A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale • Hacker News Board

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#91

Post by synaesthesisx » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:12 PM UTC

voidfunc wrote: post #70

phillc73 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe IPAs were meant to taste as they did after a long voyage to India. Maybe at the end of the voyage was when they tasted their best. Maybe the hops were just a preservative and nobody really liked drinking beer with overly strong hop flavours and aromas.

My theory is that people who like these extremely hoppy IPAs have (1) lost their ability to taste more subtle flavors, (2) are performing some kind of signalling to their fellow beer connisseur peers about how much of a beer geek they are.

Extremely hoppy ≠ extremely bitter. A lot of hops have floral, citrus or tropical fruit flavors and aromas. It’s why hazy IPAs have become so popular; they tend to use more of those kind of hops rather than the bittering varieties and end up juicy and balanced, rather than having overwhelming bitterness.

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#92

Post by subpixel » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:18 PM UTC

boomboomsubban wrote: post #55

gumby wrote: post #38

My son in college (well in his apt with his gf, taking classes online) could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

>In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA. This is standard practice in the US, empty kegs end up back at a brewery where they are sanitized and refilled. Part of the problem reported here is that kegs aren't being used, leading to a lack of kegs available to be refilled.

No, the beer man in Germany comes to your house and delivers a crate of .5l bottles of beer, and picks them all up the next week with your next delivery. The bottles are washed and are reused (not melted down and recycled).

That - along with the bierautomat - ranks up there with the things I miss most about Germany.

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#93

Post by URSpider94 » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:20 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #28

They are also sending beer that is expired or can’t be distributed to a nearby craft distiller to be turned into hand sanitizer. That's an excellent solution, as the demand for the latter has definitely been going up rapidly in the past little while.

There have been issues in that many ethanol producers are not licensed to produce medical-grade ethanol, which is what’s required for hand sanitizer. So it hasn’t been entirely straightforward to convert biofuel or drinking alcohol production over.

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#94

Post by baron816 » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:23 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #38

My son in college (well in his apt with his gf, taking classes online) could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

> My son in college...could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too.

I'm calling bullshit. Went through this in college. There's 165 12oz beers in a standard keg. If you don't refrigerate it (which you probably can't), that beer is going to go bad well within a week once it's tapped. That means to finish a keg between 2 people you're drinking 11+ beers per person every day. I mean, yeah that's doable, but if you're a normal human being, it's not that fun.

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#95

Post by joezydeco » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:25 PM UTC

boomboomsubban wrote: post #55

gumby wrote: post #38

My son in college (well in his apt with his gf, taking classes online) could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

>In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA. This is standard practice in the US, empty kegs end up back at a brewery where they are sanitized and refilled. Part of the problem reported here is that kegs aren't being used, leading to a lack of kegs available to be refilled.

The commenter is talking about weekly scheduled home delivery of cases of beer and soft drinks.

Many communities in the US had similar deliveries for milk back in the day.

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#96

Post by xendo » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

baron816 wrote: post #94

gumby wrote: post #38

My son in college (well in his apt with his gf, taking classes online) could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

> My son in college...could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. I'm calling bullshit. Went through this in college. There's 165 12oz beers in a standard keg. If you don't refrigerate it (which you probably can't), that beer is going to go bad well within a week once it's tapped. That means to finish a keg between 2 people you're drinking 11+ beers per person every day. I mean, yeah that's d…

11 small beers is not something I would recommend, but its fairly easy if you start in the morning. After a couple or weeks it will probably ruin your immune system which is not a great idea considering current circumstance.

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#97

Post by annoyingnoob » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

I can has Cheezburger?

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#98

Post by donogh » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

baron816 wrote: post #94

gumby wrote: post #38

My son in college (well in his apt with his gf, taking classes online) could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

> My son in college...could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. I'm calling bullshit. Went through this in college. There's 165 12oz beers in a standard keg. If you don't refrigerate it (which you probably can't), that beer is going to go bad well within a week once it's tapped. That means to finish a keg between 2 people you're drinking 11+ beers per person every day. I mean, yeah that's d…

Irishman here. Not to further a cultural stereotype but.. I know plenty of binge drinkers who could put away 20-30 pints[1] over the course of a day-long drinking session. Get a couple of them together and they'd finish a keg that size in 2-3 days.

[1] Imperial pints: 568 ml / 19.2 US fl oz

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#99

Post by Ericson2314 » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 7:07 PM UTC

ashtonkem wrote: post #74

gumby wrote: post #38

My son in college (well in his apt with his gf, taking classes online) could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

Most of us don’t have the equipment to tap a keg at home, and I seriously doubt that the rental services for hand pump sankey taps could keep up with the spike in demand.

Growlers

Re: A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale

#100

Post by ilamont » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 7:09 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #38

My son in college (well in his apt with his gf, taking classes online) could easily take care of one before it expired. Hell, we could too. In Germany we had the “beer man” who would drop off beer weekly and collect the empties. This should be adopted in the USA.

When I lived in Taiwan there was a Belgian guy who did this, driving around his VW microbus with mixed cases of Belgian beer to deliver all over the island. It was awesome.