Comment by ctdonath | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ctdonath | Hacker News Reader

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Indeed. "Functionally equivalent" all too often misses the point.

Endless arguments have been had over Apple computers vs. "functionally equivalent" computers for far lower costs ... funny thing is, it's Apple that has achieved "most valuable company worldwide period" status, showing customers see something superior in addition to the standard simplistic comparison charts.

Ditto cars. For years I wondered "what is it about BMWs and other German cars? ok, they're built nice, but really - why?" Then I drove a Mercedes on the Autobahn. Sometimes you just can't quantify in simple charts the difference between "can do" vs. "excellent" - but customers demand and pay for it.

Coffee? Snob here. Haven't gone so far as roasting my own, but have gone thru endless varieties, roasts, and makers to settle on palatable superiority.

Beer? No, it's NOT an acquired taste. Bavarian brews bought & imbibed in Bavaria are 100x better than the canned swill here.

But of course, the cheap & premium stuff are considered "functionally equivalent" by the rabble. Let them be content in their ignorance.

I agree with your core point, in some areas even a small variation in quality is worth paying a premium for.

But, Apple made most of their recent profit and revenue from sales of gadgets like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, so Apple as a "computer company" does not really support your point. (See http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/10/despite-record-mac... )

[fixed grammar]

Their computers are still extremely popular and premium priced - and Apple sells a lot of them. Even just in its computer range, Apple commands mindshare among the public like no other company. The difference is palpable I think; at my university it almost seems like there is a class gap between those who have new Macbooks (~65%) and those who have Windows machines.

> Beer? No, it's NOT an acquired taste. Bavarian brews bought & imbibed in Bavaria are 100x better than the canned swill here.

While German friends are proud of their beer, they love American microbrews and practically survive on the stuff whenever they visit the US.

Budweiser and Millers are canned swill. Microbrews are not :-)

Budweiser is extremely close to a couple of the popular pilsners served in the czech republic. People who pretend otherwise are just pretentious.

They use 30% rice in the Czech Republic?

I know Alton Brown thinks Bud is excellent with sushi

Yes, says Daniel Davies: (http://crookedtimber.org/2007/05/10/in-praise-of-budweiser-c...)

Budweiser has rice in it. So what? So do Asahi and Kirin of Japan, Bintang of Indonesia and Efes of Turkey, and nobody has such a hate on about them. Lots of the people who claim to hate Budweiser will out of the same mouth discourse long and pretentious about the merits of sake. Rice is a perfectly sensible bulk grain to make beer out of if you want a light lager, particularly in countries like America which grow a protein-rich strain of barley. Plenty of real ale types will maintain that Anheuser-Busch uses rice in its brewing in order to save money, which shows a worrying lack of curiosity, as anyone making this argument can’t possibly have looked at the price of rice and the price of barley. Adolphus Busch in 1876 was a German master brewer of exactly the sort that beer nuts go gooey over, he was trying to make a high quality beer (as proved by Budweiser’s use of expensive Saaz hops), and he decided that the best way to brew a lager was to use rice.

That doesn't say Germans use rice. Busch was already in America by 1857.

I'm not saying it makes the beer worse. I'm saying I can't imagine rice being used in 1800's Germany in beer.

It has been my experience that American craft breweries make the best beer in the world, period. German beers (in Germany) are very good to be sure. However, I feel like you're just spewing the company line. Everyone "knows" the Germans make great beer. Whatever. American craft breweries use better ingredients, have better process and infinitely more imagination. 20 years ago the Germans and Belgians made better beer than us. No longer.

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