Let's talk good beer

[over the mountain]

Originally Posted by BDBohnzie

I love a good Guinness...some of these stouts and porters craft breweries are putting out are neither sometimes...still good, but not what they are labeled to be...

Yeah, there is a different between ultra hoppy balanced and ultra hoppy INYOURFACETOBEBITTER!!! Some folks take the real bitter stuff and drink it and like it because BA has it rated as a 98 so it must be good. The beers I got into that really showed me that you don't have to be in your face bitter but can be super hoppy is Laguintas. They figured out how to hop the hell out of a beer but not taste like it.

But in all honestly, I think sheeple tend to go with the popular notion of a beer instead of really trying and determining whether they like it or not. Between BeerAdvocate and Untappd, you'll see a trend among the top beers, that their ratings don't fluctuate too much. Whereas lesser known beers will have a lot of leeway in ratings. Don't hate on a sub 85 beer just because a bunch of hipsters on BA didn't care for it because it wasn't "hoppy" enough.

It's funny you said "Taste this! DELICIOUS." because the small group of guys i drink with...that's what we do. We don't try to sell anyone on ABVs or hoppiness or whatever. We say, you have to drink this because it's good. And then we talk about it from there. And if we're trying something new, we'll compare notes. It helps that our palates are similar, and we'll disagree from time to time. But that whole selling it based on gimmick words bites.

I agree with much of what you said. Ive really started drinking craft beer and following closely the last 2 years and just now have a strong idea of what i like and look for in any style of beer.

I bolded the sheeple part bc when it comes to imperial stouts, I am a sheeple. I just dont have palate or experience to really judge an imperial stout. for goose island bourbon county stout, I really didnt like it but i still gave it a 4.75/5 on untappd bc it is a 100 rated beer. What I did like about Bourbon County was how smooth it was. for KBS i also rated it higher bc i was sheeple. I liked it, found it complex and the taste profile evolved 2-3 times from one sip. I go sheeple on highly rated imperial stouts bc I am in no position to rate them yet but untappd has a rating bar and thats what you do.

Im starting to better understand imperial stouts bc ive started to drink enough of them to compare and see what i like and dont likie. I like coffee, chocolate nib and a spice or some heat from cayenne peppers or something.

I love praire BOMB. I also loved the Dc brau/cigar city collab of "the wise and lovely". i did not like the barrel aged BOMB, reminded me a lot of bourbon county stout.

I think sours are the next unchartered beer territory for me. i dont know what a good sour or bad sour tastes like and will probably go sheeple for a while until i trust my own judgment. but that takes time and experience trying various offerings so that I can compare and then judge.
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Beer Camp variety 12 pack is soooo effing good. highly recommend.