Looking for something else entirely, I stumbled upon this opinion piece about beer and terroir. http://tempestinatankard.com/2013/12/16/terroir-and-the-making-of-beer-into-wine/ If you don't want to read through it fully, it basically says that while wine making is partly about the terroir and partly about the decisions the wine maker makes; beer is only about the beer maker. The writer suggests that terroir plays no role whatsoever in beer making. Personally I am torn. Do I really think that where the barley and hops grow has an impact on the beer itself? Part of me says it has to. The other part says when the beers are so meticulously crafted by choosing certain ingredients, the final product is solely the work of the beer maker. If a beer maker buys, say, Cascade hops grown in Oregon V California, or if the barley comes from the west coast or the center of the U.S., would the same beer taste any different? Opinion?
Yes. Please go here for further discussion of this topic. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/terroir-and-beer.138611/
