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So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

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Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#101

Post by RandallBrown »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #67
zwieback wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. I live in Oregon, the craft beer center of the universe, and find that the vast majority of craft beers is too overwhelming to actually enjoy. There are more breweries learning how to do good lagers but still few and far between.

This surprised me but Portland, Maine actually has twice as many craft breweries as Portland, OR.

I don't think that's true.

I've been to both, and while Portland Maine has a surprising number of breweries for its size, Portland Oregon had way more. A quick google search confirms Portland OR has more than twice as many as Portland ME.

If you include the Portland OR metro area, it has more breweries than the entire state of Maine.

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#102

Post by devchix »

enra wrote: post #46
munificent wrote: post #32

I live in Seattle where the IPA thing is just out of hand. My uncharitable pet theory is this: A certain class of men (sometimes women, but it's almost always men) get interested in something and then desire to make it part of their identity. That in turn means they want to convey that they are more into it than other people. Their passion expresses itself as competition. Most people that aren't really into beer don'…

As a personal preference, I do prefer IPAs just for the taste. I do drink other beers too but anything short of Pale Ale, feels weak and doesn't give similar weight. There are lot of variance between different IPAs and Pale Ales, I prefer more citrus and mosaic ones. My favorite is Sculpin IPA and Wolfback Ridge IPA and my least favorite is probably Racer 5 even thought its generally highly rated.

Amen! But don't say it so loud lest they call us poseurs. :) My favorite is one is called Resin, made by SixPoint Brewery out of Brooklyn. Just like the name, the nose is floral like pine sap, it's lovely. My other favorite is made by The Maine Beer Company, MO is a terrific, well-balanced Pale Ale, Another One (that's its name) is a 5% ABV IPA, also lovely. It's not just a west coast thing, good IPA brewers and drinkers are everywhere, and we don't just do it to out-men the men.

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#103

Post by hyperbovine »

smogcutter wrote: post #55
walrus01 wrote: post #2

My personal taste complaint with a lot of people who open a brewery... Everyone seems to think that more hops = better beer. There are so many other possible flavors and types to a beer than some type of IPA that is absolutely overloaded with hops. But that seems to be a very common type of thing to brew. When I open something and am assaulted with the aroma of hops, it's not appealing anymore. It was interesting 7-8…

100% agreed. I think a few things go into it: - Americans don’t really get exposed to good lagers and pilseners. We get Bud[1], not Budvar. So there’s no expectation that beers in those categories could possibly be “good”. IPAs don’t have the same baggage. - For the same reason, it’s easier to differentiate from the big brands on a supermarket shelf. You get to be your own category, not just the more expensive versio…

> Bud on draft is fine.

Oh man, was with you till the very end. Most places will have something on tap that qualifies as real beer. PBR, Yuengling, Stella, and Pilsner Urquell are all great lagers. Confronted with 40 taps of HOPULUS PRIME (or whatever), I'll happily swill them all day in a non-ironic, non-cheapskate, non-hipster fashion. But rice adjuncts? No thank you.

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#104

Post by uxp100 »

munificent wrote: post #32

I live in Seattle where the IPA thing is just out of hand. My uncharitable pet theory is this: A certain class of men (sometimes women, but it's almost always men) get interested in something and then desire to make it part of their identity. That in turn means they want to convey that they are more into it than other people. Their passion expresses itself as competition. Most people that aren't really into beer don'…

> My favorite Tweet ever was someone who described this process that dudes do where they show up, take over a hobby, and drive all the fun out (and thus women) as "MENTRIFICATION". It is my new favorite word.

So you think that less women ride bicycles and drink beer than 20 years ago?

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#105

Post by giggles_giggles »

seiferteric wrote: post #47
tasogare wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My favorite Tweet ever was someone who described this process that dudes do where they show up, take over a hobby, and drive all the fun out (and thus women) as "MENTRIFICATION". It is my new favorite word. You seemed to have missed that part.

I don't think it is inherently sexist to suggest that men or woman may exhibit certain behaviors more than the other. I am not sure when we crossed the line that making any such suggestion is inherently sexist.

It's pretty sexist to imply that only men exhibit this particular form of gatekeeping or making men in the minority of some hobby group feel out of place, and then coining a term for it with "men" right in the name, as though women never do what is described.

Complain about some subset of the population who has made a lifestyle choice you don't like (bros) all you want. But "mentrification"? Give me a break. That's just a prejudicial slur.

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#106

Post by amyjess »

smogcutter wrote: post #55
walrus01 wrote: post #2

My personal taste complaint with a lot of people who open a brewery... Everyone seems to think that more hops = better beer. There are so many other possible flavors and types to a beer than some type of IPA that is absolutely overloaded with hops. But that seems to be a very common type of thing to brew. When I open something and am assaulted with the aroma of hops, it's not appealing anymore. It was interesting 7-8…

100% agreed. I think a few things go into it: - Americans don’t really get exposed to good lagers and pilseners. We get Bud[1], not Budvar. So there’s no expectation that beers in those categories could possibly be “good”. IPAs don’t have the same baggage. - For the same reason, it’s easier to differentiate from the big brands on a supermarket shelf. You get to be your own category, not just the more expensive versio…

> Americans don’t really get exposed to good lagers and pilseners. We get Bud[1], not Budvar. So there’s no expectation that beers in those categories could possibly be “good”. IPAs don’t have the same baggage.

Pretty much every major craft brewery nowadays has a high-quality pale session beer. Sometimes it's a pilsner (both Euro style and American pre-Prohibition style), sometimes it's a golden ale, and sometimes it's a Kölsch, and hell I've even seen one brewery with a Dortmund-style lager, but regardless of which it is, they're typically among the brewery's top sellers.

They're not the sexy beers that grab headlines, but they're actually the ones doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the brewery's bottom line.

Ten years ago, you would have been absolutely right, but pale session beers have come back in a huge way, and we now have no shortage of them. They exist, they're high-quality, and they sell, but you don't see people talking about them much because there's just not much to talk about. It's the beer you order multiples of when you're hanging out with your friends and don't want to get too full or too drunk too fast, and there's nothing particularly _interesting_ about that.

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#107

Post by anfractuosity »

jerrysievert wrote: post #100
jcomis wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, this is not really true. There are a number of apps/software for brewing and I would wager nearly every brewery is using one and not using paper/pen/manual spreadsheets. BeerSmith, Ekos, Fermentable are a few.

hm. there are a ton of craft breweries locally, and there doesn't seem to be much commonality between them, especially when it comes to data and data collection. beersmith targets homebrewers, fermentable replaces some of the note taking and materials ordering, and ekos seems to focus on consulting (no prices available, and "we'll build it!"). none of this replaces the automated brewing systems, even in small product…

By 'automated brewing systems' do you mean a system which controls the initial brewing process (mash, liquor tun temp etc.), controlling valves etc. too maybe, then regulating fermentation?

I found out about https://www.craftautomation.com/ recently from /r/thebrewery, which looks interesting.

I'm just a home brewer, but I also enjoy some of the control system aspects. I created a little flow controller display a year or so ago, to measure water from the HLT->mash tun.

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#108

Post by ratww »

munificent wrote: post #32

I live in Seattle where the IPA thing is just out of hand. My uncharitable pet theory is this: A certain class of men (sometimes women, but it's almost always men) get interested in something and then desire to make it part of their identity. That in turn means they want to convey that they are more into it than other people. Their passion expresses itself as competition. Most people that aren't really into beer don'…

Oh, this applies to anything.

At my last job the competition for a few months was who had the largest vimfile. And if you used other editor you weren't manly enough, of course.

People will complain, but dudebros are able to suck the fun out of anything. And the professionalism.

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#109

Post by jiofih »

walrus01 wrote: post #35
munificent wrote: post #32

I live in Seattle where the IPA thing is just out of hand. My uncharitable pet theory is this: A certain class of men (sometimes women, but it's almost always men) get interested in something and then desire to make it part of their identity. That in turn means they want to convey that they are more into it than other people. Their passion expresses itself as competition. Most people that aren't really into beer don'…

As an enthusiastic road cyclist I don't think there has ever been a time in modern history when the cohort of people who ride 10,000km+ a year for general conditioning/cardio/training, and spend $2,000+ on road bikes, wasn't gender ratio skewed by at least 85:15 towards men. It is kind of unfortunate because there should really be nothing gender specific about cycling.

That’s gonna be the top 20% of commute distances, but plenty of men and women doing 10k+/year in Europe.

Re: So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014)

#110

Post by mywittyname »

zwkrt wrote: post #6
walrus01 wrote: post #2

My personal taste complaint with a lot of people who open a brewery... Everyone seems to think that more hops = better beer. There are so many other possible flavors and types to a beer than some type of IPA that is absolutely overloaded with hops. But that seems to be a very common type of thing to brew. When I open something and am assaulted with the aroma of hops, it's not appealing anymore. It was interesting 7-8…

This is a west coast phenomenon, I’ve found the Midwest and east coast to have a lot more variety. It feels in Seattle like beer bars have a “token” stout in the same way that they have a single house wine. Hops must be what sells though.

> Hops must be what sells though.

Bingo. It's to the point now where OG craft breweries are faced with cutting their once staple lines to replace them with IPAs. IPAs represent 26% of the craft beer market and its still growing.

IPAs may have originally flooded the craft beer market because they are easier to brew consistently and keep longer on the shelf. But they've rocketed to the top of the beer sales charts because the people who buy beer love hops.

People have been talking about the "next IPA" for years now. Yet there's no indication that another style is going to usurp them. In fact, it's somewhat the opposite, as other styles are being adapted into IPAs. Nobody has made a heffeweizen IPA yet, so I think there's still further to go.

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