Random Beer Thoughts

[pen15clubmember]

You think that's bad?

****. You can't get into any beer/food thing in Austin for less than $60/person.

Independence Brewing just had one for $65/pp that included family-style fried chicken and a few beers....
http://independencebrewing.com/newsandevents/2017/family-craft-by-october-night-1

Jester King just had one that was $100.00 per person (granted that was six course meal).
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-hollow-terroir-dinner-at-jester-king-tickets-34602624381#

I keep having to ask myself who has the money to blow on a $200.00 dinner for two when it's not a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary....

<--- Not this guy.

I need to work on that whole "being born independently wealthy" thing more.

Bit of a zombie reply, but those things are usually $100 and up in the Bay Area and the beers are often just stuff you can get at Bevmo. I would give one a try at the $65 price point unless it had a bunch of shellfish, since I'm allergic :/

Sometimes Mikkeller Bar will have events that are $80 for like four 8 oz pours! I'm good on that, thx

 

[Lutter]

Bay Area

Do I even need to reply? lol.

 

[stupac2]

Babysitter, it's worth it. Though finding a babysitter is its own challenge.

Yeah we'll probably try something for our anniversary.

 

[WhalezB4Rarez]

Has anyone worked on their "cracking a cold one with the boys" meme yet?

 

[Lutter]

Has anyone worked on their "cracking a cold one with the boys" meme yet?

 

[JulianB1]

A message from Sam on current RateBeer changes

Dogfish Head has been part of the RateBeer.com network for quite some time. In fact, we’re fans of almost all websites, magazines, newsletters and blogs that help educate the public and inspire the consumption of great beer; publications that are passionate about sharing the love for our vibrant craft brewing renaissance that is now gaining traction around the globe. For many years, RateBeer, along with entities like BeerAdvocate, All About Beer, Draft, Celebrator, Ale Street, Brewing News and many more have championed this burgeoning and blossoming craft beer community in ways that are consistent with journalistic integrity.

We were troubled by the announcement last week that ZX Ventures, which is fully owned by the global conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev, has purchased a portion of RateBeer. We believe this is a direct violation of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics and a blatant conflict of interest. The SPJ’s Code of Ethics includes a section called “Act Independently” and includes the following guidelines:

• - Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
• - Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.
• - Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid or not.
• - Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.
• - Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two. Prominently label sponsored content.

It is our strong opinion that ABI’s ownership of RateBeer, and other properties positioned to cover the craft brewing community like October and thebeernecessities.com is in direct conflict with multiple guidelines listed above.

In the past, as executive editor of Pallet, a print magazine project that celebrated global craft beer culture, neither I nor Dogfish Head held any stake in the publication. As a company, Dogfish Head continually shows support for various craft beer publications through paid advertising campaigns.

To that end, we have respectfully asked Anheuser-Busch InBev and RateBeer to remove all Dogfish Head beer reviews and mentions on the RateBeer website immediately. It just doesn’t seem right for a brewer of any kind to be in a position to potentially manipulate what consumers are hearing and saying about beers, how they are rated and which ones are receiving extra publicity on what might appear to be a legitimate, 100 percent user-generated platform. It is our opinion that this initiative and others are ethically dubious and that the lack of transparency is troubling.

To our fellow independently-owned brewers, we encourage you to join us in this effort to ensure consumers continue to get the best and most accurate information about their beers. For everyone else, we encourage you to shift the sharing of your beer opinions and reviews to another platform that remains loyal to the principles of journalistic integrity. America’s Independence Day is just around the corner. Support the indie craft brewing movement!

Cheers,
Sam

I have absolutely no love for RateBeer, but if I were them I'd "respectfully" tell Sam and Dogfish Head to go pound sand. It's a rating, review, and info site. The idea that they should self-censor based on the opinions and desires of the field that they are covering is absurd. Also that message is pretentious as ****.

 

[Lutter]

A message from Sam on current RateBeer changes



I have absolutely no love for RateBeer, but if I were them I'd "respectfully" tell Sam and Dogfish Head to go pound sand. It's a rating, review, and info site. The idea that they should self-censor based on the opinions and desires of the field that they are covering is absurd. Also that message is pretentious as ****.

The **** did I just read?

Sam's head is so far up his ass with that press release that he can probably see China.

 

[RedCoffee]

But on the bright side, it opens up the market for TalkBeer to swoop right in!

"TalkBeer: our databases aren't potentially influenced by people with questionable commitment to transparency and rigorous journalism!"
...
"(also not partially owned by ABInBev!)"

 

[stupac2]

A message from Sam on current RateBeer changes



I have absolutely no love for RateBeer, but if I were them I'd "respectfully" tell Sam and Dogfish Head to go pound sand. It's a rating, review, and info site. The idea that they should self-censor based on the opinions and desires of the field that they are covering is absurd. Also that message is pretentious as ****.

...Why he is citing Journalism ethics? Does Ratebeer do anything besides aggregate user reviews?

 

[BadJustin]

Just made a entrepunereal investment. I'm taking it to lambic and sour shares.

(Credit: not mine)

 

[Josh2]

...Why he is citing Journalism ethics? Does Ratebeer do anything besides aggregate user reviews?

They have awards too.
Expect all future gold medals to be awarded to ABI beers and perfect reviews.

 

[tikk]

A message from Sam on current RateBeer changes



I have absolutely no love for RateBeer, but if I were them I'd "respectfully" tell Sam and Dogfish Head to go pound sand. It's a rating, review, and info site. The idea that they should self-censor based on the opinions and desires of the field that they are covering is absurd. Also that message is pretentious as ****.

Looks like Sam is looking for some free publicity here. After seeing the WW beer geek fallout, he is jumping into this to try and seem edgy to the beer scene. The Dogfish head drinker sees this move as a big **** you to ABI.

 

[purephase]

It's about ethics in beer review journalism.

 

[reverseapachemaster1]

It's about ethics in beer review journalism.

Beer reviews on RB is not journalism, Sam.

 

[reverseapachemaster1]

They have awards too.
Expect all future gold medals to be awarded to ABI beers and perfect reviews.

I don't believe that will happen. One of the purposes of buying these sites is to give the veneer of legitimacy to their craft purchases. Too much ABI love will direct people to point out what you have said. Instead they will let RB be the dumpster it is but slowly insert more ABI product marketing into the site. That veneer of legitimacy is critical to their craft brand acquisition business. In the past they have always tried to create brands out of thin air and it didn't work because people had no attachment to them.

 

[BillinJersey]

Has Sean Hill run out of relatives to name beers after, and is he just watching Ken Burns' "The Civil War" to come up with new beer names?

 

[litheum94]

Beer reviews on RB is not journalism, Sam.

Reviews may not be, but there is also this:

 

[PHBoiler]

Just made a entrepunereal investment. I'm taking it to lambic and sour shares.

(Credit: not mine)

Just pair it with a filter that fits over the buttocks to immediately offset lambic farts and you will have solved the issues of sour beer.

 

[arren]

A message from Sam on current RateBeer changes



I have absolutely no love for RateBeer, but if I were them I'd "respectfully" tell Sam and Dogfish Head to go pound sand. It's a rating, review, and info site. The idea that they should self-censor based on the opinions and desires of the field that they are covering is absurd. Also that message is pretentious as ****.

What is it about people in beer that makes them so ******* self-important and just wholly unbearable? We're going through this whole same damn thing in San Diego after a 10 Barrel opened up in downtown, and I'm ******* sick of it.

 

[stupac2]

They have awards too.
Expect all future gold medals to be awarded to ABI beers and perfect reviews.

Except the awards are transparently based on aggregate user reviews. If RB started skewing things to give ABI properties better ratings, it would be super obvious and people would notice.

I don't get why people are reading so much into this, preferential access to data is valuable. An ABI property paid for that. If there's anything more than that going on here I'd be surprised, and if there's anything sinister about that to you then you're overthinking it.

 

[Lutter]

Except the awards are transparently based on aggregate user reviews. If RB started skewing things to give ABI properties better ratings, it would be super obvious and people would notice.

I don't get why people are reading so much into this, preferential access to data is valuable. An ABI property paid for that. If there's anything more than that going on here I'd be surprised, and if there's anything sinister about that to you then you're overthinking it.

Ding.

People don't get it. Esp new money beer people. This is a data play to identify trends.

 

[Shakedwnst]

Ding.

People don't get it. Esp new money beer people. This is a data play to identify trends.

Are we assuming they have already leveraged the untappd backend data too?

 

[Josh2]

Except the awards are transparently based on aggregate user reviews. If RB started skewing things to give ABI properties better ratings, it would be super obvious and people would notice.

I don't get why people are reading so much into this, preferential access to data is valuable. An ABI property paid for that. If there's anything more than that going on here I'd be surprised, and if there's anything sinister about that to you then you're overthinking it.

That was a completely tongue in cheek post.

The ABI hysteria is almost as nauseating at the Trump hysteria.

 

[TommyShitt]

Ding.

People don't get it. Esp new money beer people. This is a data play to identify trends.

I mean...duh. I don't think this is a "how long you've been into beer" thing, anyone with a rudimentary understanding of business can comprehend this. I didn't know we even needed to state it specifically.

 

[2plums4one]

Ding.

People don't get it. Esp new money beer people. This is a data play to identify trends.

Good luck deriving useful data out of all 5/5's. Seriously though, they just paid pennies on the dollar for what otherwise would be very expensive market research.

 

[litheum94]

What is it about people in beer that makes them so ******* self-important and just wholly unbearable? We're going through this whole same damn thing in San Diego after a 10 Barrel opened up in downtown, and I'm ******* sick of it.

It's kind of adorable that you think this behavior only occurs among people in beer.

 

[pen15clubmember]

Except the awards are transparently based on aggregate user reviews. If RB started skewing things to give ABI properties better ratings, it would be super obvious and people would notice.

I don't get why people are reading so much into this, preferential access to data is valuable. An ABI property paid for that. If there's anything more than that going on here I'd be surprised, and if there's anything sinister about that to you then you're overthinking it.

OPEN YOUR EYES BRO - this is clearly an early step on the path back to another dark ages of beer! BIG BEER has been so devious in dominating "indie beer" that we only have 5,000 breweries in the US. We'd have 25K if it weren't for their probably illegal meddling.

 

[BadJustin]

**** me, there is a 100 ft North "Vintage" coming out- a blend of different barrels. I need this so bad. Thevicster, looks like my trip down will be sooner than later.

 

[JulianB1]

Tawd on the BA thread about the RateBeer/ABI deal:

"Bottom-line: We don't bend over backwards or compromise our integrity for advertising dollars."

Remind me again, about how you won't allow discussion of mead/cider/non-beer products but you will run ads for them in BA magazine? I guess that's not compromising your integrity?

 

[RedCoffee]

Tawd on the BA thread about the RateBeer/ABI deal:

"Bottom-line: We don't bend over backwards or compromise our integrity for advertising dollars."

Remind me again, about how you won't allow discussion of mead/cider/non-beer products but you will run ads for them in BA magazine? I guess that's not compromising your integrity?

Can't compromise integrity if you don't have integrity to compromise.