Changing Expectations
There is something which irrevocably shifts following great beers, especially when you go searching for them and drink them a lot. I drink more bottles at home than pints in the pub. I drink a lot of good beer. I drink some crap beer. What seems to have happened recently is that my expectations have shifted and now I want every beer to be a life changing experience. This is a problem.
You see, amazingly good beers which give you an experience that you’ll remember for a long time are difficult to step back from to return to normal drinking. I’ve had this a few times. A cask-fresh pint of Thornbridge Jaipur from the brewery pub is just one of the best things there is. Following this I wanted every hand-pulled pint to have the same effect on me. It didn’t and that was disheartening. The same happened with Pliny the Elder. I drank the beer and all of a sudden my beer expectations loosened their shackles and took a huge leap forward, laughing back over its shoulder at me. I had to readjust the radar and pull everything back in.
I’ve had some decent pints in the pub recently. They were good but the whole time I was comparing them to some other mythical beer I wanted to be drinking or just another that I know is great. It’s the same with bottles – I open them, I drink them, some leave me unimpressed, leave me wanting more, wanting something else. In my mind I’ve even got to the point where I’m expecting beers to be boring before I even try them – that’s the worst thing.
It’s difficult to shift expectations; I had to do it at a lager tasting I went to in October. My taste-spectrum had to be dramatically narrowed before I started to enjoy the beers for what they were – delicious, refreshing lagers in which the smallest of differences became hugely important (a drier hop finish, a citrus lift, a fuller body).
Beer is always a hopeful search for the good. Maybe it’s just part of life that we want what we haven’t got, maybe I’m just difficult to please, but I want my beer to be better and better every time. I still appreciate beer for what it is, but there’s always a little niggling feeling telling me to try something else, voraciously searching for the next amazing experience. I need to rein it in a bit or I’ll just get disappointed. I need to sit back, open a beer and just drink it.
Has anyone else had this? A need for better and better beers all the time? It’s an expensive habit.
So true! My tongue wants dry hopped citrusy goodness, with a grapefruity smell. I am usually not happy, but sometimes I’m surprised, like Drifter pale ale. Drifter is from Wiemer brothers. It’s not that expensive & it will surprise you. The first beer to up my expectations of what beer could taste like was Hazed&Infused after that was Rogue Juniper pale ale, but I’ve only just begun (with limited funds right now). I plan on diving in the sea of beers with my mouth wide open in the future.
Welcome to the second stage of beer snobbery – acceptance.
Also you need to consider buying beer by more than one bottle incase by some misfortunate inccident one is off. Conditioning is such an undervalued issue in the beer world it is getting me down. Better conditioning = a better beer.
I’d rather have a second taste of the beer at a conditionned properly establishment like the Rake after an initial tasting at somewhere which may devalue the beer due to poor and intolerable conditioning. It’s always worthy for that second opinion. Conditioning is an art form.
It’s a zen thing. You have to learn to take every beer for what it is…
Maybe it’s because I’m not a trader or a frequent traveller, and I don’t frequent the group tastings. I don’t aggressively seek out top rated brews,and haven’t put a dent in the top 100…while still having my fair share of beer epiphanies. Still my expectations remain unchanged. I do not need every single brew that passes my lips to be ambrosia and rapture.
Rather I will just take what stumbles across my path with good nature. Reveling in the appearance of a hyped up beer with some anticipation. Yet I am quite happy for the norm to be any number of quality beers that simply pour into my glass.
Pass my palate, with a smack of the lips and leave a small smile and the reflection;
‘That was nice’
Great beers are great~yet that shouldn’t diminish the fact that good beers are good.
I have found myself with the same issue. The more great beers i try, the more i seem to be expecting greatness. But Trev makes a good point: its okay for beers to just be good.
Look forward to stage three:
When more often than not you think, “Now I just want a decent, ordinary pilsener to refresh me.”
Though, when I’m in that mood, I would still take a Jaipur or Pliny if I had the opportunity
I think a major part of my problem is that I’ve been a wine guy up until about a year ago when I moved to Denver. I had never really lived anywhere that had craft beer, so my exposure was limited to the crappy stuff. So this had lead to a wholly unique problem of wanting to try everything I can get my hands on.
I’m a sucker for sampler packs from breweries, or stores with a build-your-own 6 pack concept. I also love anything that says “barrel aged” on the label, and between that and keeping up my wine hobby I’ve spent an extravagant amount on drinks in the past year. It is glorious, but scary for my wallet!
Ed, love that line – ‘I plan on diving in the sea of beers with my mouth wide open in the future’!
Hopdan, cheers
tdtm, conditioning is very important – I’ve had beers that I know are good that have been served in bad condition and it makes them taste completely different. That’s one of the joys and the horrors of good beer!
Michael, zen indeed, but sometimes I just want something better!
Trev, well put. There is nothing wrong with a good beer and these can be just as enjoyable as something hyped-up.
bftd, glad I’m not alone!
Christian, I’m approaching that period. Although right now it’s a bottle of geuze to refresh me.
Daniel, I scare myself with the amount I spend, so I drink another beer and try to forget about it! I just want to try new beers and experience good ones; it’s a fun journey!
Thanks for the comments guys.