I have had a lot of beers pass through my hands over the years, and every once in a while one stops me mid-sip. That happened again recently with Pinche Guey, Little Fish Brewing Company’s barrel-aged Mexican chocolate imperial stout.
It rates 4.33 out of 5 on Untappd, which puts it ahead of plenty of beers you have actually heard of, and it has a grand total of 159 ratings behind that score. I went looking to see who else had written about it, expecting to find at least a few other beer blogs or a local paper’s “best of” roundup. I found almost nothing.
I manually visited Untappd’s public rating data for beers I have already reviewed on this site (and a working set of others), then cross-referenced it against Google search volume and checked if other news sites or beer blogs had written about the beer.
The pattern held up beer after beer. Some of the best-reviewed beers in the country, judged by the people who actually drink them, have almost no footprint anywhere else on the internet. Not a write-up, not a mention in a roundup, nothing.
I already knew a few of these were good, since I had reviewed them myself. What I did not expect was just how alone my reviews turned out to be.
563,923 people have logged Bud Light on Untappd. Only 470 have ever logged Rippp, a 4.07-star beer from Outer Range Brewing Co. that most drinkers rate well above Bud Light, Coors Light or Budweiser. That gap is the whole story.
How I Built This List
I started from Untappd’s public beer pages, which carry each beer’s community rating, total ratings count, style and ABV. To find beers with a real fanbase but no outside coverage, I set three filters.
An average rating of at least 3.9 out of 5. At least 100 estimated monthly Google searches for the beer’s name nationally. Fewer than 100,000 total Untappd ratings, which keeps already-famous beers like Heady Topper or Pliny the Elder off the list.
Thirteen beers cleared all three bars. For a 51st list, one beer per state (all 50 plus DC), I used the same rating and fame-ceiling filters but dropped the national search floor, since state-level search volume for a single beer name rarely clears 100 a month even for a genuinely popular local pick.
Texas is the only state pick that also clears the full national bar, which is why Wet Hop Electric Jellyfish shows up twice in this piece.
The number that actually matters for the “secret” claim is not Untappd data at all, it is referring domains, pulled from Ahrefs. That is a count of how many separate websites link to a beer’s page anywhere online, which is about as close as you can get to a real measurement of “has anyone written about this.”
Across all 13 national picks, the average is 17.5 referring domains, and three of them (Rippp, Wet Hop Electric Jellyfish and Pinche Guey) sit at 0, 0 and 2. For comparison, a beer like Bud Light or Corona Extra has thousands.
One honest note before the list: I have already reviewed almost every beer on it myself, on this site, some of them a while ago. I am not claiming to have discovered these beers just now, or that nobody in the world has ever tasted them, obviously plenty of people at the actual breweries and taprooms have.
What the referring domains data shows is that outside of the people drinking them in person and my own reviews, essentially nobody else online, no press, no other blogs, no major aggregator, has written a word about most of these. That gap between real-world quality and outside coverage is the story.
Whatever style you drink, the same coverage gap shows up across the board. I dig into what actually makes a good one in my hazy IPA guide, my oatmeal stout guide, and my double and imperial IPA guide, all three styles that show up below.
The 13, at a Glance
The full ranked list before the write-ups. Sorted least to most covered, by referring domains.
| # | Beer | Brewery | Style | ABV | Rating | Referring Domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wet Hop Electric Jellyfish | Pinthouse Brewing | IPA, American | 6.5% | 4.25 | 0 |
| 2 | Rippp | Outer Range Brewing Co. | Collaboration with Commonwealth Brewing Company | 6.7% | 4.07 | 0 |
| 3 | Pinche Guey | Little Fish Brewing Company | Stout, Imperial / Double Pastry | 13.5% | 4.33 | 2 |
| 4 | Liquid Candy | Tarantula Hill Brewing Co. | IPA, New England / Hazy | 7.5% | 3.92 | 5 |
| 5 | Yellow Rose | Lone Pint Brewery | IPA, American | 6.8% | 4.04 | 11 |
| 6 | Cloud Candy IPA | Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co. | IPA, New England / Hazy | 6.5% | 3.95 | 11 |
| 7 | Fuego | Tonewood Brewing | IPA, American | 6.2% | 3.94 | 16 |
| 8 | Alien Church | Tired Hands Brewing Company | IPA, New England / Hazy | 7% | 4.18 | 17 |
| 9 | Electric Jellyfish | Pinthouse Brewing | IPA, New England / Hazy | 6.5% | 4.06 | 20 |
| 10 | Son of Juice | Maplewood Brewing Company | IPA, New England / Hazy | 6.3% | 3.99 | 22 |
| 11 | Foggy Geezer | WarPigs USA Brewing | IPA, New England / Hazy | 7.3% | 3.92 | 33 |
| 12 | Black Widow | Original Sin | Cider, Other Fruit | 6% | 3.95 | 45 |
| 13 | Bodhizafa | Georgetown Brewing Company | IPA, American | 6.9% | 3.95 | 46 |
13 Beers That Rate Like Cult Classics but Nobody Writes About
Ranked from least covered to most, by referring domains. Where I have already reviewed the beer, its name and the write-up below both link to the full review, tasting notes included.
Wet Hop Electric Jellyfish, Pinthouse Brewing (Austin, Texas)
Wet Hop Electric Jellyfish is an IPA, American at 6.5% ABV, rated 4.25 out of 5 across 279 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs shows zero other websites linking to its Untappd page, and it still pulls an estimated 294 monthly searches by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Wet Hop Electric Jellyfish review.
Rippp, Outer Range Brewing Co. (Frisco, Colorado)
Rippp is a Collaboration with Commonwealth Brewing Company at 6.7% ABV, rated 4.07 out of 5 across 430 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs shows zero other websites linking to its Untappd page, and it still pulls an estimated 202 monthly searches by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Rippp review.
Pinche Guey, Little Fish Brewing Company
Pinche Guey is a Stout, Imperial / Double Pastry at 13.5% ABV, rated 4.33 out of 5 across 159 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 2 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 511 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Pinche Guey review.
Liquid Candy, Tarantula Hill Brewing Co.
Liquid Candy is an IPA, New England / Hazy at 7.5% ABV, rated 3.92 out of 5 across 12,660 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 5 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 105 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Liquid Candy review.
Yellow Rose, Lone Pint Brewery
Yellow Rose is an IPA, American at 6.8% ABV, rated 4.04 out of 5 across 71,777 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 11 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 128 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Yellow Rose review.
Cloud Candy IPA, Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co.
Cloud Candy IPA is an IPA, New England / Hazy at 6.5% ABV, rated 3.95 out of 5 across 52,287 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 11 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 124 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Cloud Candy IPA review.
Fuego, Tonewood Brewing
Fuego is an IPA, American at 6.2% ABV, rated 3.94 out of 5 across 27,503 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 16 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 121 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Fuego review.
Alien Church, Tired Hands Brewing Company (Ardmore, Pennsylvania)
Alien Church is an IPA, New England / Hazy at 7% ABV, rated 4.18 out of 5 across 72,306 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 17 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 103 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Alien Church review.
Electric Jellyfish, Pinthouse Brewing (Austin, Texas)
Electric Jellyfish is an IPA, New England / Hazy at 6.5% ABV, rated 4.06 out of 5 across 52,206 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 20 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 171 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Electric Jellyfish review.
Son of Juice, Maplewood Brewing Company (Chicago, Illinois)
Son of Juice is an IPA, New England / Hazy at 6.3% ABV, rated 3.99 out of 5 across 78,719 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 22 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 179 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Son of Juice review.
Foggy Geezer, WarPigs USA Brewing
Foggy Geezer is an IPA, New England / Hazy at 7.3% ABV, rated 3.92 out of 5 across 97,410 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 33 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 108 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Foggy Geezer review.
Black Widow, Original Sin
Black Widow is a Cider, Other Fruit at 6% ABV, rated 3.95 out of 5 across 31,787 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 45 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 143 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I have not published a full review of Black Widow yet, so for now the numbers above are from its Untappd page.
Bodhizafa, Georgetown Brewing Company (Seattle, Washington)
Bodhizafa is an IPA, American at 6.9% ABV, rated 3.95 out of 5 across 60,753 Untappd ratings. Ahrefs counts just 46 referring domains pointing at its Untappd page, against roughly 112 monthly searches for the beer by name.
I already reviewed this one in full, tasting notes and all: read my Bodhizafa review.
Why These Beers Are Invisible Online
None of this is a mystery once you look at how these breweries actually operate. Most of the 13 are small, regional operations selling almost entirely through their own taproom or a handful of local accounts, not national grocery distribution.
There is no PR agency pitching “our new hazy IPA” to press, no wire release, no national retail launch for a food writer to cover. A beer can be genuinely excellent, rated well above plenty of famous names by everyone who actually tries it, and still never cross the desk of anyone who writes about beer for a living.
That matters more than it used to, because search engines and AI assistants can only surface what has actually been written down somewhere. If a beer has zero or two referring domains, there is close to nothing for a search engine or an AI answer to point to when someone asks “what’s a good hazy IPA near me” or “beers like Heady Topper.”
A beer’s real-world reputation and its online footprint are two completely different things, and for these 13, the gap between them is enormous.
For Color: America’s Most Overhyped and Most Slept-On Beers
Two smaller, less rigorously filtered lists came out of the same data pull, useful as context rather than as a ranked claim.
Most overhyped: Miller High Life (2.77 stars, 251 monthly searches, 222,839 ratings), Tsingtao (2.92 stars, 260 searches, 350,709 ratings), Heineken Silver (2.84 stars, 192 searches, 68,295 ratings), and Michelob ULTRA (2.58 stars, 105 searches, 243,426 ratings).
High search volume and brand recognition, low ratings, all four. I get into how the biggest names actually stack up on rating alone in What Counts as Good American Beer.
Most slept-on: Tree House’s Juice Machine (4.55 stars, 58,353 ratings), Other Half’s All Citra Everything (4.34 stars, 77,232 ratings), Equilibrium’s MC2 (4.20 stars, 89,804 ratings), and Mast Landing’s Gunner’s Daughter (4.12 stars, 61,865 ratings).
These four are big enough to have real ratings volume, but still underrated relative to their reputation. Not a precise ranking since several sit close together on volume, but a useful gut check against the 13 above.
The Real Gap: Best-Kept Secrets vs. America’s Best-Selling Beer
To see how stark the gap actually is, I pulled the same Untappd figures for 10 of America’s best-known macro beers and sorted them by rating.
I already cover how the most familiar light beer brands actually compare head to head in my light beer brands breakdown, but the numbers are worth seeing again next to the 13 above.
| Beer | Brewery | Avg. Rating | Unique Untappd Drinkers | Monthly Check-ins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Light | Anheuser-Busch | 2.18 | 100,408 | 377 |
| Bud Light | Anheuser-Busch | 2.35 | 563,923 | 1,952 |
| Coors Light | Coors Brewing Company | 2.48 | 558,998 | 4,086 |
| Michelob ULTRA | Anheuser-Busch | 2.58 | 283,411 | 3,498 |
| Miller Lite | Miller Brewing Company | 2.58 | 488,183 | 4,259 |
| Busch Light | Anheuser-Busch | 2.63 | 146,117 | 1,964 |
| Budweiser | Anheuser-Busch | 2.65 | 619,376 | 3,002 |
| Pabst Blue Ribbon | Pabst Brewing Company | 2.86 | 483,910 | 2,162 |
| Corona Extra | Grupo Modelo | 3.16 | 800,887 | 4,592 |
| Modelo Especial | Grupo Modelo | 3.17 | 446,472 | 4,860 |
Natural Light rates lowest of the ten at 2.18 stars and still has over 100,000 unique drinkers logging it. Bud Light sits at 2.35 stars with 563,923 unique drinkers.
My weakest-traffic secret pick, Rippp, sits at 470 unique check-ins with a 4.07 rating, nearly two full points higher than Natural Light and a point and a half above Bud Light.
Hundreds of thousands of people are drinking something they rate below 2.5, while a beer almost nobody has heard of sits above 4 with everyone who actually tries it. That is the best-kept secret argument in one table.
Find Your State’s Best-Kept Secret
One pick per state (and DC), same rating and fame-ceiling filters as the national 13, just without the national search-volume floor.
Where I have already reviewed the beer, its name links to my review. Otherwise the Source column links to the Untappd page the rating came from.
| State | Beer | Brewery | Style | Rating | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AK | Blueberry Ale | Matanuska Brewing Company | Pale Ale, Fruited | 4.04 | Untappd |
| AL | O-Bomb | Ghost Train Brewing Company | Sour, Fruited | 3.76 | Untappd |
| AR | Homewrecker IPA | Bentonville Brewing Co. | IPA, American | 3.79 | Untappd |
| AZ | Pleasantly Hazy IPA | Lake Pleasant Brewing Company | IPA, New England / Hazy | 4.01 | Untappd |
| CA | XXX OJ | Slice Beer Company | IPA, Triple New England / Hazy | 4.46 | Untappd |
| CO | Cohesion 12 | Cohesion Brewing Company | Lager, Svetle (Czech Pale) | 4.07 | Untappd |
| CT | Crimson Briar | Counter Weight Brewing Co. | Sour, Fruited Berliner Weisse | 4.13 | Untappd |
| DC | Ponzi | Atlas Brew Works | IPA, American | 3.63 | Untappd |
| DE | Wolf Woods | The Brimming Horn Meadery | Mead, Metheglin | 3.91 | Untappd |
| FL | Limelight | Tactical Brewing Co. | Sour, Fruited | 4.10 | Untappd |
| GA | Oaxaca Choca Mexican Chocolate Stout (2024) | New Realm Brewing Co. | Stout, Imperial / Double | 4.06 | Untappd |
| HI | South Shore Stout | Honolulu Beerworks | Stout, American | 3.72 | Untappd |
| IA | Oreo Speedwagon | Lake Time Brewery | Stout, Milk / Sweet | 3.87 | Untappd |
| ID | Old Faithful Ale | Grand Teton Brewing | Blonde / Golden Ale, American | 3.47 | Untappd |
| IL | Thunderbird | More Brewing Company | IPA, Imperial / Double New England / Hazy | 4.03 | Untappd |
| IN | Hipster Juicebag | Burn ‘Em Brewing | IPA, New England / Hazy | 3.88 | Untappd |
| KS | Walking On Metcalf | Discourse Brewing | IPA, Cold | 3.86 | Untappd |
| KY | Debaser | Gravely Brewing Co | IPA, New England / Hazy | 3.88 | Untappd |
| LA | Vacation Juice | Second Line Brewing | IPA, New England / Hazy | 3.79 | Untappd |
| MA | Legally Hazy | Night Shift Brewing | IPA, New England / Hazy | 3.80 | Untappd |
| MD | Wit | Cushwa Brewing Co. | Wheat Beer, Witbier / Blanche | 3.77 | Untappd |
| ME | Pulp Truck IPA | Marsh Island Brewing | IPA, New England / Hazy | 4.02 | Untappd |
| MI | Shipfaced | Silver Harbor Brewing | Barleywine, English | 3.98 | Untappd |
| MN | Drippin’ | Drastic Measures Brewing | Sour, Fruited | 4.09 | Untappd |
| MO | Pineapple | Waves Cider Co. | Cider, Other Fruit | 3.63 | Untappd |
| MS | Crowd Control | Southern Prohibition Brewing | IPA, Imperial / Double New England / Hazy | 3.93 | Untappd |
| MT | Strange Haze | Highlander Beer | IPA, New England / Hazy | 3.74 | Untappd |
| NC | Baltic Porter | Oaklyn Springs Brewery | Porter, Baltic | 4.05 | Untappd |
| ND | London Fog | Atypical Brewery & Barrelworks | Cream Ale | 3.98 | Untappd |
| NE | Conceptual | Bearded Brewer Artisan Ales | IPA, Imperial / Double New England / Hazy | 4.33 | Untappd |
| NH | Mountain Haze | Woodstock Inn Brewery | IPA, New England / Hazy | 3.63 | Untappd |
| NJ | 5th Element | Conclave Brewing | IPA, Imperial / Double New England / Hazy | 4.30 | Untappd |
| NM | Elephants On Parade | Bosque Brewing | Wheat Beer, Other | 3.70 | Untappd |
| NV | Atomic Duck | Able Baker Brewing | IPA, American | 3.79 | Untappd |
| NY | Night Letters | Fallside Brewing | Collaboration with Long Live Beerworks | 4.45 | Untappd |
| OH | Buzz Beer | The Cleveland Brewery | Stout, White / Golden | 4.07 | Untappd |
| OK | Smurf Berry | Beer Is Good Brewing Company | Sour, Fruited Berliner Weisse | 3.79 | Untappd |
| OR | Westwood | Grand Fir Brewing | IPA, Rye | 4.03 | Untappd |
| PA | Western Ave | Four Points Brewing | IPA, New England / Hazy | 4.13 | Untappd |
| RI | El Rhodeo | Moniker Brewery | Lager, Mexican | 3.77 | Untappd |
| SC | Beacon | Free Reign Brewing Co. | IPA, New England / Hazy | 4.11 | Untappd |
| SD | BEER. | Lost Cabin Beer Co. | Lager, American Light | 3.72 | Untappd |
| TN | Under Pressure | Meddlesome Brewing Company | Porter, English | 3.97 | Untappd |
| TX | Wet Hop Electric Jellyfish ★ | Pinthouse Brewing | IPA, American | 4.25 | Untappd |
| UT | Brew Beaux | T.F. Brewing, Templin Family | IPA, New England / Hazy | 4.11 | Untappd |
| VA | Maybe Today Satan | Big Ugly Brewing | IPA, Imperial / Double New England / Hazy | 3.91 | Untappd |
| VT | Crisp Apple | Wicked Grove Cidery | Cider, Traditional / Apfelwein | 3.51 | Untappd |
| WA | No Sleep ‘Til Bespin | Vice Beer | IPA, New England / Hazy | 4.11 | Untappd |
| WI | Stardust IPA | One Barrel Brewing Company | IPA, American | 3.75 | Untappd |
| WV | Pivate | Short Story Brewing | Pilsner, Italian | 3.79 | Untappd |
| WY | 8th Wonder NEIPA | Mountain Hops Brewhouse | IPA, New England / Hazy | 4.00 | Untappd |
★ = also clears the full national bar (Texas’ Wet Hop Electric Jellyfish is the only one).
Sources
Rating, check-in and beer metadata come from Untappd’s own public beer pages. Search volume, referring domains and online coverage data come from Ahrefs.
The full underlying data is available to download directly: national 13 dataset (CSV), by-state 51 dataset (CSV), macro contrast dataset (CSV).
