Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by fouc » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:01 AM UTC

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/…

My favourite beer ever may have been a sour aged in a bourbon cask. It was one of those one-off brews that may never appear again.

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

#42

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:02 AM UTC

40acres wrote: post #5

I wonder if marijuana will also be able to avoid being crushed and consolidated by monopolies. I don't think the cigarette industry was able to avoid it but I am not well versed on tobacco industry regulations. My gut tells me that since at the end of the day marijuana is an agricultural commodity large players will come to dominate the market. But on the other hand there is a decent variety in strain types and flavo…

[deleted]

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

#43

Post by djrogers » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:02 AM UTC

ybrah wrote: post #25

fluxic wrote: post #15

Don't blame me! —PBR loyalist

Was drinking a PBR as I read this. I feel ashamed

Don’t be, I’m sure it’s breakfast time somewhere....

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

#44

Post by blahyawnblah » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:04 AM UTC

ybrah wrote: post #25

fluxic wrote: post #15

Don't blame me! —PBR loyalist

Was drinking a PBR as I read this. I feel ashamed

Why?

I drink Coors Light all the time when I'm working out in the shop

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

#45

Post by odonnellryan » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:05 AM UTC

fouc wrote: post #41

throwaway5752 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/…

My favourite beer ever may have been a sour aged in a bourbon cask. It was one of those one-off brews that may never appear again.

Sours are interesting. I've had some amazing ones, and some ... bad ones (to me at least). However I'm absolutely glad I've tried them out. Like drinking yogurt beer :)

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

#46

Post by throwaway5752 » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:06 AM UTC

fouc wrote: post #41

throwaway5752 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/…

My favourite beer ever may have been a sour aged in a bourbon cask. It was one of those one-off brews that may never appear again.

https://www.wickedweedbrewing.com/locations/funkatorium/ would be up your alley.

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

#47

Post by Trundle » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:07 AM UTC

40acres wrote: post #5

I wonder if marijuana will also be able to avoid being crushed and consolidated by monopolies. I don't think the cigarette industry was able to avoid it but I am not well versed on tobacco industry regulations. My gut tells me that since at the end of the day marijuana is an agricultural commodity large players will come to dominate the market. But on the other hand there is a decent variety in strain types and flavo…

One thing about beer that the article didn't touch on is that it's a fragile product which has its quality harmed by the standard supply chain. It's both temperature and light sensitive.

This makes many smaller producers compared to few large producers more attractive than in a more easily transported good eg. phones. One big factory with all of the quality standards and efficiency gains that allows works great for the iPhone, not so much beer.

I don't know enough about weed to be able to say where it falls on the fragility of product spectrum, but it's a factor worth considering and I'd be interested to hear from people who do know enough.

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

#48

Post by real_estate » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:09 AM UTC

40acres wrote: post #5

I wonder if marijuana will also be able to avoid being crushed and consolidated by monopolies. I don't think the cigarette industry was able to avoid it but I am not well versed on tobacco industry regulations. My gut tells me that since at the end of the day marijuana is an agricultural commodity large players will come to dominate the market. But on the other hand there is a decent variety in strain types and flavo…

Yeah, farmer's markets are bullshit.

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

#49

Post by real_estate » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:12 AM UTC

sf_rob wrote: post #26

40acres wrote: post #5

I wonder if marijuana will also be able to avoid being crushed and consolidated by monopolies. I don't think the cigarette industry was able to avoid it but I am not well versed on tobacco industry regulations. My gut tells me that since at the end of the day marijuana is an agricultural commodity large players will come to dominate the market. But on the other hand there is a decent variety in strain types and flavo…

In Oregon, AFAIK the laws were structured in such a way to help local growers. Growers had to be residents for X months and were quite limited in operation size to spread things out.

Oregon probably has the friendliest laws of any US state to "small" entrepreneurs (licensing fees and residency requirements).

Places like Florida and West Virginia are more "big-money" oriented.

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

#50

Post by Brendinooo » Wed, Jan 24, 2018, 1:17 AM UTC

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 deal to ship and store those ingredients, correct? There are more pieces to a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato than a beer - and meat, cheese, and produce can be harder to consistently source and keep. And because craft is a pure luxury good, price isn't as big of an issue here is as it usually is when you talk about these things.