So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery (2014) • Hacker News Board

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

#211

Post by jdpigeon » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 10:41 PM UTC

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…

As a homebrewer, my experience is that adding a bunch of hops is just the easiest way to ensure your beer tastes good. Hops are really good at covering up off-flavors. Making kick-ass beers in other styles, especially subtle ones like hefeweizens and blonde ales, usually requires masterful control of the brewing and fermentation processes.

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

#212

Post by mumblemumble » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 10:42 PM UTC

larnmar wrote: post #201

vict00ms wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would also be willing to believe that the, for lack of a better term, dick-measuring, isn't something that men inherently do more; we're just primed to see it that way due to sexist stereotypes. And/or they get away with it more easily 'cuz hegemony.

Evidences:

At quilting shows, numeric boasting is also common - number of hours, number of pieces, number of spools of thread, I've even seen a count of the number of broken quilting needles.

Carbon fiber knitting needles are a thing. I own some. The packaging talks about how carbon fiber is also used in aerospace. (In case, I dunno, you need to get those puppies moving through the air really fast, maybe?)

My grandmother's approach to baking Christmas cookies.

(That said, MENTRIFICATION is a hilarious term, I chuckled out loud, and I will be using it in the future, with only moderate fear that doing so will emasculate me or invert the patriarchy, and minor hope that people who like to complain about political correctness will be offended on political grounds.)

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

#213

Post by asdf21 » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 10:43 PM UTC

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'…

Let me frame that in a way that might make you feel less... disgusted apparently.

Men used to primarily compete at killing one another and general conquest -- these all seem like fairly harmless alternatives comparatively.

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

#214

Post by specialp » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

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 think IPAs have made for peak craft beer and it is going down.

You are right about IPAs being easy to cover up poor brews. I brew, and people are really surprised when I tell them one of the hardest possible beers to brew would be a Budweiser clone, and one of the easiest is an IPA. Most IPA's have a very simple single malt and mash cycle, and it is essentially a hot tea made with hops. Then most of them are fermented. with some Safale high attenuation pretty bland US-05 yeast derivative. Any error or not even error with a pale lager like Budweiser would be exposed. It also takes a long time to make lagers due to the lagering progress and fermentation needing refrigeration.

The problem with people drinking these fresh dank double IPAs all the time is that every other style then seems bland as your taste buds are completely destroyed from drinking 100 IBU triple dry hopped beer. Then eventually you get sick of it, and every hazy juicy IPA starts becoming the same. There are way too many breweries now making generic silver cans filled with double IPA with some interesting art sticker. I'd short the craft beer industry if it were a stock.

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

#215

Post by jdpigeon » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 10:46 PM UTC

mumblemumble wrote: post #81

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…

Former home brewer and, for a short time, amateur beer judge here. You've got it right. It's not that more hops = better beer. It's that more hops = easier beer. Malt-forward beers are much more difficult to get right, and require a lot of very careful attention to detail. Hops are easy: Just throw them into the batch and set a timer. Their strong flavor is also useful for masking a lot of consistency problems and of…

Saw your comment after basically making the same point to the parent. You really nailed it, especially with regards to shelf life and scale.

Thinking of it, all the times I remember being really knocked off my feet by a malt-forward beer was on draft at small scale breweries.

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

#216

Post by scrumper » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC

microtherion wrote: post #210

munificent wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well apparently it's a bacterium called Brevibacterium linens that causes the stinky. So say the renowned biochemists at Readers' Digest magazine.

I've never tried your Swiss gloop but I am intrigued. One online seller claims that, "with one taste, [it] commands spontaneous exuberance." I wonder what form the exuberance takes? I will look out for it.

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

#217

Post by dropofwill » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 10:48 PM UTC

larnmar wrote: post #201

vict00ms wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The point is that this is a general trend in culture not specifically brewing. That’s why they ended with the example of knitting, they even included the parenthetical disclaimer that it’s not always men.

Mentrification is just a clever play on words.

The actual observation definitely rings true for me. I remember as a middle schooler not wanting to admit i was learning guitar until i was ’good enough’.

I think this is definitely tied to identity. Something that you can work at and see demonstrable progress is comforting in a way, but i can see how it easily leads to passion as competition.

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

#218

Post by Aloha » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 11:01 PM UTC

specialp wrote: post #214

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 think IPAs have made for peak craft beer and it is going down. You are right about IPAs being easy to cover up poor brews. I brew, and people are really surprised when I tell them one of the hardest possible beers to brew would be a Budweiser clone, and one of the easiest is an IPA. Most IPA's have a very simple single malt and mash cycle, and it is essentially a hot tea made with hops. Then most of them are fermen…

Oddly this doesn't surprise me at all - I figured IPA's were popular because it was a relatively easy way to make a consistent small batch product.

I'm not really a beer person, but when I am its usually Coors Banquet or Pacifico, both of which I find tasty and refreshing (particularly on a hot day, with BBQ or Mexican). I also love Yuengling when I'm in the area for it, its the only beer I've gone out of my way to order.

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

#219

Post by closetohome » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 11:06 PM UTC

FernandoTN wrote: post #24

Running a brewery ends up being more about running a business than actually brewing... Every corp ends up being much more intensive in the administrative side once the process or product has been standardized or reached a stable version. Isn't this the case for most businesses, including tech?

Yep. Any and every kind of small business is a business first.

I figured that out from doing photography. People are like "wow you take good pictures you should be a photographer." They never go "wow you love working long hours and doing paperwork, you should start a business!"

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

#220

Post by TravHatesMe » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 11:10 PM UTC

specialp wrote: post #214

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 think IPAs have made for peak craft beer and it is going down. You are right about IPAs being easy to cover up poor brews. I brew, and people are really surprised when I tell them one of the hardest possible beers to brew would be a Budweiser clone, and one of the easiest is an IPA. Most IPA's have a very simple single malt and mash cycle, and it is essentially a hot tea made with hops. Then most of them are fermen…

Do people honestly enjoy a 100 IBU beer? I never understood the hype around strong IPAs. What percentage of consumers honestly enjoy it and what percentage are riding the bandwagon. I have often heard "ah this isn't bitter enough" when someone is drinking a high IBU beer.. is this some way of flexing on others? I enjoy beer but not these crazy IPAs. To each their own I suppose.