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

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201–210 of 303 posts

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

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> (Why this gendered insulting is okay when it’s aimed against men, I don’t know.) > Men collectively have enough power to handle a funny critical term without risk of being marginalized. What does men collectively have enough power even mean? It's not like all the men in the world work together to decide the fate of all the poor, powerless women. Where is black men's power? Where is the homeless white men's power?…

I don't think it implies that all men do this at all. It also seems like a much more palatable expression/term than "dick-measuring contest".

But it seems to collectively place the blame on all men, rather than the minority who are interested in dick-measuring contests.

And not only is this unfair, it’s silly. Brewing has always been an almost exclusively male hobby, the rise of the hop nerd is nothing to do with sex at all, contrary to what the word might imply.

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

#202

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'…

Sample size a couple dozen only, but IBU on the menu has also been helpful to non-IPA drinkers I know, so they can avoid things they don't enjoy. It's also trended locally (Ballard) towards golf - see Reuben's releasing a zero-ibu IPA.

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

#203
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I wonder why we are not seeing "cloud brewing"? The process, as they describe it, seems very standard. 2. For restaurants, it's either "ghost/cloud kitchens" or franchises. If you go outside those, it's possible that restaurants require too much uniqueness and too much risk to fit a standardized model.

As others point out, contract brewing is definitely a thing, but a better comparison than cloud computing would be shared hosting: you're stuck with whatever stack they happen to have installed, no admin rights, and you get the same dismal bandwidth as all other tenants. Or back to brewing: yup, the process is fairly standard – and how could it not be – but great breweries tend to be great not just because they have…

Why are only few breweries that good ?

And is that something that can, with the right investment be scaled, and offered affordably ?

Or is it inherently expensive ?

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

#204
post #78

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'…

It feels a little cynical. You can enjoy beer and music and stuff without getting into a dick measuring contest. If all they want to do is one-up you then they’re not your friend. Find someone who listens to you. If that’s their way of enjoying things, then what’s so bad about it? They presumably dislike a lot of the hobbies you enjoy, they’re not out there to ‘mentrify’ them. (Why this gendered insulting is okay whe…

And where did we see the objections you've posted against gendered insults against women? Citations please. Else this is a hypocritical remark, that is its own answer.

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

#205
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…

"Cheating" with hops is a dumb myth that needs to die. High hopping rates present a number of challenges that make this notion ridiculous. Shitty brewers make shitty hoppy beers just as much as they make shitty lagers, ambers, etc. The real story is that hoppy beer sells. That's the whole story; there's no other reason why they are so prevalent. The end. To make these beers, here's what you have to deal with: * The H…

I think craft beer has an inferiority complex compared to wine, and the diversity in hops are another attempt at a beer equivalent to terroir (where wine takes on different characteristics based on climate, soil, and other factors). The rise of sours and wild yeast strains are being marketed similarly, as are limited-run stouts that should be aged by the buyers. All of this on a beverage whose legacy has been the quest for consistency.

It's a strange side effect of craft beer's "elevated" status. Multiple breweries in the same town need to differentiate themselves as if they are farms growing the same product acres apart. The more I think about the bizarre trends in the industry, the more I appreciate beer history.

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

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fun and clever little label for a trend that's quite obvious when it's pointed out! Someone upthread mentioned stinky cheese, dry wine, and peaty Islay Scotch. Those things don't yet have absolute metrics - it'd be amusing to see what happens if they ever do.

The future is now. For wine, there's the "Total Polyphenol Index": https://www.decanter.com/learn/advice/tannin-scale-ask-decan... For peat in Scotch, the "phenol parts per million": https://www.theyorkshiregent.com/whisky/the-scotch-whisky-pe... Not sure if someone's found a way to game cheese yet.

Wonderful.

Wikipedia sorely needs a page listing quantitative metrics of comestible qualia.

Inspired by those two, I went on a hunt for a cheese metric but the search results got rapidly unpleasant ("Why does it smell like Swiss cheese behind my ears?" was what made me finally close the tab.)

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

#207
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, the defining characteristic of that style of beer (american pilsner) is being brewed with corn or rice. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using rice/corn in beer, anymore than there being something wrong with using wheat in beer. Corn gives it a distinct flavor. Try a kentucky common sometime. It's basically an amber brewed with a significant percentage of corn. I think bud actually only uses…

Two-row is the old style barley. My problem with Bud is it doesn’t have much flavor or character for a pilsner - especially the Lite. Carbonated malt pop.

Well, "old style" isn't quite the right term, but 6-row is generally produces a bit lower percentage of fermentable sugars and has more proteins. It's not something you typically brew a beer with unless you're using adjunct grains or some two row in addition.

On the flavor part, I agree. I prefer Miller if we're going with the big breweries. Doesn't make it a bad beer, though, just a lighter profile.

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

#208
post #137
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels a little cynical. You can enjoy beer and music and stuff without getting into a dick measuring contest. If all they want to do is one-up you then they’re not your friend. Find someone who listens to you. If that’s their way of enjoying things, then what’s so bad about it? They presumably dislike a lot of the hobbies you enjoy, they’re not out there to ‘mentrify’ them. (Why this gendered insulting is okay whe…

Turning things into competitions often has extremely negative externalities. The desire to be the richest, or have the biggest house, or the fastest car, or drink the most alcohol, etc... destroys lives. And this kind of status scrambling is not exclusive to men.

Competition is why our modern standard of living is what it is. People seeking to do things better, faster and cheaper in order to make a buck (or even just for the bragging rights) in order to improve their own personal standard of living gives us electric lighting, oranges in February, the massive amount of infrastructure it takes to get this comment from my fingertips to your eyeballs and every other part of modern life you don't notice but would notice if it were missing. Yes there's externalities but at a societal scale we do a pretty decent job of playing whack-a-mole as they become critical.

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

#209
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 dunno... I think it's easily explained by the market, that there are a ton of people who like hops.

I personally love super-hoppy beers. In a weird way, it feels kind of similar to the way I love super-spicy food, or 90% dark chocolate, or black coffee. It's just a big "kick" that's fun in and of itself.

With all these things, the flavor balances are certainly important, but obviously an aspect of it is out of balance and that's the whole point, what I like about it.

So just, to each their own. I know plenty of people who despise hoppy beer. I'm just glad there's a proper full range of flavors at my local average supermarket. There wasn't before.

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

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fun and clever little label for a trend that's quite obvious when it's pointed out! Someone upthread mentioned stinky cheese, dry wine, and peaty Islay Scotch. Those things don't yet have absolute metrics - it'd be amusing to see what happens if they ever do.

The future is now. For wine, there's the "Total Polyphenol Index": https://www.decanter.com/learn/advice/tannin-scale-ask-decan... For peat in Scotch, the "phenol parts per million": https://www.theyorkshiregent.com/whisky/the-scotch-whisky-pe... Not sure if someone's found a way to game cheese yet.

"Listeria per cubic centimeter" might be a bit overly edgy.

Occasionally, I'm rather fond of Vacherin Mont d'Or, which in its original, raw milk based, recipe, is kind of the equivalent of Fugu for the landlocked.

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