Over-Hyped Craft Beers and the Limits of Experimental Innovation

The beer world is often driven by hype, by praise, by scarcity, by barrel-aged beers that benefit little from barrel-aging, by bottle prices, by Untappd, Ratebeer, and Beeradvocate reviews, by the quest for the next great unknown. To procure high praise, beers in demand are usually quite solid, aside from considerations of limited supply and rampant demand, such that geeks follow geeks (who, in turn, follow geeks) in rewarding the respective breweries with praise and ratings that drive up trade values, quests, and further reviews, while pushing people to broader distances, longer lines, and higher prices in their relentless pursuits.

Yes - as you may have noticed - I am partially claiming that ratings stem from previous ratings. Praise from praise, hype from hype, dollars from sheep. Crowd-sourcing is not without the perils of groupthink. As evidence of this, I have seen early reviews of newly released oddities assign merely moderate ratings on the first few days after release before someone dares proclaim the beer a marvel or a bust. Then, and only then, do most newly hyped beers (not brewed by Shaun Hill) soar to the heights of amplified trade demand and inspire must-have quests (or plummet from the charts).
I am not immune to the must-have quest, but I grow ever more skeptical as my familiarity with styles, breweries, tastes, and beers evolve.

The beers making the cut for my claim here are all solid beers, it should be noted. I would gladly drink any of them, but I find them to exemplify the overrated in the craft beer world.

This post is partially inspired by Will Gordon's Concourse piece on 18 Overrated Beers. While I appreciate his piece, most of those beers aren't hyped by the craft community - though Heady Topper is. And it is here I am inspired to write as he says Heady is "only marginally better than Dogfish Head 90 Minute." Yes, Heady is super-hyped, yet meets the demand at an affordable price, while scarcity and praise are driven by capacity and quality not marketing and manipulation, but Dogfish 90... nearly as good? I appreciate Dogfish Head. They innovate, they experiment, they push the bounds of what beer is, what it can be. They make some solid beers, and even those I am noting here are fine, but...

Dogfish Head 60 and 90 Minute IPAs are perfectly fine and their staple IPA and Double IPA respectively seem to rock many worlds while rating out at 98/99 (ratebeer) or 91/92 (ba) and 100/99 (ratebeer) or 95/97 (ba). Even if they aren't overly hyped or priced due to regular availability (in many States) they can be difficult to procure in Canada. Both strike an ill-balance (in an admittedly imbalanced style) between bitter hops that lack the sorts of citrus, fruity, floral, piney, earthy, or resinous notes that drive hop heads crazy while (90-Minute particularly) coming off more like malt-bombs (label claims to the contrary notwithstanding). I enjoy both of these beers from time to time and always will. It isn't that they aren't solid, but we live in the post-Pliny age where super IPAs and DIPAs abound all around. I need walk no further than around the corner to procure better examples of each style, and have found the same nearly anywhere I visit. They just aren't the be-all-and-end-all of IPAs. I realize these aren't super hard to procure and aren't exemplary of the rarity factor noted below, but people seem to rank Dogfish with Mikkeller, Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, Hill Farmstead, Russian River, The Bruery, etc. Those, it is not.

Westvleteren XII was, for many years, called the best beer in the world. Rating out at 100/100 on rb and 100/94 on ba, this relatively rare Trappist Ale is, as I have argued elsewhere, a great product with a great hype machine driven by the need to set-up a phone order in advance, to procure a limited quantity of but one of their three beers (whichever these Belgian monks make available on that given day), with time-limited returns for re-purchase and a signed waiver against re-sale. That said, it can be bought in many places - at exhorbitant markup. In Canada, it goes for anywhere between $30 and $50 a bottle at finer beer establishments. Is it good? Hell yes! But in blind tastings the (equally rare, but less hoops-and-hype) Trappist Achel Extra Bruin, the far less rare and far cheaper Trappist Rochefort 10, and Saint Bernardus Abt 12 often win - at far lower cost. Spending time seeking this beer, only to dump a small fortune if you find it - or luck into it cheaply at the monastery after a trip to the Belgian countryside - when such other similar (and arguably better or at least as solid) products exist best exemplifies the value placed on scarcity in this scene. Ironically, the Saint Sixtus monks who brew Westvleteren beers seem to dislike the hype, yet create much of it inadvertently through policies that seem to inspire beer marketing madness, such as that characterized by the winner below.

Any given Three Floyds Dark Lord variant. As a disclaimer, I have yet to try DL or any of its variants, but I feel confident in asserting that this final entry demonstrates the hype machine par excellence. In order to procure this beer, one must purchase a pricey ticket and scratch card to Dark Lord Day; an event for which demand far outpaces ticket supply so you must luck into tickets to begin with. With tickets, one gets to line up for many hours to get in and then a new line to buy up to four bottles of this beer (which is not unreasonably priced), unless your scratch card allowed you the victory chance to buy a single, determined for you, $50 variant bottle. I have no idea of the odds of getting such a bottle, but know of a group of 12 who attended, with but one scratching this lucky, expensive victory. Now, like the others herein, I am sure Dark Lord is a fine beer, but is it better than, say, Genealogy of Morals? Bourbon County Brand Stout? Peché Mortel? The Abyss? Parabola? Ten Fidy? Breakfast Stout? KBS? Or, as I am trying to get at, any number of stellar imperial stouts (or barrel-aged variants) that are not only much easier to procure, but much cheaper - and virtually assured at the moment one sets out to buy them. Essentially, one buys a raffle ticket for Dark Lord while winning constitutes not only greater expense, but likely greater expense than value in contrast to the market. I get it: people want to buy an experience and I am not even saying I wouldn't do it, but this is marketing genius regardless of the strength of the beer and many fine imperial stouts find their way down my throat without a trip to Munster, IN, a ticket, a lottery, and a small loan.

The success of such beers seems to drive the trend towards marketing the next best rarity, and the growing trend towards one-offs, collaborations, seasonals. I acknowledge that one-offs, seasonals, and scarce trials result partially from the innovation process that has driven craft beer forward and for that I applaud them, but I often find such oddities over-rated, over-priced, over-hyped, and not so much better than that which sits on shelves. If they are accessible, affordable (compared to the value of the return), and either come from trusted brewers or respected praise they are probably worth one's while - even if over-hyped by scarcity - but lets not neglect our locally available gems and keep them regular. It can be costly to produce innovative small batches, but when successes continue in scarcity and derive value from ticket sales, lotteries, and crapshoots, I begrudge the marketing in symmetrical opposition to the scantily-clad women of the macro commercials, and seek the solid I know and love.

Thus, here in Montreal, I am not only able to procure local, masterful, affordable, regularly available beers like Dieu du Ciel's Peché Mortel and Moralité, Le Castor's Yakima, Le Trou du Diable's Saison du Tracteur, anything from Dunham, and more, but I can grab solid one-offs with relative ease comparatively to many that capitalize on the trend of rarity. When these brewers produce a delight - as DDC did with Moralité - they often move it into regular circulation rather than diminish its availability to create a guerilla-marketed sensation. Let's keep rewarding them for that.

On ONs Great Westy Debacle of 12/12/12

Here are some semi-disjointed observations on the Westvleteren insanity of the past week and I will finish with some tips for those who missed out, or at least would like to know what they were missing:

• Obviously, the LCBO underestimated demand and the hype machine, but I find this somewhat incomprehensible since I predicted months ago it wouldn't last a day in stores, reducing my own estimate to hours after Josh Rubin's first Toronto Star article.  Why this wasn't distributed by lottery, I do not know - yes, that would still be random, but equalized random.
• The subsequent explosion of inquiries at the LCBO main contact line must have tipped them off, yet several things happened:
1. They seemed to have no-or-little information, and grew increasingly annoyed at the calls, such that they changed their FAQ page to list this as the #2 concern (after store hours and locations for the last few weeks).
2. That FAQ page changed and said call the stores (as of Monday).
3. Upon beginning my own calls to stores Monday evening, the first two told me I was "without exaggeration" over their thousandth and seven-hundredth call that day and none had legitimate information, but told me to call back each day despite growing increasingly annoyed each day at my calls!
• At this point the LCBO had another opportunity to coordinate release dates and times, but again they randomized it.
• Though the vast majority of staff I dealt with were friendly and cordial, and helpful beyond the call of duty, some deserve mention for the pros and cons:
• 2 stores (one Wednesday, one Thursday) lied to me at 8:30 in the morning claiming it wasn't available when they had (small) lines outside and plenty of chance to still procure it
• Many were friendly yet lamented the download of call to individual stores themselves, though one person I spoke with (twice) was extremely angry and rude.  I get being upset with your employer over the mishandling of this release, but that doesn't necessitate extreme rudeness to customers (once rudely saying no and hanging up before hearing my follow-up question).
• That said, most staff ran a tight ship, came to work early, were super-friendly, and did an admirable job of dealing with a difficult situation imposed on staff and consumers alike
• One amazing manager, at a tiny LCBO in small-town Ontario (closest to my home), not only spent many hours on calls for me, provided me more information than others, and tried her hardest to make me a special order (that the head office and the importer both told me they could/would do).  When this didn't happen, she even offered to have her son stand in line for me to procure me a pack!  Having never met this woman, I will be bringing her a beer sometime!  I called her to tell her I'd gotten a pack and she was genuinely thrilled for me and my sincere thanks made her day.  That was truly heart-warming.
• Allegedly, the discrepancy between the 1404 packs for public sale and the 2000 the LCBO purchased is for licensees.  However, as far as I know, these monks have insisted none be provided for markup and wanted signed agreements from places as they do with individual buyers.  There may have been an exception here, but with this demand I am pretty disappointed that nearly 1/3 of the entire LCBO purchase goes to bars who will be charging anywhere from $30-$60 a bottle for this and profiting immensely from the hype for quite some time.
• However, this does open up options for people who never got a case and wish to try it, but can I recommend that those who caught into the hype, but don't know the beer style, try the following first:
• Wait until the new year, when the LCBO will allegedly begin regularly stocking Trappistes Rochefort 10 (for probably less than $4/bottle).  Try it and see roughly what you'd be getting.  Otherwise, come into Quebec or the United States, or go to one of Toronto's better beer bars (Volo, Sin & Redemption, BeerBistro, Bellwoods, Burger Bar, The Only Cafe, etc) and buy a Rochefort 10 or a St. Bernardus Abt 12 first
• If you like those, you'll probably like Westy 12, and if you don't you probably won't.
• If you do, then go shell out the bucks to a bar for Westy but let's drive their prices down by buying it only from the cheaper folks - which so far looks like Bellwoods at a promised $30/bottle (maybe share one!)

In conclusion, I am glad the LCBO got this and that I got one, but reports of thousands more purchased for Nove Scotia and Alberta, both with a far lower population means I can't help but wonder how and why the LCBO let this situation unfold as it did.

How to Drink a Westvleteren XII

I have been prompted to write by a line-waiter's observation that, "Only one person I met today had heard of the beer before this week. I heard more than one person ask if it was a dark beer. One person talked about the beer being from a monestery in Amsterdam. All very innocent, and the people were quite nice."

I appreciate if people discover the breadth of flavours beer allows, but if you were fortunate enough to score one of these packs and have no idea how to drink a bottle-conditioned Belgian strong dark ale, may I offer the following to ensure this beer gets the respect it deserves and a proper chance to enliven your experiences?

1) Please don't drink it right away.  The living yeast in these bottles needs to settle for at least 24 hours, if not a week or more.

2) This beer is not meant to be drank ice cold.  Drink it at cellar temperature - 14 or 15 degrees celsius.  This means, perhaps either about 20 minutes in the fridge or out of the fridge for 30 minutes or thereabouts.

3) Please, DO NOT drink it from the bottle!  Pour at a reasonably quick speed at first into a goblet, chalice or wine glass (or the glasses that came with it!) so as to allow a substantial head to develop (which allows expression of the aromas).

4) Slow down towards the end of the pour and watch carefully so as not to pour the yeast into the glass which changes the taste when mixed in.  It is not bad, per se, even if different and drinking the yeast can be a learning experience (you can perhaps add it to your last sip or two just to see).  Though the yeast is remarkably high in B vitamins, it also tends to give one extreme gas!  You have been warned!

5) Sniff it, enjoy it!  Realize this is a unique and special beer, but there are others that are very similar and are at/will be at the LCBO in the near future for a much lower price.  Check out my earlier posts on drinking a beer in a new way to many, and finally...

6) ... consider yourself extremely fortunate.  If you don't like it, sell it, trade it, or gift it to someone who might, but for Darwin's sake please DO NOT down this 10%er with your nose plugged for a good buzz!

Best Beer in the World at the LCBO? The Pending Arrival of Westvleteren 12

Just what makes Westvleteren 12 so special? Well, really there are two things both tied tightly to those ever-present economic 'laws' of supply and demand.

Part of the demand comes from the fact that this beer is delicious and often rated as the best in the world. See my original review here, though this is a living, bottle conditioned ale of evolving complexity and it will likely seem different the next time around as it matures.  It is, though, assuredly excellent and, if you get the chance to drink it, please do it at cellar temperature (or just above) with a pour into an ideal glass (chalice, goblet, tulip, or snifter ideally, wine glass otherwise) that allows the growth of a full head, and don't pour the yeast sediment from the bottom into the glass (at least at first unless you want to explore the changes the yeast creates afterwards!).

But, really, despite being a solid beer, it is certain that its scarce supply drives up its stature, though this doesn't take away from its delicious sweet complexity.  Normally, procuring a case of this beer - outside of the grey market - means purchasing it from the monastery itself or its associated cafe; it means having called in advance - and lucked into an answer; it means scheduling your pickup date; it means getting whichever of the three beers they are making available the date of your pre-scheduled pickup; it means signing a waiver promising not to resell it; and it means not being able to use the (recorded) license plate or phone number for a certain varied amount of time (2-6 months) for any other purchases at the monastery.  Yes, I am serious.

You see, the monks of St. Sixtus (where Westvleteren 8, 12, and Blonde are brewed) brew beer one day a week.  When asked why they don't step up production, their reply amounted effectively to [paraphrasing here] 'we are in the beer business to sustain our devout life, not to make beer.'

This excellent Belgian strong dark ale normally sells for the very reasonable price of 39 Euros for 24 bottles at the monastery, but grey market cases in Canada (which must be sold by the case by law through private import in Ontario - when even available) sell for $400.

However, the foundational disrepair of the aging monastery is to the (potential) benefit of many a beer drinker!  You see, for a limited time, the monks brewed twice a week to make 163,000 extra 6-packs (plus two special edition glasses) of their beer for what is likely the only time for off-site legitimate sales.  93,000 of those gift packs sold out in hours upon their release in Belgium.  Of the other 70,000 - bound for various markets in North America - between 1400 and 2000 have found their way into a pending LCBO release.

At $75.40 per six-pack, the price isn't cheap, but these beers will age, make for an excellent gift, and are probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Most folks I know who are fans of good beer, but know little about it have probably come closest (and not immensely close) to tasting something similar when drinking a Chimay Grand Reserve ("Chimay Bleu").  If you like that, this bodes well for you!

However, as exciting as this opportunity is, the LCBO neglected to use a lottery system as they did with Sam Adams Utopias and I (and many others) will be remarkably shocked if stocks of this remain in any store through the end of a single day upon the unknown time of their arrival on the shelf.

The exact date of release is unknown - though it could/should be any time within the next two weeks.

Watch for it in their online inventory database if interested - and if you wind up finding a cache before sell-out, please let me know in case my odds fall through!  It'll be your ticket into my pending blind quad tasting that will be complete with Westy!

On Scarcity, Sanctity and "the Best Beer in the World" at Bellwoods

Last week I had the opportunity to check out the new-ish Bellwoods Brewery on the trendy Ossington strip and to have my first Westvleteren 12 (the oft-called "Best Beer in the World").

The brewpub itself was packed by 5 pm on the day of my arrival, which could be perhaps partially explained by the pleasant patio weather which left the terrace entirely occupied, while my companion and I procured the last two remaining seats at the bar.

Bellwoods is a bit cramped, with extremely limited bathroom space and indoor seating, though the summer patio helps out a bunch!  The appetizer/light entree sort of menu looks good, if a bit pricey, though the beer (and excellent, knowledgeable, friendly staff) certainly meet the expectations.

I had $3 5-ounce samples of the following: the Biere de Garde (7.5% ABV - lightly funky mustiness, with a nice yeasty nose and slight sour cherry notes, slightly tart yet nicely dry; Grade: B+/A-), Lost River Baltic Porter (7.7% ABV - cola and biscuit aromas with toasty notes and a pleasing crispy-dry finish; Grade: B+/A-), Fortune Cookie Tripel (8.2% ABV - dry-hopped with Amarillo hops that makes it a bit of a hybrid US/Belgian somewhat like Urthel Hop-It, excellent nose, good flavour; Grade: A-), Mash Pipe Berliner Weisse (3.6% ABV - very unique nose something like sweet lemonade, with a taste of sour lemon and sourdough, but more like a weisse than a true sour; Grade: A-), Monogamy Pale Ale (excellent very fruity nose of pineapple, mango, and grapefruit citrus, with a moderate taste of fair dryness, but with mellowed rind that pales in comparison to the great nose; Grade: B+/A-), and the perfectly sessionable Muggle Weisse (a 3.9% ABV dark sour with a wild yeast start that offers an accordingly mild, lightly funky aroma with a taste a bit like sugar-free sour keys alongside a finely drying finish; Grade: A-/A).

Though none of these beers blew me away, all were quite good and remarkably unique.  What is great about this brewery is the obvious commitment to uniqueness through obscure styles and twists on old favourites.  This portends a promise of the sort exemplified by Dieu du Ciel, which is high praise indeed if you know my tastes and/or DDC itself.  Bellwoods isn't there yet - if off to a great start - but it fills a needed and crucial Toronto niche for breaking from the English predominance of Southern Ontario craft beer (much as I love many English beer styles) and their ingenuity portends great things to come (such as the fitting new DDC collaboration Imperial IPA I just learned of today after already considering this comparison!)

Yet, unlike DDC, Bellwoods also offers a selection of imported bottles ranging from Dunham's stellar Black IPA to Rodenbach Grand Cru and the famed Westy 12 that provokes the reflections of this post and its title.  Awaiting the warming of my bottle (from fridge to cellar temperature) I found myself struggling to temper my expectations and to curtail my excitement, but (thankfully) Westy 12 tasted as expected - great, not earth-shatteringly so, but satisfyingly so.

Thus, like Bellwoods itself, Westy impresses, though is nonetheless slightly overrated.  By this, I mean that it is excellent - and better and different from the St. Bernardus Abt 12, and comparable to the Achel and Rochefort quads that I do so enjoy though a side by side (blind?) comparison may be required - but were it more common I believe it would be (more aptly) called "a damn good beer," and that the "best-in-the-world" label comes from scarcity and hype coupled with its consumptive quality rather than from the latter alone.

Specifically, Westvleteren 12 pours a cloudy reddish-brown with a thick tan head of solid retention and thick, but smooth lacing around the glass edges.  I personally get excellent and complex aromas of chocolate and plums initially that evolves into dark fruits, prunes, dark/molasses bread and candied sugar as it evolves.  The taste is similarly complex, as anticipated, yet is dominated by a sweet licorice, before it evolves to allow discernment of some figs, brown sugar, and an herbal/floral mix of the drying yeast and hops presence which clears the palate well.  It is thickly carbonated, yet somehow smooth and creamy nonetheless, with no hint of the 10.2% ABV discernible.  Grade: A/A+

Yes, this is an excellent beer and, at $30 a bottle at Bellwoods for a limited time, well worth trying/sharing once at this price, but it is not that much better (if at all) than a Trappist Rochefort 10 that is available regularly for $4.65 a bottle in Quebec.  For scarcity, hype, and the experience, grab yourself one while you can - then enjoy the best Bellwoods has to offer complementing your unique experience with the uniqueness of Toronto's virtual abbey.

Personally, though, much as I love quads and with all due respect to this delicious rarity, I love Imperial Stouts more and would call a few I have already tasted "better," such that a pursued tasting of Dark Lord now tops my remaining beer-bucket-list.

Cheers!

On the Belgian Quad Front: St. Bernardus Abt 12 and Rochefort 10

For those who are unaware, Westvleteren 12 as brewed by the Trappist Monks at the Abbay of St. Sixtus, is often considered/ranked as the 'best beer in the world.'  Yet, this quadrupel (like the dubbel, Westvleteren 8, and their Blonde) are extremely rare and typically only sold either at the Abbay itself, or on the grey market.

However, after World War II, St. Sixtus contracted the commercial brewing of 'Westy 12' (and the 8 and blonde) to St. Bernardus in nearby Watou.  Though the official commercial brewing agreement has ended, St. Bernardus has continued brewing beer with what is presumed to be the identical recipe of Westvleteren 12 and which uses the original Westvleteren yeast (though Westvleteren has allegedly now moved to Westmalle's yeast) under the name St. Bernardus Abt 12.  Apparently, these beers are remarkably similar and, though I have yet to get my hands on a Westy, the SAQ has provided me with the opportunity to taste both the St. Bernardus Abt 12 and, another highly praised Trappist Quadrupel, Rochefort 10.

The St Bernardus Abt 12 (10.5% ABV) pours a thick white frothy head, but one that recedes fairly quickly.  However, a slight semblance of head remains atop throughout the beer's consumption and a quickly-receding but smooth-looking lace trails the glass edges.  The beer itself is cloudy brown, perhaps appearing darker than it is due to the free-floating yeasts inside the bottle and glass.

The aroma is dominated by malt (alongside the yeast) and resulting scents of fig and fruit, especially raisins and grapes.  Slight brown-sugar and caramel traces follow, though these are much less predominant than the fruitiness that stands out.  Yet, the aroma is complex and, especially with the aging capacities of such a beer, I presume different with each tasting (sniffing?).

Dark fruitiness and yeasty spiciness dominate the fore-flavours, though it closes with a faint semblance of bitter dark chocolate that isn't excessively drying due to the remaining thick malty fruitiness.  Much like the aromas, the complexity of the flavour and its 'age-ability' indicate the opportunity for different realizations with every sip and serving.

On the tongue, it is medium-bodied with only slight carbonation.  It is slightly creamy and warming.  Though the alcohol can be felt and tasted perhaps more than in a Rochefort 10 or La Trappe Quadrupel, it is still very drinkable and certainly doesn't overwhelm you with its alcohol the way a lesser strong beer might.

A very, very good and complex beer.  Grade: A


Why not an A+?  Because the Trappistes Rochefort 10 gets that!  On different days, at different times, I found the Rochefort 10 to be the better beer, though I intend to both age some (of each) and try a blind tasting at some point to confirm my initial suspicion.

The Rochefort 10 (11.3% ABV) pours a darker head than the Bernardus which displays a beige colour alongside better retention (though with negligible lacing).  Colour-wise, this beer is remarkable: a gorgeous deep red that seems partially browned by the floating yeasts, but the two colours seem to both remain present and complement each other rather than blending in a way I have never before seen.

The yeasty and malty aromas of quadrupels generally are present, with fruits, figs, and plums being primary, though the secondary notes of chocolate and coffee are more discernible than in the Bernardus and this is one slightly more desirable quality for me (in differentiating two fantastic beers!)

The taste again benefits from the secondary strengths, in my opinion.  While still fruity, this is accompanied by bready malt and a sweet chocolate finish alongside a sufficiently drying hoppy floral flavour.  The sweetness is probably greater, but so too is the balance.  The complexity here again means that I might reevaluate this ranking given a different day.

This beer is thicker, creamier, chewier, and more full-bodied than the Bernardus, yet even though it is stronger, it better disguises its warmth and alcohol (again, not that the Bernardus is bad at this, just less great!).  Grade: A+  That said, this grade is for the style.  A fantastic beer, but I slightly prefer the Rochefort 8 since, as said before, there is something about the dubbel style that I generally, slightly, prefer to the quad.

I promise to give another assessment of these complex, living beers as they age.  I will probably try them again both blind and over the next year or two and will link back here to further the discussion.

Which quads have you had?  Which do you prefer and why?  Let me know!