Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

drinks.seriouseats.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 303 posts

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

#111

Post by uxp100 »

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.

"Mentrification" suggests that men enter women's hobbies and ruin them. It also suggests that there is a right and wrong way to engage with things (See conversations about how men and women engage with fiction differently, analysis vs elaboration, power rankings vs fan-fiction, etc).

Rather than saying the word "mentrification" is sexist, which is a complex question (like nobody is being hurt because someone on twitter comes up with a funny phrase), I'd rather say, if someone used mentrification in earnest, they're probably a shitty person and I don't want to hang out with them.

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

#112

Post by floren »

hyperbovine wrote: post #103
smogcutter wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

$5 pitchers of Yuengling are the best part of the Northeast US.

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

#113

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

victor9000 wrote: post #54
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'…

The abundance of hops in beer is a west coast thing, as east coast beers tend to be more mild. So that's something to look into if west coast beers don't appeal to your palate. However, assigning a regional flavor to some sort of bravado seems odd. Do people say the same thing about a dry wine, a strong flavored cheese, or an Islay scotch? Of course not, so this seems more like a personal issue than anything else.

> The abundance of hops in beer is a west coast thing, as east coast beers tend to be more mild

I'm not sure about that. The "New England IPA" style comes from well, Vermont. And when done well is is a smooth, creamy intense hop milkshake.

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

#114

Post by hyperbovine »

jcomis wrote: post #83
jerrysievert wrote: post #19

I've done a bit of consulting work for breweries and beer bars over the last couple of decades, nothing in the brewing process directly (mostly bespoke hardware and software solutions), but have had a great view into craft brewing. it seems like there hasn't been any real technological progress in craft brewing since the 90's. in the 90's, there were unix based control systems, with X11 interfaces, for larger craft b…

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.

BeerSmith is fine and I've seen it used at a number of different craft breweries, but ultimately it is indeed a glorified spreadsheet.

I think OP is right, brewing remains pretty low tech. The process is ultimately not that complicated, as befits an 8000-year old craft! The step that is most difficult/error-prone, malting, has been outsourced to a few large industrial producers. The rest is essentially just making tea and letting it sit around.

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

#115

Post by saturdaysaint »

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.

Yeah, as a Michigan resident, the gp's criticism sounds like something that would have been said 10 - 12 years ago. Sours, lighter styles (session ales), spiced ales and other interesting variants are typically a lot more prominent on menus at hip breweries.

Even with a relatively interesting scene, my feeling is that beer has lost a certain amount of novelty and glamour around here. Bars are less central to young people's dating lives. It's more novel/fashionable to be a connoisseur of cocktails or marijuana strains. People are more healthy-oriented than ever, and beer is one of the more calorie-heavy ways of getting a buzz.

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

#116

Post by amyjess »

scottlocklin wrote: post #23
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…

>I have a personal theory that the overwhelming aroma and taste of hops in a beer can be used to mask many errors and missteps in the brewing process, which might be more easily tasted by the customer if it were, for example, a weissbier. It's not just your personal theory! It's absolutely correct. In my neophyte brewing years if something came out bad, I'd just chuck more hops in the carboy and call it an IPA (back…

> Hops are fairly estrogenic.

Phytoestrogens don't really work on humans though. They mostly just antagonize the estrogen receptor, which means they bind to the receptor without activating it. This means they can actually be harmful to women on HRT because they make the HRT less effective.

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

#117

Post by joe_the_user »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #38
Bootwizard wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're telling me. I've been into craft beer for around 8 years, a bit after IPAs really took off in the US. I have acid reflux, and nothing triggers it more consistently and quickly than having an IPA. It just tastes like straight up acid to me. I equate people who like really strong IPAs to people who are into extreme hot sauce just for the sake of injuring themselves with something that's overly hot. Is there real…

> Is there really any flavor to IPAs with IBUs that are through the roof? No, not at all. Yes, there is good, tasty flavor to hops, provided you're not on the sensitive side of the bitter tasting spectrum. The bitter flavor overwhelms everything for some, but not all. If you're curious, there are bitter tasting test strips like these which not everyone is sensitive to. https://www.amazon.com/Nasco-PTC-Paper-Strips-Vi…

Another thing thing I think I've found about the IPA crazy is that it has driven out the variety in IPAs themselves - once there was a spectrum in high-hop tastes between citrus-y and cider-y tastes in high-hop beer but now citrus-y is the only taste that's considered acceptable.

The cider-y taste ("green-apple character" I believe) you can taste in the Belgian beer Orval is considered an off-flavor in IPAs and I'm pretty it was reasonably common high hop beers in the 90s and early 2000s.

Indeed, my suspicion is that homebrewing first create a wide variety of flavors and approaches through accidents but once the machinery for determining the correct flavors became established, small brewers followed with beers that has nothing strange or unusual at all and so could only distinguished by their hop-levels.

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

#118

Post by NauticalStu »

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…

I love IPAs, but the market is definitely oversaturated with them. And after a while a lot of them just kind of blend together, so over time I've lost interest in trying new ones and mostly just stick to the solid ones I'm familiar with (Bells Two Hearted Ale or Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA) unless there's something truly unique, Ballast Point Habanero Sculpin being a good example.

Along those lines, I wish more microbreweries would put out sessionable beers that still taste good. Despite the variety of styles, it seems like most beers are in the 6%-7% at least, often more. As much as I love a good stout or IPA, sometimes I want something with lighter body in, say, the 4% ABV range. Guinness is my go-to for that reason even though I think it's just fine, not great. Deschutes Black Butte Porter is the best compromise I've found, but is rarely on tap where I live.

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

#119

Post by kls »

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…

It just means you are not a Psycho:

https://vinepair.com/booze-news/if-you-are-a-fan-of-ipa-scie...

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

#120

Post by jcomis »

hyperbovine wrote: post #114
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.

BeerSmith is fine and I've seen it used at a number of different craft breweries, but ultimately it is indeed a glorified spreadsheet. I think OP is right, brewing remains pretty low tech. The process is ultimately not that complicated, as befits an 8000-year old craft! The step that is most difficult/error-prone, malting, has been outsourced to a few large industrial producers. The rest is essentially just making te…

"craft" malting is becoming a thing now too with smaller producers showing up: https://www.rootshootmalting.com/home and https://coloradomaltingcompany.com/
Post reply on HN