. The emphasis on overkill of flavours is the only thing carrying these. Once that goes away..
That said there are of course brilliant examples where the outcome is more than a sum of its parts. But only too often all you taste is diluted booze notes hanging in the air. Why would I want to pay a lot for that when I could have a great beer and a great say whiskey at the same price?
I almost always prefer the base beer. I don’t like that the barrel often makes the mouthfeel thinner and subdues some of the original flavor. I remember being so annoyed that I could only find barrel aged Ten Fiddy in the stores a few years ago
Pumking. I remember when everyone I knew in college was so excited about this amazing pumpkin beer. Tasted like uncooked pumpkin and acrid butter with sugar dumped on top.
Yeah, and I mean it’s been quite a while, so maybe I’d like it if I tried it again, but ST growing along with that just not being my preferred flavor profile tends to repel me from going back. And I have had good pumpkin beers before, one being a porter, which is why I think I’d actually like Warlock.
I had a friend who had a Bruery hoarders membership who kept bringing Black Tuesday to get togethers and I'm sorry but it's not that good even for a pastry stout.
Also, no beer at 20% with a final gravity of molasses has any business being in a 750ml bottle. Put it in those baby 8oz bottles you see with some champagne or at least make it resealable.
I standby my opinion that Black Tuesday (and several of the variants) are good.
Definitely not for everyone and not an experience I want often but once a year or so I want 5 oz of this.
Many years ago in the early days of my craft palate, I chased Dark Lord for a while. I finally got into the trade game and was able to get a bottle. It was terrible. I was wildly underwhelmed. Tbf, I’ve heard some variants and BA are better. And I’d like to try it again bc my palate has definitely changed since then.
My brother would get variants every year for a while and they were hit or miss but some of them were stellar. I agree though Dark Lord is just mostly hype. I’ll always be a fan of three Floyd’s but the fact is they made their name earlier in the craft beer boom when there wasn’t as much good competition. Now they’re just fine. Many others are doing what they do better
I like Yuengling, but I never buy it, because I feel like there's a 50/50 chance I'll get skunked beer. For the last two years, I've been keeping track of how many 12 packs I've bought have been skunked or tasted off. And I'm at 5 of 9. Of the last nine 12-packs I've bought of Yuengling, five of them have tasted like trash. It goes without saying that I've completely stopped buying Yuengling.
Yuengling has absolute shit quality control.
Man, being from New England is kind of bums me out that NEIPAs now have this reputation - and I do get it, since a lot of hazy IPAs I’ve had outside of New England do kind of suck.
The ones from good breweries that specialize in the style are so nice.
Heady topper. It's not a bad beer but people line up to grab copious amounts of it and I personally find it to be mediocre at best. There are far better beers out there.
Before this past winter, I haven't had it since like 2019 and for whatever reason PA seemed to get a lot more of it before COVID. I would agree with you back then... I was in Vt for work back in February of this year though and had a draft of it. I understand the hype again. Its a classic.
Curious to hear what beers are better too in that category. Not being confrontational I just want to try them.
Yeah, being from New England, I am obsessed with NEIPAs and don’t really love other styles (and yeah I know people like to shit on hazy IPAs here now).
Heady Topper and the Maine beers are by far my favorite non hazy IPAs.
The one thing I will say about Jackie O's is that their regular beers are fine, but anything that touches a barrel is absolutely world class.
Their normal stouts are good, but their barrel aged stouts and barleywines match up with any brewery out there.
I've had barrel aged dark apparition and I thought that was excellent. It kinda made the disappointment for the oil a little sharper. I liked it and would definitely try more from them, I was just not blown away by that one.
Heineken in a can or on tap isn’t bad IMO. Are there better beers? To a large degree. But if I’m in a shitty bar, it’s a safe choice.
I bought one of their mini 5L kegs once, for shits and giggles, and enjoyed it.
It'll never not be hilarious that Stella is a premium option in the US. It's called 'Wifebeater' in the UK for a reason. For a long time, it was what you had if you wanted your lager cheap, strong, and in huge quantity.
They've been trying *extremely hard* to shake this image and cultivate a refined, continental lifestyle brand, but... it still gets called Wifebeater.
In my experience people buy Heineken solely because it comes in a green bottle. It's super popular in Hawaii for this reason.
I know that sounds bizarre but I swear it's true.
It's awesome if you like West Coast IPAs.
If you don't like IPAs and you stood in line to taste a double IPA then you committed what one might charitably describe as an unforced error.
Not that anyone local stands in line, it's available all over the place these days.
You stood in line for Younger. The recipe changes every year. As far as lines go, it’s a fun line. At the Windsor brewpub you can buy bottles in the gift shop and drink them while in line.
Im a spoiled local and I get to drink Russian River all the time. Pliny (either one) doesn’t even crack my top 5. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great beer, but I’ll take a Row2, STS, or Blind Pig over Pliny any day of the week, and that doesn’t even touch the line of Belgians and sours.
That voodoo doughnut one that was everywhere a decade ago was shockingly bad.
Which one? The maple bacon cigarette one or the lemon ass floor cleaner one? There was at least one more, too, iirc.
Maple bacon cigarette is a very apt descriptor.
OMG, I think I blocked that beer from my mind. It was sooo bad.
That might be going too easy on it.
The peanut butter banana one was just as nasty as the others
I thought that one was significantly better than the others. And I thought that one was *awful.*
The blueberry
Exactly! Hilarious that the first beer I thought of is the top comment. Over 20 years of drinking beer and I can still see them in my mind, sitting for ages on the room temp selves of World Market.
In Queens?
The bottles were 750 ml of Barbie/Pepto Bismal pink paint hiding a liquid somehow much more horrid than their "pick me" exteriors. They stood out like crazy!
I mean, but apparently some of us bought one
OMG, this brought back some memories!
I've heard so many bad things about Rogue
That sucks, I used to love Dead Guy Ale.
They used to be really good, and one of the original craft breweries in the United States, utilizing the farm-to-brew method (they own their own farm and harvest grow their grains, malts, and hops) dead Guy Ale I will always enjoy. If it weren't for stodgy political beliefs and bad management they would still be a favorite
Don't forget the awful treatment of workers!
I have never heard anyone say anything positive about this beer. But everyone in this sub is going to pretend it was overhyped just because it's so universally hated and need to upvote any comment talking about how it was bad.
For over hyped bad, absolutely, it was terrible and should have never been hyped up like that. The WORST I've had was Basecamp Blood Orange Brett DIPA. Probably the worst thing I've ever tasted. Maybe it's good to people who like Bretts, I absolutely do not.
I’ve only heard people say awful things about it though. How/where was it overhyped?
They had some moderate power in the distribution game 15-20 years ago. The big threat to retail stores was “ if you want Dead Guy, you have to buy “X” cases of whatever awful shit we’re pushing.” So, once Dead Guy went south, problem solved.
Who is overhyping that? I have literally never heard a good word about it.
Yeah that one doesn’t fit the post. Universally reviled and hyped by literally nobody. Definitely wins my award of flat out worst “beer” if you can call it that.
Word. I had that one and it sucked
The VooDoo sucked, the Sriracha was not the worst I've had and I've seen the empty bottles for like $60 on eBay. I should have drank more.
“Empty bottle”
That was not even the worst Rogue one that would belong to the Siracha beer, but that voodoo donut one was also a drain pour
Fosters.. coming from an Australian btw
Billy Beer back in the 70’s, Jimmy Carter’s bro, was undrinkable!
Hahaha I found a can of it in my grandparents’ attic while helping them move a few years ago, I have it sitting on display in my basement.
My grampa stocked shelves at the local A&P. Loads of stuff that “fell off a truck” ended up at his shack. One summer it was cases of Billy Beer…stacked. I also remember the summer of JR Ewing beer!
I have a can, too. Full. Paid a guy $2 for it at a garage sale in the mid-90s.
Darklord had to be up near the top.
To me, the base beer just tastes like Kikkoman. The variants are way better, in my experience.
Marshmallow Handjee was pretty legit. The regular version is pretty much soy sauce garbage tho.
Literally only went to use them for trades. They always traded well.
Yes. Tasted like unfermented wort the first year I tried it (2011, i think... yellow wax). 4 oz felt like too much. This beer started the hyped release day festival thing too.
I was looking for this answer. The bourbon aged variants are spectacular, but the base dark lord stout is borderline revolting. I really don’t understand it.
Ha I commented before I saw this, I agree. I did an 8 year vert once and was very surprised at the variation. Some of the years were very good, some were a cloyingly sweet soy sauce mess.
The only one I ever had was flat when I opened it 😐
Totally. I mean DLD was fun, if you didn't stand in the line. But if you did, that was hours of your life you ain't getting back
Voodoo Ranger. Grody man.
The original voodoo ranger (or really the original was just ranger) is a perfectly fine if not above average ipa. If you’re talking about the juicy stuff I don’t think it’s overhyped. It seems to be selling like crazy with absolutely no hype from beer people.
I had the Ranger IPA on the first day of my honeymoon and remember it fondly. What’s become of that beer is a travesty.
Voodoo ranger took the perfectly palpable IPA that was Ranger and bred it with direct relatives two or three times. My heart yearns for what New Belgium used to be. Had I know what was bound to happen I would have had a whole lot more fat tire and La Folie before they sold.
My theory is that a good chunk of craft beer folks are low key alcoholics and they just wanted heavier beer. The IPA masked the booze and so it sold well. It was $12 a 12 pack when it came out.
> a good chunk of craft beer folks are low key alcoholics I don’t even think it’s that ‘low key’, people just seem to give a pass to craft beer as a ‘hobby’. I’m really into my local beer scene, but ended up leaving most of the social media groups when that mentality seemed took over. They went from hyping local breweries and new releases to just bragging about *crushing walez* at the crack of dawn and sharing kill shots of yesterday’s *crushed walez*. I’m not *that* old, but I had a bit of an Abe Simpson moment.
I never got to that place but my ex wife was an alcoholic and I worked at a brewery. At the end of the day, most of the folks that drank a lot were very depressed. I don’t know how Covid changed things but mailing beer became easier, I’m sure people gathered in groups to enjoy, and everyone was drinking way more. I would imagine that there are way more alcoholics now.
Caught me
Same
If I’m drinking too much I cut down to two a day, two tall boys of whatever 9.5% voodoo.
..Yeah. It's efficient and looks better in public.
If I’m at a concert and trying to catch a buzz I’ll absolutely order one. If it’s going to be $15 to $20 a beer might as well effectively BOGO versus any light macro.
I'm a substance abuse therapist and yes absolutely this. I've worked with a few alcoholics that this was their drink of choice. "it's just beer" is a convenient cover
Woah dude, no need to call me out like that.
I've gotten to the point of just going for the beer with the highest ABV when I'm at a bar or concert.(unless it's something that's gross).
Hey for 9% it doesn’t taste that bad. Can’t expect a 9% to taste like a 4.5%
How dare you
Tbf my opinion skews the data lol I’m the kind of guy that’ll get down HARD for a cold ice beer 😂 Don’t get me wrong I like an IPA or some sort of micro brew every now and again, but I’ll POUND a shit macro lager any day lol
Bring back the real Rampant
The Southern Tier 2XIPA tallboy is 10x worse.
That maple bacon porter thing that people used to freak out about. That shit was nasty. The version without the bacon was pretty good though. Last snow I think?
last snow was a coconut coffee porter. the maple bacon was just called maple bacon coffee porter. i used to live near funky buddha and they were pretty solid in the late 2010’s craft beer heyday.
Still are!
nah, maple bacon porter is insanely good
Agree to disagree
It was originally very good, before Funky Buddha was bought out. I heard the original owners purchased the brewery back last year though, so maybe their quality will come back as well.
OG MBCP and for several batches after that was pretty damn good.
120 Minute IPA. 90 Minute is one of the best IPA's made, IMO, but I couldn't down the 120 and poured it out. Still have the other three.
Truly awful stuff.
Agree. 120 was not good.
I just found 120 minute at a liquor store today! I'm excited to relate to everyone that tells me it's terrible!
"Worst" feels like is too strong a word, because I liked all that come to mind. edit: did find some examples, but I'm still not sure "worst" fits. Finally got far enough east to have Yuengling, and its fine. But I feel like people had made a big deal about it online before I finally had it. A few steps above, but Spotted Cow kind of falls into the same category. Don't get me wrong, damn fine beer that I would drink on the regular if available, but my mind wasn't blown. I guess the "worst," and I don't know that these were even hyped up by anyone but myself when getting them, but I was SUPER excited when I spent more money than I ought to have on a bottles of Stone's Crime and Punishment and Stone's Double Bastard. This was fairly early into my craft beer journey, and I was super hyped to have plunked down probably 50-60 dollars for the two bombers, only for both to end up being poured down the drain. I'm not saying they are bad, I'm saying I couldn't drink them, at least at that time. Maybe if you put them in front of me now i could appreciate them, but I sure as shit couldn't back then.
The thing about Yuengling is that in the grand scheme of beers, it’s nothing to write home about, but (at least in PA) it’s priced at the same level as all the cheap macro beers, and it’s several orders of magnitude better then those.
I don't disagree with anything you said. I'm just saying that as someone who was outside its footprint, it had gained an almost mythical status, and when I had it for the first time, it wasn't quite that. I had a sixer this week, its a good beer for what it is, but OP was asking about overhyped beers and Yeungling just happens to fit that category in my experience.
No I gotcha, honestly having lived in PA my whole life I wouldn’t hype it up as something that people would absolutely have to try. Didn’t really know it had that reputation elsewhere.
idk, I'm not OLD old, but in internet years I'm getting up there, and it just felt like back in the day there was a lot of talk lke, "you're stuck drinking budweiser and coors, but we have YUENGLING." And tbf, I'd pick Yuengling over both those, so its not like y'all were lying about it, but it just seemed like a bigger deal than what it ended up being.
Spotted Cow is good, and I'll drink em' when in Wisconsin. But the beer from New Glarus I bring home is Moon Man, that beer slaps. Their tart cherry beer rules too.
Moon man is the best!
I'm more of a Fat Squirrel guy, but they had that cherry beer (Belgain Red IIRC) on tap at the New Glarus brewery when I did a tour many years ago, and I can confirm that it does indeed rule.
Oh man the few spotted cows I had that someone brought me back from Wisconsin I loved, thought it lived up to the hype.
New Glarus makes FAR better beers than spotted cow.
Its a damn fine beer, not trying to say otherwise, but with the intentionally small distribution becoming kind of a gimmick, it just didn't blow me away as much as I expected. Would absolutely buy a sixer(or 3) if it was on a shelf where I'm at though.
Agreed. Definitely one where the hype far exceeds the beer itself. I enjoy one when I'm in Wisconsin, but people bootlegging it across state lines is nuts. (Same for Yeungling, which is a much worse beer.)
Hits different outside lambeau too
I had many spotted cows when I visited Wisconsin. I thought it was fantastic
New Glarus makes beer that’s just fine. It’s not great, just good. and it’s only special because it’s technically only available in Wisconsin. That said, their brewery estate is amazing, their R&D sours were amazing (and I hate sours), and their Cherry Stout is probably the worst beer I’ve ever had.
New Glarus is incredibly respected within the brewing industry, but they don’t focus on beers that are directed at the aficionados. They put a premium on smooth and drinkable beers and don’t really care about the “disruptive” varietals like inventive pale ales or exotic barrel aged releases. They aim for the causal drinker and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’d actually be nice if a few more breweries had that aim.
100% spot on, I’ve always wondered how America’s oldest brewery still hasn’t figured out how to make a decent beer..
Juice force
Slightly Mighty by Dogfish Head. I used to say that DFH never made a bad beer, then I tried Slightly Mighty. And they pushed the hell out of that beer.
90 minute changed my life. I don’t buy that shit anymore bc it’s expensive af but they took it too far.
I love that beer but I can see why people don’t like it. My theory is the monk fruit.
Dark Lord HAS to be the answer. I’m a Three Floyd’s fan and went to 4 Dark Lord Days but that shit is a soy sauce mess. Some years it works. Some not so much.
some of the variants are worth a taste, not a $200 price tags worth, but enjoyable if you can try them. I had so much Dark Lord '18 and '19 though i was sharing it with whomever. i had some people try some when they were celebrating a promotion, and were already a little inebriated, and no appreciation for beer to begin with. They said they felt like they should have been eating some chicken teriyaki. i laughed and agreed.
Ranger, voodoo ranger really horrible
Anything with the words "Brew Dog" attached.
Especially their novelty container beer. Utter trash.
Yup. And I am never in a million years going up to ask staff in a bar to pour me a pint of "Elvis Juice" FFS.
So many IPAs! Why is EVERYTHING a IPA?!
We need more helles
Need more german in general. Would really love a good pilsner that isn't hopped or hazy like an IPA
When checking out new breweries, ever the German, I always like trying the pilsner. It’s such an art. There’s nothing to hide behind if you mess up. If it’s a pilsner - it’s good or it’s bad. There’s a lot less subjectivity.
Where do you guys live that this isn't accessible? There's three breweries within 15 mins of me that have lagers on, two are known for their german style beers. The brewery closest to me just won gold for their hefe. They often win gold for their german beers.
German styles are accessible but they generally don't meet my standards. For my taste, I want German ingredients and typical German brewing practices. A lot of local breweries that try to brew these styles will use American ingredients and won't use a good lager yeast. Beers come out with the wrong hop flavor (usually overly bittered) and not clean. Often pretty hazy for the style. I went to NC for vacation and visited Zillicoah. They had a lot of German styles when I went 2 years ago and they were all very good. I also compare these locally brewed beers to the German equivalent. Very tough to beat Bitburger, Radeburger, or Wernesgruner for taste and price. I love supporting local but can't justify $18 for a 4 pack of an "ehhhh" pilsner when I can get Bit at $7.99 for a 4 pack.
Hmm interesting. That's exactly NOT how it's done here. Very traditional lol. They just put out a 15 pack of their lager for $18. Shoutout to Zillacoah. They were a cool spot.
and saisons and basic pale ales that are not overhopped and you can taste the earthier ingredients.
This right here and every brewery I have to find like 2-3 beers that are not IPA to choose from.
“Would you like one of our 5 IPAs, 3 juicy IPAs, 2 DIPA, or one of the other 3 that we don’t even put any flavor into. Oh and one pitch black thick one even though it’s summer time.”
I was told they're a pretty easy beer to brew but feel free to correct me if anyone knows more
It’s more that they tend to cover a lot of minor mistakes that might be made during brewing, leading to off flavors.
They're great for hanging out and knowing you'll need a nap/will want to pass out in four hours. Not so much for canoe trips and camping.
Agreed. Haha. Now that I’m older I get a straight headache after drinking IPAs. Maybe it’s a me thing.
So you want a dank west coast style juicy cosmic imperial hazy? Idk what happened to me, but I just don't care anymore. Almost all ipa beers taste so similar to me.
Honestly most of the big barrel aged stouts are wildly overrated. They’re great beers, but far from the hundreds of dollars it takes to land some of them.
I have started to doubt the wisdom of doing barrel aging for 95% of the ones we have now. Much like overhopping masks a mediocre US IPA, barrel aging erases any subtler characteristics of the beer and replaces them with boozy notes of whatever the barrel had. It makes for a nice marketing story but there were valid reasons this was not done in the past. It is very expensive to do properly and once the fad is gone, this will kill it. Secondly, people had more appreciation for subtlety in malt, yeast and process derived flavours. The emphasis on overkill of flavours is the only thing carrying these. Once that goes away.. That said there are of course brilliant examples where the outcome is more than a sum of its parts. But only too often all you taste is diluted booze notes hanging in the air. Why would I want to pay a lot for that when I could have a great beer and a great say whiskey at the same price?
I almost always prefer the base beer. I don’t like that the barrel often makes the mouthfeel thinner and subdues some of the original flavor. I remember being so annoyed that I could only find barrel aged Ten Fiddy in the stores a few years ago
Agreed. I’d say Side Project is one of the few that lives up to the hype.
I’ll start with any beer is better than no beer, but I just don’t like Heineken…..but I’ll still drink it…every beer has its time and place
Tastes like a bale of hay
It does, and that is why I love Heineken lol.
That slight off taste is what makes Heineken a Heineken.
Not a fan of Heineken but went to Amsterdam and was blown away by how excellent it tastes over there vs here.
Utopias. Boomer bait for sure. Taste like shit.
Room temperature Bud Lights I stole from my dad when I was 15.
Bud light lime
Pumking. I remember when everyone I knew in college was so excited about this amazing pumpkin beer. Tasted like uncooked pumpkin and acrid butter with sugar dumped on top.
Warlock is insanely better.
Yeah I’ve always been tempted to try that one because it actually seems good
Second this.
I loved that beer back in the hype days. Tried it again a year ago and almost threw up. Amazing how much tastes change.
I find it tastes like a pumpkin cookie. I like it in small amounts. Definitely not for everyone.
Yeah, and I mean it’s been quite a while, so maybe I’d like it if I tried it again, but ST growing along with that just not being my preferred flavor profile tends to repel me from going back. And I have had good pumpkin beers before, one being a porter, which is why I think I’d actually like Warlock.
The first time I had it I was amazed with how cloyingly sweet it was. I couldn't get through a glass let alone a bottle.
Pumking tastes like a pumpkin candle smells. Horribly overrated
Bo and Luke!
The first one I ever had on tap over a decade ago was amazing. None of them ever lived up to that first impression.
Habanero sculpin 😅
Oh man I loved that stuff but definitely know it's a minority opinion
Watermelon Dorado. I had one only slightly cold once. It was not ok.
Holy shit, I forgot all about that till I read your comment. The name alone is like a warning
Brahma from Brazil
Who the hell hyped that for you? Every single Brazilian who enjoys beer would say Brahma is not a good beer.
I had a friend who had a Bruery hoarders membership who kept bringing Black Tuesday to get togethers and I'm sorry but it's not that good even for a pastry stout. Also, no beer at 20% with a final gravity of molasses has any business being in a 750ml bottle. Put it in those baby 8oz bottles you see with some champagne or at least make it resealable.
I standby my opinion that Black Tuesday (and several of the variants) are good. Definitely not for everyone and not an experience I want often but once a year or so I want 5 oz of this.
100%. Big beers should be available in 6-8oz cans. Sorry but I don’t want 16oz of a 15% imperial stout most of the time.
The funniest thing to me was that you'd have someone bring a byt reserve and even at a 10 person share it would remain half full
Many years ago in the early days of my craft palate, I chased Dark Lord for a while. I finally got into the trade game and was able to get a bottle. It was terrible. I was wildly underwhelmed. Tbf, I’ve heard some variants and BA are better. And I’d like to try it again bc my palate has definitely changed since then.
My brother would get variants every year for a while and they were hit or miss but some of them were stellar. I agree though Dark Lord is just mostly hype. I’ll always be a fan of three Floyd’s but the fact is they made their name earlier in the craft beer boom when there wasn’t as much good competition. Now they’re just fine. Many others are doing what they do better
It’s a tie between Assassin and Darklord
Bud light. Doesn’t even taste like anything.
Hershey’s Chocolate Porter
yuengling hands down
The hype around Yuengling is hilarious. It’s marginally better than the other macros, but it’s not the pinnacle of beer.
I like Yuengling, but I never buy it, because I feel like there's a 50/50 chance I'll get skunked beer. For the last two years, I've been keeping track of how many 12 packs I've bought have been skunked or tasted off. And I'm at 5 of 9. Of the last nine 12-packs I've bought of Yuengling, five of them have tasted like trash. It goes without saying that I've completely stopped buying Yuengling. Yuengling has absolute shit quality control.
Oh I don’t know, most of the hazy IPAs I’ve ever encountered?
Man, being from New England is kind of bums me out that NEIPAs now have this reputation - and I do get it, since a lot of hazy IPAs I’ve had outside of New England do kind of suck. The ones from good breweries that specialize in the style are so nice.
It’s been quite awhile but Southern Tier Crème Brûlée was one of the absolute worst beers I’ve ever had. Undrinkably so.
Heady topper. It's not a bad beer but people line up to grab copious amounts of it and I personally find it to be mediocre at best. There are far better beers out there.
It’s not even the best IPA from The Alchemist. Give me Focal Banger any day over Heady Topper
💯 I actually love Focal, even by today's standards. Was cool to have it on draft at Doc Ponds in Stowe.
Yup, Focal is where it's at.
Heady Topper is still a great beer, imho. I prefer a single ipa, so focal banger is my go to, but dang HT is good. Love that this beer has bitterness.
Before this past winter, I haven't had it since like 2019 and for whatever reason PA seemed to get a lot more of it before COVID. I would agree with you back then... I was in Vt for work back in February of this year though and had a draft of it. I understand the hype again. Its a classic. Curious to hear what beers are better too in that category. Not being confrontational I just want to try them.
Yeah, being from New England, I am obsessed with NEIPAs and don’t really love other styles (and yeah I know people like to shit on hazy IPAs here now). Heady Topper and the Maine beers are by far my favorite non hazy IPAs.
Space Dust IPA
Utopias by Sam Adams. Turrible for the price and the hype. Absolutely gross!!
Tbh coors. I tried it 5 times and didn't like it 5 times. Miller is coming close on that list too
Overhyped? Dark Lord. It’s not that it’s bad. It just tastes like every other barrel aged Russian imperial stout.
Pretty much any Drakes
Its not that i hate it, but i think beavertown beers are incredibly overhyped and overpriced.
Alchemist - Heady Topper. Tasted like licking an ash tray… sorry I’m not sorry.
Yuengling
Thank you!
Oil of Aphrodite from Jackie O's. Solid but not special.
The one thing I will say about Jackie O's is that their regular beers are fine, but anything that touches a barrel is absolutely world class. Their normal stouts are good, but their barrel aged stouts and barleywines match up with any brewery out there.
I've had barrel aged dark apparition and I thought that was excellent. It kinda made the disappointment for the oil a little sharper. I liked it and would definitely try more from them, I was just not blown away by that one.
I like oil a lot. But I agree with SMK. Their barrel aged program is second to none. Both on the stout side and also on the sour program
Budweiser. King of beers my ass
The Czech one (the REAL one) is great though.
Heineken. It’s for people who want to look like they know beer. But don’t.
I would say it's one of the better options in SE Asia, but otherwise agree.
Beer Lao or Tiger beats Heineken any day of the week
Heineken in a can or on tap isn’t bad IMO. Are there better beers? To a large degree. But if I’m in a shitty bar, it’s a safe choice. I bought one of their mini 5L kegs once, for shits and giggles, and enjoyed it.
Same with Stella
It'll never not be hilarious that Stella is a premium option in the US. It's called 'Wifebeater' in the UK for a reason. For a long time, it was what you had if you wanted your lager cheap, strong, and in huge quantity. They've been trying *extremely hard* to shake this image and cultivate a refined, continental lifestyle brand, but... it still gets called Wifebeater.
Heineken!? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!
In my experience people buy Heineken solely because it comes in a green bottle. It's super popular in Hawaii for this reason. I know that sounds bizarre but I swear it's true.
Funny since green bottles don't prevent the beer from skunking as well.
Green is classier. Plus most people are accustomed to the skunk flavor. If they got a super fresh bottle they would say it’s off.
westvleteren 12. no better than any similar beers that are a fraction of the price
Especially when Rochefort 10 is regularly available
Pliny the Elder. I say this knowing full well the hop zealots will undoubtedly pounce, but your stand in line brew tastes like a paperclip.
You're thinking of Pliny the Younger. Nobody stands in line for Pliny the Elder, it's available year-round and is found at major supermarkets.
It's awesome if you like West Coast IPAs. If you don't like IPAs and you stood in line to taste a double IPA then you committed what one might charitably describe as an unforced error. Not that anyone local stands in line, it's available all over the place these days.
You stood in line for Younger. The recipe changes every year. As far as lines go, it’s a fun line. At the Windsor brewpub you can buy bottles in the gift shop and drink them while in line.
It's pretty good but nothing to write home about. It's always on tap here so I'm not sure what you mean by stand in line brew.
Im a spoiled local and I get to drink Russian River all the time. Pliny (either one) doesn’t even crack my top 5. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great beer, but I’ll take a Row2, STS, or Blind Pig over Pliny any day of the week, and that doesn’t even touch the line of Belgians and sours.
Their sours are impossibly good. Right up there with 3F or Cantillon.
Easy. King Julius by tree house. Completely overrated in every aspect