GrogNerd
mean old man
I disagree that the incentive is zero. Building goodwill and positive brand image with home brewers has value.
likelyhood that they would build goodwill with home brewers; inversely proportional to the size of the brewery
I disagree that the incentive is zero. Building goodwill and positive brand image with home brewers has value.
I disagree that the incentive is zero. Building goodwill and positive brand image with home brewers has value. How much value? I sure don't know, but giving some of the most passionate beer drinkers around an additional reason to like your brewery has value.
OK, some of that, but I'm sure if you looked at a pie chart of their customers, home brewers would be a very, very small piece. Of course, I'm making up statistics, but wth this is the internet.
I have to agree that I don't think there's any real incentive (from a business perspective) for a professional brewery to offer up their recipe's to the homebrewing world. What would we do? Organize and boycott them for withholding them? Doubtful.
Certainly not. Although I will say that when it comes to choosing between two otherwise equally appealing beers, I am now less likely to pick beers from Lazy Magnolia as a result of their response. So no, not a boycott, but when all else is approximately equal, their choice will impact my buying decisions.
Great point! I was just sitting here thinking about how I would feel staring at a Starr Hill brew and deciding on a purchase. Right or wrong, I don't think I would buy one right now.
in his defense, they do include ingredients on the particular brews' web page, just not exact grain bill or hop schedule.
doesn't make him any less of a dick
at the store today, I did pass up Northern Lights, The Gift and The Love for some other beers
No one is missing anything by passing up a Starr Hill. ba-ZIIING!!
Sorry, just had to snark. They make a couple decent beers but I don't care for most of their stuff. Anyway, sorry for going off topic...
hogwash said:No one is missing anything by passing up a Starr Hill. ba-ZIIING!!
Sorry, just had to snark. They make a couple decent beers but I don't care for most of their stuff. Anyway, sorry for going off topic...
OK, some of that, but I'm sure if you looked at a pie chart of their customers, home brewers would be a very, very small piece. Of course, I'm making up statistics, but wth this is the internet.
If you're going to make up statistics, do so with unassailable precision. Everyone knows 7.84% of craft brew is sold to rectangular cooler batch spargers! I'll agree that homebrewers are a small slice. But most craft breweries have minimal advertising budgets; cultivating the fanatical windbags is a cheap way of generating word-of-mouth. Plus if I'm trying to clone your beer, I have to keep buying six-packs so I can post side-by-side photos on HBT.
I am frequently amused by people who "clone" a beer they've never had. I get what they mean, but if you've never had it, how can you reasonably a. know that it isn't overhyped turd sauce in a bottle, b. your clone was indeed a clone and simply not another variation of a recipe?
says dude who lives 15 miles from the brewery
I completely agree. I have never been interested in cloning any commercial brew. I am very much inspired by commercial beers I have drank but never have I wanted to copy them verbatim. What is the point?...
Heheh. We are somewhat awash in their beer here and I used to drink the heck out of it. But I feel like the quality went down after they got the big distribution deal. The double platinum is quite good, or at least it was the last time I had it a couple summers ago. The initial version of Northern Lights was very good but they changed the recipe and it's not nearly as good now. The Dark Starr Stout is usually good, too. To be fair, I need to hit the tasting room sometime and try some of the new stuff.
My opinions, of course. Sorry to hijack the thread.
A saison is nothing like an IPA. That's an example of the rep either knowing nothing about beer or just trying to push their new offering on someone who doesn't know any better.
That being said, that's one of the new ones that I want to try. I love a good saison.
he also told me that if I let him know ahead of time, he would hook me up with some of their yeast
My belief is this truth telling is quite varied. I think you will have better chances of getting info from local breweries if you are local and drink their beer like a local does. I asked Odell BC from Fort Collins CO back in december for some guidance on their Isolation Ale. Not straight quantities, but just the grain bill and hops. Told them I would play around with it and figure the rest out. NOT a word back from them. I am disappointed, at the minimum at least an email saying they have a policy against distribution of recipe info would have been understandable.
Honestly, when at the point of purchase now, unless it is something I have never had from Odell I tend to pass on their beer. Simply because I was never given the time or effort of a easy reply, good or bad. My local breweries have never treated me this way. Maybe Odell is getting too big to care about a singular home brewer. I don't know......But they sure aren't doing themselves any favors either. Buy local, drink local is my motto these days.
I have never been interested in cloning any commercial brew. What is the point?
I can think of several reasons.
1.) Maybe the beer isn't available in your region. For example, I'm in Canada. I recently had an opportunity to taste my first DFH 60 Minute IPA. It was delicious. I want more. But I'm in Canada and it's not available up here. So I found a "clone" recipe and made my own.
2.) Maybe the beer is no longer available anywhere. Maybe the brewery that made your favorite beer got bought out by AB-InBev and they've butchered the recipe to make it more appealing to the masses. Maybe your favorite brewery just plain went bankrupt and closed up shop.
3.) Maybe it's a seasonal beer that's only available certain times of the year.
4.) Maybe the brewery changed their recipe. One of my favorite beers was from a local brewery, but every few months, they change the hops they use to brew it. I loved it when they made it with Zythos hops, but their current batch uses Summit, which I'm not a fan of. So they shared the recipe with me, and I made it myself, using the Zythos hops I prefer.
5.) Cost. Note that this is near the bottom of my list, but for some penny-pinchers, it's a real factor for them. They can make an almost identical beer for less cost than buying it. Especially up here, north of the border, where a 6-pack of decent craft beer will run you $15.
6.) The challenge. It can be fun to see how closely we can duplicate our favorite beers, and you can learn a lot in the process of trying.
There's 6 good reasons right there.
I am frequently amused by people who "clone" a beer they've never had. I get what they mean, but if you've never had it, how can you reasonably a. know that it isn't overhyped turd sauce in a bottle, b. your clone was indeed a clone and simply not another variation of a recipe?
By choosing a popular, well-reviewed recipe, of course.
The DFH 60-minute clone I brewed was using Yooper's recipe. It's the most popular thread in the IPA database on this website, with more than twice as many replies as the next-closest recipe (Bell's Two Hearted). It's been viewed 365,000 times and is rated 5 stars.
If it turns out to be "turd sauce in a bottle," then it's pretty well-reviewed, and thus I can only assume that DFH 60 Minute IPA itself also tastes like "turd sauce in a bottle."
I can think of several reasons.
1.) Maybe the beer isn't available in your region. For example, I'm in Canada. I recently had an opportunity to taste my first DFH 60 Minute IPA. It was delicious. I want more. But I'm in Canada and it's not available up here. So I found a "clone" recipe and made my own.
2.) Maybe the beer is no longer available anywhere. Maybe the brewery that made your favorite beer got bought out by AB-InBev and they've butchered the recipe to make it more appealing to the masses. Maybe your favorite brewery just plain went bankrupt and closed up shop.
3.) Maybe it's a seasonal beer that's only available certain times of the year.
4.) Maybe the brewery changed their recipe. One of my favorite beers was from a local brewery, but every few months, they change the hops they use to brew it. I loved it when they made it with Zythos hops, but their current batch uses Summit, which I'm not a fan of. So they shared the recipe with me, and I made it myself, using the Zythos hops I prefer.
5.) Cost. Note that this is near the bottom of my list, but for some penny-pinchers, it's a real factor for them. They can make an almost identical beer for less cost than buying it. Especially up here, north of the border, where a 6-pack of decent craft beer will run you $15.
6.) The challenge. It can be fun to see how closely we can duplicate our favorite beers, and you can learn a lot in the process of trying.
There's 6 good reasons right there.
which leads us to believe that "turd sauce in a bottle" must be pretty effin' tasty
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