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Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

theatlantic.com

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Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#121

Post by ck425 »

fendmark wrote: post #82
ovrdrv3 wrote: post #35

Love craft beer and I am glad my 125K city has 5 of them, but /r/starterpacks was dead on with this one: https://i.redd.it/fio3hqlmuofy.jpg I will be confused if I ever walk into a microbrewery that doesn't look like that!

Not to be overly contrarian but it does seem that we are getting close to the peak for the craft beer industry. Smuttynose Brewery going up for auction is a great example of this. https://www.pressherald.com/2018/01/18/smuttynose-brewing-in... Many areas are getting over-saturated with microbreweries and there eventually won't be enough demand to sustain them. In retail, $10+ average price for a six pack, the even mo…

In Scotland a few of the micro-breweries are now experimenting with Gin and Whiskey. That could be the next stage as beer gets saturated. But there's also a long way to go with beer. Atm micro breweries are mostly making traditional flavorsome ales. There's a lot of room left for experimentation, particularly in the health aspect. If someone can make a tasty, full flavored, low cal beer they'd make a bomb.

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#122

Post by Kalium »

Brendinooo wrote: post #50

As someone who has a bit of a distributist streak, it's really nice to see this. There's a craft brewery near me, and I patronize it not because it's the best beer, but because it's pretty good, and I want to support the local business. Craft breweries seem to be pretty good candidates for distributing the means of production. I'm speaking a bit out of ignorance, but it's not a lot of ingredients and it's not a huge…

You are correct! It's a relatively small number of ingredients to make beer that can be shipped pretty easily. Grain, hops, yeast, water, an assortment of adjuncts.

The issues come in with the actual means of production, rather than the material ingredients. Brewing is a rather technically complex task. It's not trivial to do reliably - ask any homebrewer about batches they've skunked. It also benefits significantly from economies of scale, as at scale there's a whole world of applicable chemicals production control technologies.

It's a lot like housing. It's relatively easy to ship around wood, wire, pipes, insulation, paint, and so on. Assembling them into a working and usable house is a smidge more complicated.

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#123

Post by ck425 »

steveax wrote: post #102
toomanybeersies wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craft brewers don't do many lagers for two reasons. The first is that they're "boring". You can already get lots of different mass market lagers, and they're all similar. The second reason is that they're hard to brew. You can hide the fact that you're a shit brewer behind malt and hops (to an extent). You can't cover up poor technique in a lager. The big megacorps have got their technique down to a tee.

They typically take longer to finish as well. That said, I’ve been encouraged by more lagers from craft breweries showing up. There are some terrific ones that have been around for a long time too, say Prima Pils from Victory.

What do you mean by finish? I was taught by a brewer friend that lager takes a fraction of the time ales do. (due to faster fermentation from the yeast being on top and nearer oxygen).

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#124

Post by Buge »

chx wrote: post #14

Eventually alcohol usage will be looked upon with great fascination of a custom of a barbarian age: "They used to actually drink poison for thousands of years but we have moved on." It'll take time but it'll happen.

Maybe in a long time. But currently it seems drugs are being more socially accepted, see marijuana legalization.

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#125

Post by Zeebrommer »

> Indeed, between 2002 and 2007, employment at breweries actually declined in the midst of an economic expansion.

I'm not sure this is a bad thing. Although it means loss of jobs, it also means the breweries got more efficient (producing the same or more with less human effort involved). How does this work, economically? More jobs is good, more efficiency is good, but you can't have both when growth is limited.

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#126

Post by galdosdi »

jdhn wrote: post #6
vkou wrote: post #2

> Large breweries ignored burgeoning niches, Watson said, particularly hoppy India Pale Ales, or IPAs, which constitute a large share of the craft-beer market. He's reversing cause-and-effect. IPAs are incredibly popular among microbrewers, because it is incredibly hard to brew consistently tasting batches of beer. Smothering all of a beer's other flavours, by dumping buckets after buckets of hops into it is much eas…

>it is incredibly hard to brew consistently tasting batches of beer. While I don't really like Bud, Coors, or any other macro brew, I have to give them respect for churning out a consistent product time after time. I buy a Bud in New Jersey, and I know it'll taste the same as the Bud I bought in New Mexico.

I agree with you point but have an interesting "but technically" exception: several states such as Colorado and Oklahoma regulate that beer sold in some places must be 4%.

Many brewers make 4% compliant beer, and while labelled the same, won't taste the same.

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#127

Post by lotsofpulp »

partiallypro wrote: post #96
mylons wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i guess they weren't universally liked if they're getting changed out for craft brews.

Craft beers are cheaper for restaurants and have a higher profit margin, and there's the "community" factor of having local brews; and in some cases just some "good ole boy" attitude. There are a lot of incentives. It has not much to do with net sales, because it is offset by other incentives. Customers don't often complain, especially in bars that are for partying and generally just getting drunk. Who cares if this…

There is feedback, the fact that the business is making more money means they made the right decision.

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#128

Post by wpdev_63 »

Brendinooo wrote: post #50

As someone who has a bit of a distributist streak, it's really nice to see this. There's a craft brewery near me, and I patronize it not because it's the best beer, but because it's pretty good, and I want to support the local business. Craft breweries seem to be pretty good candidates for distributing the means of production. I'm speaking a bit out of ignorance, but it's not a lot of ingredients and it's not a huge…

There's an actual kickstarter that got the same idea.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1708005089/pico-c-craft...

I haven't used the product but it looks like a great idea.

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#129

Post by te_chris »

fendmark wrote: post #82
ovrdrv3 wrote: post #35

Love craft beer and I am glad my 125K city has 5 of them, but /r/starterpacks was dead on with this one: https://i.redd.it/fio3hqlmuofy.jpg I will be confused if I ever walk into a microbrewery that doesn't look like that!

Not to be overly contrarian but it does seem that we are getting close to the peak for the craft beer industry. Smuttynose Brewery going up for auction is a great example of this. https://www.pressherald.com/2018/01/18/smuttynose-brewing-in... Many areas are getting over-saturated with microbreweries and there eventually won't be enough demand to sustain them. In retail, $10+ average price for a six pack, the even mo…

$10 (USD)? Luxury!

NZ craft beer six pack: $22.99 UK craft beer 6 pack: £14

You Americans complain too much, easily one of the cheapest countries to buy booze I've been to

Re: Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

#130

Post by dagw »

ck425 wrote: post #123
steveax wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They typically take longer to finish as well. That said, I’ve been encouraged by more lagers from craft breweries showing up. There are some terrific ones that have been around for a long time too, say Prima Pils from Victory.

What do you mean by finish? I was taught by a brewer friend that lager takes a fraction of the time ales do. (due to faster fermentation from the yeast being on top and nearer oxygen).

Lagers are (or should be) fermented at around 10 deg C, and thus take longer to ferment than ales that are fermented at room temperature. They also need to be 'stored' (that's what 'lager' means) at 8-10 deg. for several weeks after primary fermentation to develop that characteristic lager flavour.
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