Controversial Beer Opinions Thread

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/41018/378200/?ba=papposilenus#review

 

The expression is soda pop. I am okay with you folks shortening it to pop, though. Then again we easterners don't usually put so much stock in our regional variations where we feel the need to correct others

Brah

 

This is a common explanation of how the market works, but it’s only half true. Because it doesn’t explain how new products/trends are able to become popular and fundamentally change the market.

Hazy IPAs weren’t always thing. Consumers didn’t demand them. But a few brewers started making them, consumers realized they liked them, demand started to skyrocket, and now everyone and their mother makes them and they’re the the hot thing in the craft beer world. The point is, consumer demand didn’t create hazy IPAs, some brewers with a particular vision of IPA did. They basically taught the consumer what they should want. Sure, they were playing off of tastes, textures, etc that they found enjoyable and right assumed consumers would too. The building blocks were there. But this idea that basic consumer demand is responsible for what we get in the market is just wrong or at least incomplete.

Think about things like fashion. Every year in Milan and Paris and London designers release crazy, fanciful styles that are wildly different than what you see at a Target or on the streets of anytown USA, but several years later those styles, or the elements thereof, have filtered down to the masses. That’s not because the masses demanded it but because someone convinced the masses to like it. This happens all the time in basically every industry.

So, for all you know, maybe someone will finally get guarana soda to catch on one day. Consumer tastes change, maybe you’re just ahead of the curve At a bare minimum, consumer demand isn’t static or monolithic. If can be changed; it is changed all the time; and it’ll continue to change based on the innovations, marketing, etc that business test it with.

 

Market research in support of new ideas is based on analyzing consumer demand and trends. The folks who decide what to experiment with do so because they think that consumers will buy it. No one puts a new beer on the market, and does so thinking, gee, I hope this sells, it is against every trend in food and beverage. Well, that's not strictly true, home brewers brew things and don't care if they sell.

And to your point about guarana. It is the largest selling soda in Brasil. It was this market data that gave the idea that Americans might like it, not some blind shot in the dark of hope. Consumers decided they didn't like it here, which drives the decisions of the soda makers, as it does all things in all industries.

 

There should be a rule for bars and breweries that IPAs cannot take over one-third of the tap space. Tired of going to places proclaiming the name of craft beer but having IPAs dominate the tap lines, and thus I can’t find anything to drink.

 

Even as some who loves big stouts, I think there needs to be a step back from all manner of barrel aging. It really seems like the barrel is treated as an integral part of brewing, rather than just as a final step to top off an already solid stout. I have to wonder how unexceptional a lot of the BA stouts would be if you separated the barrel from the beer.

 

Wish that rule would apply to store shelves as well.

 

Lulz if you think the Alchemist, then Hill Farmstead, then Tree House did market research to see if they should brew hazy IPAs. They did it because they like them, supposed others would too, and took the risk of finding out. I’m not suggesting it’s black and white, either/or here — clearly any business takes some account of whether they think they can be viable with their product. But if you think businesses, particularly ones with an artisan component like brewing, are making decisions solely on market research and consumer trends you’re incredibly naive and/or in denial.

(And, of course, your thesis and replies have still failed to offer any explanation of how paradigm shifting products come to market. Cmon, Dave, put on that thinking cap!)

 

Brotatochip, I am a native Easterner. It's where I learned to always correct others.

Brahamas.

 

I've never seen any reluctance by any American, including Easterners, to assert the correctness of their regional diction. Of course, mid-westerners are correct in doing so, while others are uneducated heathens.

 

Calling the drinks pop just sounds so juvenile. It should really be done away with.

The true term for soft drinks should be Coke. (I just. Although I am from Texas I loathe that use as a generic name. If I say I want a Coke I mean I want a Coca-Cola).

Soda means Sodium Bicarbonate (or Carbonate). That was originally used to create carbonated beverages.

So Soda began to refer to all carbonated beverages.

There are qualifiers for these though.

There is Soda water or Club Soda which are carbonated water and used to bastardize scotch.
There is Soda pop which are sweetened soft drinks used to bastardize bourbon.

It's equally appropriate to shorten soda pop as either soda or pop but as I said previously the use of pop just sounds so much more juvenile.

 

Haha bad news Rochester is def. more great lakes than it is east. But I agree about your characterization of the manners of people in that area

 

There is a color committee of industrial designers. They go over data and project what the next big thing is. Colors are rolled out in a sequence that has product lead timing considered. If the color is a dud, they can pull it out. It goes something like clothing, kitchen gadgets, household appliances, cars and trucks. A friend's wife was on it for a while

I think beer is more organic, even chaotic, in what happens. A few breweries in a small area make a Hazy IPA, then the region, it becomes NEIPA nation wide. Brut IPA was started by one brewer in the Bay area, and it spread. In both cases there are variation to the product as brewers learn to make it. No committee exists to create new styles to spread those around.

 

*sigh* - Still my favorite thread (well, that isn't WBAYDN)... - also, beer CAN be too fresh!
(shots fired)

 

Someone else had a thread about this very thing. Something about how no barrel aged beer was better than its regular version. I do enjoy both but I would have to agree for the most part that barrel ageing didn't make the beers better, just different...

 

Also of note, some BA Stouts are not based on an available non-BA version. For instance, some folks have speculated that KBS is simply BA FBS, but it's not. It's based on a stout designed for this purpose, and otherwise generally unavailable. Occasionally an otherwise unavailable base beer is made available on tap as a novelty, and they aren't good.

It does seem like there are a lot of BA beers, and there does seem to be a trend to offer one or more BA versions of traditional stouts. People must like them though, since a majority of the time the BA version is higher rated.

 

Dave, I told my wife last night that I was old fashioned 50 years ago. And I was.,,,

 

Excuse me Y'all, its a soft drink because there ain't no likker in it'. Cheerwine anyone?

 

A little known fact folks from the PNW will tell you, incessantly if you let them, Cheerwine was first made in the PNW and is properly called Cascadian Cheerwine.

 

My mother once told me that I was born old. I'm not sure what to believe...