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Comment by throwawayjava | Hacker News Reader

The German beer example is funny and seriously dates the article.

Turns out that "how to get rich" (as opposed to stay rich) in American beer making between 1999 and 2018 was 100% to copy the German model. Regional and microbreweries soared from ~4 bbls ~22 bbls between 2004 and 2017.

And that definitely wasn't the result of "government intervention". It was the result of people realizing they should be able to make and drink good beer without flying to Germany with empty suitcases...

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I think a major factor in the rise of the micro-brew in the US was removal of "government intervention". Brewing your own beer was illegal from Prohibition until Congress and Carter changed the law and 1978. Home brewing was no longer outlawed and now one can legally brew up to 100 gallons of beer a year without paperwork. Much easier to get interested in brewing beer if you can easily do it legally.

Turns out the Germans are actually looking to revise a 500-year-old law defining beer. You see, the Americans have developed a taste for flavored craft beers, often from these same microbreweries, and exported it worldwide... Meanwhile, in Germany, beer is legally defined as being made solely of barley, hops, water, and yeast. The time-honored German beer industry can't keep up with the shifting tastes.

Labeling it as something other than Beer seems like an easy compromise.

Barley wine, malt liquor, grain champaigne?

Heck -- label it Bier for real beer, and Beer for beer with extra crap.

(Disclaimer: I pretty much dislike all beers I've tried, so I don't have a horse in the race)

My understanding was that Belgium has always been big on a huge variety of non-traditional beer styles; lambic beers, champagne beers, dubbel, tripel, quadrupel, etc. I would think that would be a much closer and longer-term influence than the craft beer movement in the US. I've never been over there but really want visit those two countries specifically for the beer.

One of the things I really like about beer is that its moderate shelf-life means it doesn't transport well. Everyone who goes to Ireland has some sort of variation of, "I don't even like Guinness, but it's amazing and completely different over there." It doesn't help that beers like Newcastle, Becks, and Heineken use clear or green bottles that ruins them more quickly. I've heard anecdotes from Australians who get their hands on American craft brews and were disappointed by off flavors--but later find out it's because it was skunked or stale in transport.

I feel like that moderate shelf life keeps local beers local and makes traveling to new areas interesting.

I don't know if it is like this across the entire US, but at least here in the Pacific Northwest, every small scale brewery seems to offer a choice between an IPA or... another IPA. In this regard, I'd much rather the choice among a Pinkus Alt, a Koeztritzer schwartzbier, or a Bitburger, even if they do outwardly appear outdated following a 500-year old law.

IPAs are definitely a very popular type of beer, but I don't think I've ever seen a brewery that only does IPAs.

In the summer it can be a struggle to find something that's not an IPA or a mass market pilsner around here. My wife hates IPAs and this is a frequent complaint.

I really dislike most all IPAs. I hear the hop craze has been much worse on the west coast. I hate that the choices are often three IPAs or a pilsner--but that seems to be what sells.

I am grateful that places like Stone, known for their IPAs, has a good Stone Smoked Porter...it seems fairly popular, but much less widely distributed. Same with Alaskan Brewing; they have a good Smoked Porter, and it's been around for years, but it's "Limited Edition" and harder to find.

I feel like IPAs have slowly started changing from "punch you in the face with tree sap" to more floral hop varieties, which I like more.

>I hate that the choices are often three IPAs or a pilsner

It often worse than that - three IPAs, a "Pale Ale," a "Golden Ale," a "double IPA," a "Hazy Pale," a "Fresh hop Ale," and another IPA. Then they throw in a hoppy gose just to be edgy.

It's cool, I get it; there are a lot of beer drinkers who like a heavy hop flavor, and they are often passionate and outspoken about their beer. But I about lost it when I went into a place and ordered a schwartzbier that had the flavor profile of an IPA. There is a rich tapestry of beers, for all palates, and I really hope US brewers get back to realizing that.

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