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Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America

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

#141

Post by et_tu_brewte »

kpwags wrote: post #73

I love this, but I'm curious as to how much it can grow. The neighboring town to me has 5 craft breweries on its main street. All of them are within a 1 mile of each other. It's even crazier since there are also 3 winery storefronts/bars and a craft distillery in that same radius. The other thing I've found is that it has inspired people, including myself, to try their own hand at brewing. I just bottled my first bat…

With more focus on tap rooms and not so much on distribution, craft breweries can be more thought of as restaurants... and you don’t hear people complaining about too many good restaurants.

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

#142

Post by retail101 »

spelunker wrote: post #103
sigil wrote: post #53

Summary: benevolent regulation caused the craft beer boom. I call bullshit. Look at this graph [1] and tell me again how great the three-tier system was for market diversity. America went from 700 post-Prohibition breweries to less than 100 in 1978. That was the year homebrewing was legalized, and it's a pretty steady climb back up from there. Brewpubs -- which circumvent the three-tier system and its all-too-easily-…

Arguably one of the reasons why craft beer has exploded in Colorado (and probably other states as well) is because small breweries can circumvent the three-tiered system.

I'm in the alcohol business and this is spot on. Many states formed a loophole where craft brewers could not only sell their wares in an onsite brewpup, but they could also SELF distribute to retail and restaurants. This allowed them to completely avoid the formal distribution system.

Beer wholesalers, feeling the pinch, are starting to clamp down to clamp down, leading some breweries to SUE state governments like in NC.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/ar...

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

#143

Post by et_tu_brewte »

rb808 wrote: post #79

What I dont understand is that in Europe there are dozens of delicious lagers, in the US I can't find any local copies. Mexican or Central American beers come closest. Surely with literally hundreds of microbrewery options there should be something close. Any recommendations?

They’ve gotten much bigger, but fantastic lagers: https://jacksabby.com/

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

#144

Post by bmelton »

partiallypro wrote: post #87

I, for one, absolutely hate the craft beer revolution in the U.S.; a lot of restaurants are changing out their taps of beers that are universally liked for craft beers. It's basically impossible to get a Stella or Heineken on tap now, everything on tap is Bud Light and a ton of craft beers. There are a few places that haven't fallen into this, but it's a big problem. I hate it. I love Belgian and German beers and it…

> a lot of restaurants are changing out their taps of beers that are universally liked for craft beers.

I've noticed this too at a few of the bars I frequent, and there seem to be two commonly cited reasons for it:

[1] People are boycotting Anheuser-Busch because they believe that the SuperBowl ad they aired in SBLI was anti-Trump, and

[2] More commonly, people are boycotting Anheuser-Busch because of their attempts to buy up craft breweries that threaten their business, or anti-competitively strongarm the ones they can't buy by abusing the power they have through the three-tier distribution system.

More rarely, I've heard cases in which Busch (or their distributors) attempted to strong arm bars who cleared out a couple taps to make room for craft brewers by threatening their supply of their more popular products, to which the bar owners just decided to quit carrying them altogether.

[1] - http://fortune.com/2017/02/05/budweiser-super-bowl-commercia...

[2] - https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/05/09/budweiser-ow...

Edit: s/immigration/Trump/

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

#145

Post by maxerickson »

bmelton wrote: post #144
partiallypro wrote: post #87

I, for one, absolutely hate the craft beer revolution in the U.S.; a lot of restaurants are changing out their taps of beers that are universally liked for craft beers. It's basically impossible to get a Stella or Heineken on tap now, everything on tap is Bud Light and a ton of craft beers. There are a few places that haven't fallen into this, but it's a big problem. I hate it. I love Belgian and German beers and it…

> a lot of restaurants are changing out their taps of beers that are universally liked for craft beers. I've noticed this too at a few of the bars I frequent, and there seem to be two commonly cited reasons for it: [1] People are boycotting Anheuser-Busch because they believe that the SuperBowl ad they aired in SBLI was anti-Trump, and [2] More commonly, people are boycotting Anheuser-Busch because of their attempts…

People upset about the ad are upset because they think it is anti-Trump.

It's overtly positive about immigration.

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

#146

Post by bmelton »

maxerickson wrote: post #145
bmelton wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a lot of restaurants are changing out their taps of beers that are universally liked for craft beers. I've noticed this too at a few of the bars I frequent, and there seem to be two commonly cited reasons for it: [1] People are boycotting Anheuser-Busch because they believe that the SuperBowl ad they aired in SBLI was anti-Trump, and [2] More commonly, people are boycotting Anheuser-Busch because of their attempts…

People upset about the ad are upset because they think it is anti- Trump . It's overtly positive about immigration.

100% correct. Edited.

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

#147

Post by Kalium »

wpdev_63 wrote: post #128
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.

It is and is isn't. Once you price it out per-fluid-ounce, it's not really any cheaper than a six-pack of Sierra Nevada.

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

#148

Post by kd0amg »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #13
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…

That's nonsense. Craft breweries are businesses and they'll sell what makes money. Also, IPAs are incredibly hard to brew, store, and distribute consistently. Hops are probably the most seasonal part of a mash bill, and high quality finishing hops are in heavy demand. And the hop acids are subject to spoilage by heat, light, or oxygen. If you want "smothering a beer's other flavors" then look no further than whiskey/…

high quality finishing hops are in heavy demand

GP's "incredibly bitter IPAs" probably don't have a profile driven by their finishing hops.

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

#149

Post by ryanbrunner »

sigil wrote: post #65
dluan wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just that there was a three-tier system, but I would argue that in this particular case, it was the legalization of homebrewing that was the gateway into the innovation. Early 80's and 90's homebrewers were essentially hackers [1], doing things at very small scales, and branching far out into experimental recipes and techniques. I'm sure there was innovation in distribution and retail over the last 40 years,…

> it was the legalization of homebrewing that was the gateway into the innovation. I'm with you on this part. It's hard to imagine the boom happening while tinkering was outright illegal! Also, surely the 58 year gap (1920-1978) caused some generational loss of knowledge. The homebrewers of the 80s and 90s must have started from scratch in many ways. > without the three-tier system the little amount of innovation in…

> I'm with you on this part. It's hard to imagine the boom happening while tinkering was outright illegal! Also, surely the 58 year gap (1920-1978) caused some generational loss of knowledge. The homebrewers of the 80s and 90s must have started from scratch in many ways.

This is absolutely true. Find older homebrewing guides from the 80's, and you'll see practices that would seem amateurish to even complete newbie homebrewers today - using baker's yeast instead of specialized strains, limited hop availability and poor packaging, and protections against contamination during fermentation being limited to a towel over a bucket.

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

#150

Post by lazerpants »

chatmasta wrote: post #133
te_chris wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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

My first and last experience in Canada was when I saw a 30 rack of Natty Light for $60 USD (and a bunch of Canadians driving over the border to fill massive reservoir tanks with gas). Really left a bad taste! :P

Alcohol taxes in Canada are set by province. In Quebec booze is very inexpensive. Were you in Ontario?
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