I Love the little gems you have in your videos like the Vaseline in the backround within both camera angles 4:10 ... i love the content but i love little treasures like these even more. keep it up CH. love from South Africa
I laughed out loud at this comment because I thought the same exact thing. Sometimes it's subtle, other times not so much, but it's always there. HAHA!
Being a craftbeer superfan since 2006, I've seen a lot of changes. I think one of the main reasons for craft being so successful and at the same time for its failure is the IPA. At one point in time the IPA was this taboo overly bitter style that not many people would approach. As the West Coast IPA developed, changed, and grew in popularity, so did craft beer as a whole. With that came a lot of really bad examples of IPA. Ok, so what do you do to stand out in the crowd? You push the boundaries. Well X brewery made a solid IPA how about we make one but hoppier? How about a black IPA? Red IPA? White IPA? Then the hazies came to town. As younger generations came of age they wanted their own flavors and to create their own idea of what craft beer could be. So then came the cans of "I can't tell what the hell kind of beer this is inside" and all of the fruited kettle sours and lactose IPA's and all that shit. The big big brands kept trying to innovate and keep up with trends but didn't do well. I don't know what happened to my formerly beloved Stone but they stopped making their best beers and kep coming out with stupid beers no one likes. I live in Ventura County which has a younger beer scene but still virtually any taproom, tasting room, beer bar, sports bar, bar has like 18 IPA or IPA variants and a couple of light lagers on tap (with a couple of exceptions but they are few and far between). Then there are some older craft geeks like myself who don't enjoy paying $22 for a 4 pack direct from the local shit brewery. I don't enjoy paying $9 a pint at my local brewpub but I love the people in the local community so I support them. I find myself drinking more macros and classic beers like various Belgian quads when I drink beer anymore. It's sad to see the OG's fail but they grew too big I guess? Whoever took over Stone from Greg Koch really fucked it all up. Even in tiny ass Thousand Oaks we've seen some brewery closures. The bubble has burst.
I just want to shout out Société for hosting 30-40 blind and other disabled individuals at our CSUN conference. These people went above and beyond, and of the 8+ breweries I contacted at the time, they were the only one that were accessible to the visually impaired, were wheel chair accessible, and were cool with a few autistics coming through there. Societe rocks. They delivered, and knew the assignment.
White labs was great as well showing us all the cool shit they do. It looked like a goddamn CDC lab from the Walking Dead and we didn't have to go to Georgia to experience it.
Good vid, CH!! Around 30 breweries here in Richmond, VA and they’re all doing great. I went to Charleston, SC & Virgina Breach, VA and went on a brewery tour… All also jumping. I’m hoping it stays that way! 👍🍻
Craft beer seems to be actually coming into it's own in up here in Canuckistan, especially in smaller cities and towns. So many new little breweries in my area..
Excellent work and content! You did your homework. Although it’s a complicated Smorgasburg, some cities were just not made to host craft breweries and the margins they need to survive.
I think what's hurt craft brewing more than anything is local craft breweries charging $16-20 for a six pack of mediocre beer. It's cheaper to make my own beer home brewing (as long as you don't worry about all the equipment that I constantly buy).
I’m from Louisville, KY and there are decent amount of breweries and microbreweries. I totally agree. It’s not that it’s dying, it’s just different. I got into craft beer around 2013 and things have definitely changed. Some cities I frequent like Cincinnati seem to still be doing well though. Side note: I just moved to a really small town an hour south of St. Louis and I’m just glad that they have a brewery and a home brew supply shop 20 minutes away. With the help from your videos I’m now trying to make clones of the beers I used to enjoy, but can’t get anymore.
I got into craft in 2013 as well. Totally agree. In my honest opinion I miss what was in the shelf then compared to now. I also could enjoy beer without worrying about a gut then. 😂
Dude! Glad you’re getting the channel going again. I’ve missed the weekly videos. I was just in Johnson City for work, and Asheville this week. It was awesome to check out the beer scene. Hell I even found a pretty cool one in Hot Springs, NC.
The arms race to unleash the Jedi of the NEIPA from 2015-2019ish was the most exciting thing to happen to beer in my short life. Now that everyone knows how to do it, even the small guys have begun mass production with dextrose and lactose buy the bucketfill now everything tastes unoriginal and inorganic from what it used to be. I remember when you could smell fresh baked bread and oats in tired hands; last one I had tasted like syrup :(
Cooler weather finally hitting East Tennessee. Time to brew. By the way, we went to a tap house in Cleveland, TN last night, which was a Thursday, and it was packed.
Home brew will never die - especially in Scotland where we have Minimum Unit Price for Alcohol, where all the profit goes to the retailer, not back to the government.
Chea'Braj! Dropping some sick knowledge on this one. It's crazy that SD breweries close at 10pm, that's usually when I'm hitting my stride. Out here where I live, there's zero breweries in our city limit so we're moving quick to get ours going. 700+ new homes getting built and I have to drive 25minutes for craft beer, that's crazy.
You're asking a lot of good questions braj. It's an interesting rabbit hole to fall down and you should def do more stuff like this. Sad to hear about Stone. I remember when the suit with keystone came out, but then it just seemingly died. We can see how that played out. Solid investigative work dawg. Cheers!
Keep doing good work! I have learned a ton (and gotten into homebrew) from your channel! Thanks for keeping it real, informational and funny. Youdabraj!
Amazing job with this video. Such a great explanation of how the craft beer scene has changed since the late 90’s. Still great but definitely different.
Maaaan green flash west coast IPA was amazing! Miss it. Their green bullet was amazing as well. Probably the most hoppy piney IPA I've ever had. The only IPA that comes close to it is Pollyanna's lexical gap IPA.
Nice Geoff Rowley clip, beauty front tail! Also, Black Plague brewing is owned and operated by Canadian Pro Skater Jordan Hoffart, one of my favourites. I hope to check out their brewery someday! He rips
Had Ballast Point on tap one time 8 years ago and will never forget how good that was.....Have never found a beer like that again and fear that Ballast Point doens´t provide that taste anymore!
Travel to Ohio, not sure about micro breweries but I know bars close here at 2:30am. I heard columbus and cleveland have lots of micro breweries, I know the akron area has a few such as the "thirsty dog" Here's my idea for how to start a micro brewery, including food. Get a rough idea on how many people it would take to do everything, and find enough people willing to buy in. I heard it costs around $500,000 +/- to get one started. Lets say for this example its 20 people, that's $25,000 a person to put money down. That seems like the most realistic way to get the ball rolling. Another thing to consider, I recently took a job bid in maintenance where I work. Knowing how things work, how to fix things, etc could be very useful.
You made IPAs popular. That's about it. It really jumped the shark with artificial flavored gimmicky beers. I remember following some craft beer sites, people didn't even post pictures of the beers, only the can art seemed important. Even the biggest craft beer fans from the past now I see is mostly looking towards european well made classic style beers. It's no coincidence german lager is the most popular beer style in the world.
The South East is the new West Coast. From Ashville to Miami we are exploding with new breweries. There are like 5 new ones just opened in the last couple months in South Florida between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami.
@@HOMEBREW4LIFE Hit me up if you want if ever down in Miami. I am an alcoholic, live near three of the best local breweries, and usually have at least two or three kegs of homebrew on draft. For Tampa if you go... you have to go to Barriehaus. They are by far the best there.
That’s so true I am in Santa Maria. An hour north of Santa Barbara and the beer scene changes drastically. Midway is solvang a wine rich area and my favorite tap room/ home brew shop. The back room a speak easy. If your in the area stop by. From Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo county you can fine great breweries such as m special, Figueroa mountain, liquid gravity and captain Fatties. Also some ok breweries. I apologize since I generally drink my home brew if I missed any good breweries in the area. Special note SLO Cider and a goleta cider place were amazing. I only comment after a few drinks but for this channel I think that is appropriate. If want details comment and let me know. Homebrew for 5 years and hundreds of podcasts and TH-cam videos make me an expert
Constellation didn't buy Ballast Point for the brewery. They bought them for the spirits division. So they likely just unloaded the brewery when they got a chance.
Suffragettes closed breweries in 1919. It worked out for the owners of the big breweries because all they had to do was sit back and let suffragettes close down their competition, which suffragettes did for free. The big breweries survived Prohibition, just like Jack Daniels and Jim Beam did. The government took care of them because of who they were. Since there are thousands of craft breweries cutting into the money that the big boys want something similar to what took place in 1919 will occur but the big guys won't have suffragettes, they will have to spend some money to buy out the bigger craft breweries and use lawyers to get rid of the rest. When a craft brewer makes beer with single temperature infusion, which is the simplest and quickest brewing method on the planet capable of producing alcohol from grain a brewer can produce quite a high volume of beer in a day with a small brewing system and with very little cost. The brewer sells the cheaply produced beer at 6 to 10 bucks a pint and profit margin is high especially in areas where wages and utilities are low. The problem is that beer made from single temperature infusion and high modified, malt is called moonshiners beer. Moonshiners' beer is made from low quality extract. The brewer renamed the moonshiners beer ale when he wrote ale on the chalkboard. Let's say that a brewer wants to be honest with customers when he advertises that he makes ale and lager and to make beer he uses the step mash method which produces pseudo, ale and lager. Sierra Nevada uses the brewing method. The brewer spends more time producing beer with the step mash method but also purchases the more expensive, higher quality, malt and hops that are used with the brewing method. Conversion occurs in the step mash method and the brewer has to purchase a secondary fermenter, as well. Because of the higher cost of ingredients and the time involved with making pseudo, ale, the brewer using the step mash method cannot compete with a brewer using single infusion and cheap ingredients. There are a few craft brewers that use the decoction method, which produces authentic, ale and lager. The cost to produce the beer is very high. A brewer using the decoction method may break even if they sell their beer at 10 bucks a pint but to make a profit, they will have to sell it for more money. In 1960, the triple decoction method was replaced with the Hochkurz method in every brewery in the world that produced ale and lager and they still use the brewing method. The big boys know what type of beer the majority of craft brewers produce and how they make it, and they know it isn't ale and lager. When the hammer comes down the big boys will use science and lawyers to shut down craft breweries that aren't worth buying.
We came up with a theory on this, the places where beer is better and thriving, there is less to do. Beer pricing might also have something to do with it though.
If you're looking for another great craft brew city close to your new home make the trip down to Alabama. Straight to Ale, Yellowhammer and Rocket Republic are just a few located in Huntsville and if you stay on 65S a little longer to Birmingham you have Trim Tab, Ghost Train, Avondale and Good People among a few others. Craft scene here in the southeast seems to be doing extremely well. I have a lot of family out in California in the Monterey, San Jose and Salinas areas and it just seems like with the cost of living, goods, property, taxes, etc. is just cost prohibitive to most start ups and that is before you even get into actually opening your business and trying to make money.
Hope it's not dead. My family wants to open a brewery here in Michigan. I've been to 50+ breweries this year, and all seem to be doing well. Time will tell. PROST.
Someone from my local beer scene said to me I treat my brewery as the local pizza spot he's doing great little bit of distribution there's so many factors why they go on hard times
As someone coming from the MD & VA area to Socal I can say I was pretty disappointed in the beer scene here and I think you’re totally right. Breweries out there have much more room to get creative, build a unique ambiance, and have a tap list that isn’t 50%+ 1000 IBU IPAs. Their money just goes further.
I think it really depends. Sounds like San Diego breweries overextended themselves and there was oversaturation. Here in Belgium, only Brussels has a lot of microbreweries with taprooms. (15+ at least) The microbrewing scene in other cities is very small. 1-2 significant ones per city. Our beer culture is rooted in the traditional bar, taprooms are either only accessible when touring a brewery, or a pretty new 'trendy' thing. Not sure if they will stick around. Belgian beer drinkers are conservative and the average drinker wants a tripel or a dubbel, not a barrel aged milkshake NEIPA or something funky. I think the ones in Brussels wont all be around in 10 years.
anything bad that happens/happened to the craft beer scene in san diego is because all they wanna do is make shitty tasting IPA's. I started brewing in 2007 and made 1 IPA and hated it, and i remember the craft scene taking off but soon it was 95% IPA's. So i pretty much avoided the scene and stuck to my own homebrews.
Head North my friend. It seems like we are just getting into the groove here in Wisconsin. Im in the Green Bay area (county population about 270K) and we have 8 microbreweries if I counted correctly with a new one opening in late fall. Yep prices are mostly the 7-8 a pint here too but its still drawing people. Even if they all closed I would still brew my own as I have now for a few years since retiring from a living wage job. The scene is the same in other municipal areas. I have kids in Eau Claire and Madison which are smaller and bigger than Green Bay and those towns have great breweries that draw lots of people. No sign of slowing down. So I think San Diego was probably the benchmark for the sport of micros and maybe they oversaturated and some did sell out as you have shown but as you said craft beer is far from dead. Cheers man.
Braj click bait! 😂 I would love to open a brewery but the initial startup nut is very high and selecting the right location/city is insanely important. I don’t think craft brew is dead at all! California is just a shizzy place to operate a small business and San Diego is an over saturated market. Might be easier to open a tap room with a case. Keep em coming Braj!
Craft beer is definitely changing. Just a few years ago i was ordering in $10 cans to try new hops. Now my local bottle shop has that breweries freshest drop and 4-5 local breweries have a fresh drop this weekend too and it's those styles that we couldn't get before. The worst part is, new beers aren't even memorable and everything tastes the same. The cream will rise to the top tho.
Man, you came through Texarkana and you didn't get to try my homebrew Club's beer. You are now dead to me. Well, you can always come back. Four States Fermenters till we die.
Originally from Birmingham Alabama where the scene has boomed in the last 15 years but that was because it didn't exist in alabama before then legally. I live in Oregon (3 years) and of course I drink great beers but honestly I'd rather sit back with a a cold cheap beer rather than going to destination places. I'll go to a spot if it happens to be near where I am for fun but not sesrcjing like I used to is a huge change. Whatebr it is my friends, I cheers y'all to the next beer. Bless up.v
I recall when the original lcoation of Mike Hess would need to close at 8PM because of the weird zone laws where the brewery was located. Stone and Green Flash had financial issues due to poor management and market insight...they assumed that just because San Diegans love their beers, other cities would want their beer as well....instead they were viewed as outsiders just as bad as macro beer trying to encroach on the local scene. A trend I am seeing in San Diego County is moving to cities that had no or very few breweries a decade ago. 10 years ago, if you wanted to get a beer, you often had to either go to Miramar or Hop Highway.....now, I can grab a pint at Imperial Beach, Bario Logan, North/South Park, La Mesa, etc. I actually prefer this trend of opening craft beer past certain zip codes as I get to explore more of the county on my beer escapades.
JOIN US LIVE! th-cam.com/channels/PnbjrHhr3618ywTtRrzmWw.html
I Love the little gems you have in your videos like the Vaseline in the backround within both camera angles 4:10 ... i love the content but i love little treasures like these even more. keep it up CH. love from South Africa
Cheers Braj! ❤️
I laughed out loud at this comment because I thought the same exact thing. Sometimes it's subtle, other times not so much, but it's always there. HAHA!
The height of craft beers for me 2013. I remember every store had a mix and match 6 pack area. That was just cool back then
Being a craftbeer superfan since 2006, I've seen a lot of changes. I think one of the main reasons for craft being so successful and at the same time for its failure is the IPA. At one point in time the IPA was this taboo overly bitter style that not many people would approach. As the West Coast IPA developed, changed, and grew in popularity, so did craft beer as a whole. With that came a lot of really bad examples of IPA. Ok, so what do you do to stand out in the crowd? You push the boundaries.
Well X brewery made a solid IPA how about we make one but hoppier? How about a black IPA? Red IPA? White IPA? Then the hazies came to town. As younger generations came of age they wanted their own flavors and to create their own idea of what craft beer could be. So then came the cans of "I can't tell what the hell kind of beer this is inside" and all of the fruited kettle sours and lactose IPA's and all that shit. The big big brands kept trying to innovate and keep up with trends but didn't do well. I don't know what happened to my formerly beloved Stone but they stopped making their best beers and kep coming out with stupid beers no one likes. I live in Ventura County which has a younger beer scene but still virtually any taproom, tasting room, beer bar, sports bar, bar has like 18 IPA or IPA variants and a couple of light lagers on tap (with a couple of exceptions but they are few and far between).
Then there are some older craft geeks like myself who don't enjoy paying $22 for a 4 pack direct from the local shit brewery. I don't enjoy paying $9 a pint at my local brewpub but I love the people in the local community so I support them. I find myself drinking more macros and classic beers like various Belgian quads when I drink beer anymore. It's sad to see the OG's fail but they grew too big I guess? Whoever took over Stone from Greg Koch really fucked it all up. Even in tiny ass Thousand Oaks we've seen some brewery closures. The bubble has burst.
I just want to shout out Société for hosting 30-40 blind and other disabled individuals at our CSUN conference. These people went above and beyond, and of the 8+ breweries I contacted at the time, they were the only one that were accessible to the visually impaired, were wheel chair accessible, and were cool with a few autistics coming through there. Societe rocks. They delivered, and knew the assignment.
White labs was great as well showing us all the cool shit they do. It looked like a goddamn CDC lab from the Walking Dead and we didn't have to go to Georgia to experience it.
💯
Does that mouse fly out your hand with that advanced repair moisturizer? 🤣 Hilarious J O easter egg!
Good vid, CH!! Around 30 breweries here in Richmond, VA and they’re all doing great. I went to Charleston, SC & Virgina Breach, VA and went on a brewery tour… All also jumping. I’m hoping it stays that way! 👍🍻
Cheers! 🍻
Come down to battle of the beers in VB all the breweries will be out there
I'm in Charleston, SC for the weekend! Any brewery hot tips?
the lotion on the desk was a nice touch. thanks for keepin it real.
Craft beer seems to be actually coming into it's own in up here in Canuckistan, especially in smaller cities and towns. So many new little breweries in my area..
God I love your brain! 🤣 you just think about beer in the most unique way
Excellent work and content! You did your homework. Although it’s a complicated Smorgasburg, some cities were just not made to host craft breweries and the margins they need to survive.
In upstate NY it's continuing to grow rapidly!
I think what's hurt craft brewing more than anything is local craft breweries charging $16-20 for a six pack of mediocre beer. It's cheaper to make my own beer home brewing (as long as you don't worry about all the equipment that I constantly buy).
Glad you're back! And yes the 10pm (sometimes 9pm) close time in SD is mind boggling, where am I supposed to go on a Friday night?
Exactly
Love your content, but especially the Vaseline lotion cameos 🤣🤣🤣!
I’m from Louisville, KY and there are decent amount of breweries and microbreweries. I totally agree. It’s not that it’s dying, it’s just different. I got into craft beer around 2013 and things have definitely changed. Some cities I frequent like Cincinnati seem to still be doing well though.
Side note: I just moved to a really small town an hour south of St. Louis and I’m just glad that they have a brewery and a home brew supply shop 20 minutes away. With the help from your videos I’m now trying to make clones of the beers I used to enjoy, but can’t get anymore.
Heck yeah! 🍻
I got into craft in 2013 as well. Totally agree. In my honest opinion I miss what was in the shelf then compared to now. I also could enjoy beer without worrying about a gut then. 😂
Dude! Glad you’re getting the channel going again. I’ve missed the weekly videos.
I was just in Johnson City for work, and Asheville this week. It was awesome to check out the beer scene. Hell I even found a pretty cool one in Hot Springs, NC.
I’ll check it out! 🍻
The arms race to unleash the Jedi of the NEIPA from 2015-2019ish was the most exciting thing to happen to beer in my short life. Now that everyone knows how to do it, even the small guys have begun mass production with dextrose and lactose buy the bucketfill now everything tastes unoriginal and inorganic from what it used to be. I remember when you could smell fresh baked bread and oats in tired hands; last one I had tasted like syrup :(
Cooler weather finally hitting East Tennessee. Time to brew.
By the way, we went to a tap house in Cleveland, TN last night, which was a Thursday, and it was packed.
💯
Home brew will never die - especially in Scotland where we have Minimum Unit Price for Alcohol, where all the profit goes to the retailer, not back to the government.
Yeah fuck MUP
Chea'Braj! Dropping some sick knowledge on this one. It's crazy that SD breweries close at 10pm, that's usually when I'm hitting my stride. Out here where I live, there's zero breweries in our city limit so we're moving quick to get ours going. 700+ new homes getting built and I have to drive 25minutes for craft beer, that's crazy.
Daaaaayum
Lived in SD while i was in tbe Navy. I miss the sculpins.
MUH MUH! I love these videos because it sparks a conversation that is long overdue. Seeing myself in these is always a trip 😵😵
The lotion by the computer when he’s researching 😂
You're asking a lot of good questions braj. It's an interesting rabbit hole to fall down and you should def do more stuff like this. Sad to hear about Stone. I remember when the suit with keystone came out, but then it just seemingly died. We can see how that played out. Solid investigative work dawg. Cheers!
Keep doing good work! I have learned a ton (and gotten into homebrew) from your channel! Thanks for keeping it real, informational and funny. Youdabraj!
Glad to see a new video from you.
A pint at the brewery here in South Alabama is still 5$! Minimum wage is like 7.50 though and living expenses are still going up.
Learned a bit on this topic. Thanks. I don’t tend to follow craft beer news.
I’m still laughing at the hand lotion pump bottle next to the screen.
Cheers Larry!
Amazing job with this video. Such a great explanation of how the craft beer scene has changed since the late 90’s. Still great but definitely different.
Good Job CH. Looking forward to you getting back in the saddle. Much love
Maaaan green flash west coast IPA was amazing! Miss it. Their green bullet was amazing as well. Probably the most hoppy piney IPA I've ever had. The only IPA that comes close to it is Pollyanna's lexical gap IPA.
💯
Great job covering what’s honestly a complicated topic! Good to hear your insights. Always enjoy your videos!
Cheers Dave!
Nice Geoff Rowley clip, beauty front tail! Also, Black Plague brewing is owned and operated by Canadian Pro Skater Jordan Hoffart, one of my favourites. I hope to check out their brewery someday! He rips
Ha that’s my buddy Jon goemann
@@HOMEBREW4LIFE holy shit! What a beast! Such a similar style and posture. Props! 👊
Super informative! Great vid 🤘🏼 love the cameo!
Those were the days. I drooled over Ballast Point. I think the good brews moved to SLO, after that I don’t know where
Had Ballast Point on tap one time 8 years ago and will never forget how good that was.....Have never found a beer like that again and fear that Ballast Point doens´t provide that taste anymore!
Travel to Ohio, not sure about micro breweries but I know bars close here at 2:30am. I heard columbus and cleveland have lots of micro breweries, I know the akron area has a few such as the "thirsty dog"
Here's my idea for how to start a micro brewery, including food. Get a rough idea on how many people it would take to do everything, and find enough people willing to buy in. I heard it costs around $500,000 +/- to get one started. Lets say for this example its 20 people, that's $25,000 a person to put money down. That seems like the most realistic way to get the ball rolling.
Another thing to consider, I recently took a job bid in maintenance where I work. Knowing how things work, how to fix things, etc could be very useful.
Come to Australia mate, we pretty much own a craft brewery each
HAHAHHAHAAHHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH THE LOTION BOTTLE!!!! I HAVE NOT BUSTED OUT LAUGHING LIKE THIS IN YEARS
Awesome information dude.. that research was good
A man with an abundance of handcream - no time to brew!😄
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣”NOT NOW LOU” 😂
Greatest ramble rumble ever! Cheers brajes, to the pub and back, to the basement an up, to the porch and down to the keezer again.
Yes sir!
The Braj is back in town!
You made IPAs popular. That's about it. It really jumped the shark with artificial flavored gimmicky beers. I remember following some craft beer sites, people didn't even post pictures of the beers, only the can art seemed important.
Even the biggest craft beer fans from the past now I see is mostly looking towards european well made classic style beers. It's no coincidence german lager is the most popular beer style in the world.
The South East is the new West Coast. From Ashville to Miami we are exploding with new breweries. There are like 5 new ones just opened in the last couple months in South Florida between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami.
I gotta get down to Tampa and Miami
@@HOMEBREW4LIFE Hit me up if you want if ever down in Miami. I am an alcoholic, live near three of the best local breweries, and usually have at least two or three kegs of homebrew on draft.
For Tampa if you go... you have to go to Barriehaus. They are by far the best there.
That’s so true I am in Santa Maria. An hour north of Santa Barbara and the beer scene changes drastically. Midway is solvang a wine rich area and my favorite tap room/ home brew shop. The back room a speak easy. If your in the area stop by. From Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo county you can fine great breweries such as m special, Figueroa mountain, liquid gravity and captain Fatties. Also some ok breweries. I apologize since I generally drink my home brew if I missed any good breweries in the area. Special note SLO Cider and a goleta cider place were amazing. I only comment after a few drinks but for this channel I think that is appropriate. If want details comment and let me know. Homebrew for 5 years and hundreds of podcasts and TH-cam videos make me an expert
Constellation didn't buy Ballast Point for the brewery. They bought them for the spirits division. So they likely just unloaded the brewery when they got a chance.
Naw. Cutwater spirits came after ballast sold. Constellation 💯 bought for sculpin. Cut water spirits sold to Budweiser in 2019
Suffragettes closed breweries in 1919. It worked out for the owners of the big breweries because all they had to do was sit back and let suffragettes close down their competition, which suffragettes did for free. The big breweries survived Prohibition, just like Jack Daniels and Jim Beam did. The government took care of them because of who they were. Since there are thousands of craft breweries cutting into the money that the big boys want something similar to what took place in 1919 will occur but the big guys won't have suffragettes, they will have to spend some money to buy out the bigger craft breweries and use lawyers to get rid of the rest.
When a craft brewer makes beer with single temperature infusion, which is the simplest and quickest brewing method on the planet capable of producing alcohol from grain a brewer can produce quite a high volume of beer in a day with a small brewing system and with very little cost. The brewer sells the cheaply produced beer at 6 to 10 bucks a pint and profit margin is high especially in areas where wages and utilities are low. The problem is that beer made from single temperature infusion and high modified, malt is called moonshiners beer. Moonshiners' beer is made from low quality extract. The brewer renamed the moonshiners beer ale when he wrote ale on the chalkboard. Let's say that a brewer wants to be honest with customers when he advertises that he makes ale and lager and to make beer he uses the step mash method which produces pseudo, ale and lager. Sierra Nevada uses the brewing method. The brewer spends more time producing beer with the step mash method but also purchases the more expensive, higher quality, malt and hops that are used with the brewing method. Conversion occurs in the step mash method and the brewer has to purchase a secondary fermenter, as well. Because of the higher cost of ingredients and the time involved with making pseudo, ale, the brewer using the step mash method cannot compete with a brewer using single infusion and cheap ingredients. There are a few craft brewers that use the decoction method, which produces authentic, ale and lager. The cost to produce the beer is very high. A brewer using the decoction method may break even if they sell their beer at 10 bucks a pint but to make a profit, they will have to sell it for more money.
In 1960, the triple decoction method was replaced with the Hochkurz method in every brewery in the world that produced ale and lager and they still use the brewing method. The big boys know what type of beer the majority of craft brewers produce and how they make it, and they know it isn't ale and lager. When the hammer comes down the big boys will use science and lawyers to shut down craft breweries that aren't worth buying.
I appreciate how you re-positioned the vaseline for a shot at a different angle
The common denominator is “FREEDOM” (or the lack there of,,,,,,🧐)🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌✌️
It's been a while since I've been out to Cali, but sad to hear the Braj's out there are struggling
Craft beer scene is expanding rapidly here in Australia as well
Naturally if you make your own you won't have to worry about this dying out. Saving money here in S. On. Canada(TAX) Thanks for gr8 content.
Bro you were 15 years behind the Northwest, but San Diego has some good beer!
Craft beer DEAD? Nah, It's just starting for me!
Beer will never die!🍻
We came up with a theory on this, the places where beer is better and thriving, there is less to do. Beer pricing might also have something to do with it though.
Keep it alive, brother!! 🍻
'If you are good at something never do it for free' - Joker in the Dark IPA movie
Great video… great editing too! 🍻
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FYI: There are just as many breweries in The Netherlands as there are in California. And California is 10 times bigger👀
If you're looking for another great craft brew city close to your new home make the trip down to Alabama. Straight to Ale, Yellowhammer and Rocket Republic are just a few located in Huntsville and if you stay on 65S a little longer to Birmingham you have Trim Tab, Ghost Train, Avondale and Good People among a few others. Craft scene here in the southeast seems to be doing extremely well. I have a lot of family out in California in the Monterey, San Jose and Salinas areas and it just seems like with the cost of living, goods, property, taxes, etc. is just cost prohibitive to most start ups and that is before you even get into actually opening your business and trying to make money.
I might be moving to Birmingham actually!
Hope it's not dead. My family wants to open a brewery here in Michigan. I've been to 50+ breweries this year, and all seem to be doing well. Time will tell. PROST.
Lol, here in Mexico minimum wage is around 1.10 USD/hour and the average price of a craft beer pint is around 3.5 USD.
Time to start homebrewing!
I gave up on craftbeer the minute I bought a kegerator on Kijiji and brewed my first Kolsch. Cut out the middle men and drink alone.
Come check out Wisconsins craft beer scene, very good beer here
Would love to see the trends in distilleries in SD vs TN
I'm actually beyond surprised a pint is only $8 in San Diego. They must be banking hard on volume to keep it that low.
Exactly
top notch, non-posin analysis, braj. keep them gears turnin.
Sounds like you are still scheming to open a brewery. Just need a better market. 😊
I think people in states with lower costs of living have the expendable income to pay for craft beer.
14.99 for a 6 pack was not a good marketing idea.....
Someone from my local beer scene said to me I treat my brewery as the local pizza spot he's doing great little bit of distribution there's so many factors why they go on hard times
I’ve never understood how small business can survive in cali when having to pay those wages… margins must be tight as hell
Gotta push volume
As someone coming from the MD & VA area to Socal I can say I was pretty disappointed in the beer scene here and I think you’re totally right. Breweries out there have much more room to get creative, build a unique ambiance, and have a tap list that isn’t 50%+ 1000 IBU IPAs. Their money just goes further.
Probably a combination of alot of things you mentioned. I would think the biggest thing is saturation.
Hey buddy what’s that bottle of lotion doing on your computer desk? Lol
No you don't get to call tasting rooms as a separate brewery. That's asinine.
I think it really depends. Sounds like San Diego breweries overextended themselves and there was oversaturation. Here in Belgium, only Brussels has a lot of microbreweries with taprooms. (15+ at least) The microbrewing scene in other cities is very small. 1-2 significant ones per city. Our beer culture is rooted in the traditional bar, taprooms are either only accessible when touring a brewery, or a pretty new 'trendy' thing. Not sure if they will stick around. Belgian beer drinkers are conservative and the average drinker wants a tripel or a dubbel, not a barrel aged milkshake NEIPA or something funky. I think the ones in Brussels wont all be around in 10 years.
Solid feedback Peerens!
anything bad that happens/happened to the craft beer scene in san diego is because all they wanna do is make shitty tasting IPA's. I started brewing in 2007 and made 1 IPA and hated it, and i remember the craft scene taking off but soon it was 95% IPA's. So i pretty much avoided the scene and stuck to my own homebrews.
Head North my friend. It seems like we are just getting into the groove here in Wisconsin. Im in the Green Bay area (county population about 270K) and we have 8 microbreweries if I counted correctly with a new one opening in late fall. Yep prices are mostly the 7-8 a pint here too but its still drawing people. Even if they all closed I would still brew my own as I have now for a few years since retiring from a living wage job. The scene is the same in other municipal areas. I have kids in Eau Claire and Madison which are smaller and bigger than Green Bay and those towns have great breweries that draw lots of people. No sign of slowing down. So I think San Diego was probably the benchmark for the sport of micros and maybe they oversaturated and some did sell out as you have shown but as you said craft beer is far from dead. Cheers man.
Duly noted Ed!
I think I’ll just continue to be a home brewer, cheers braj!!!
Amen!
Missed you, braj!
Waza dude!
I love these videos braj
Braj click bait! 😂 I would love to open a brewery but the initial startup nut is very high and selecting the right location/city is insanely important. I don’t think craft brew is dead at all! California is just a shizzy place to operate a small business and San Diego is an over saturated market. Might be easier to open a tap room with a case. Keep em coming Braj!
Craft beer is definitely changing. Just a few years ago i was ordering in $10 cans to try new hops. Now my local bottle shop has that breweries freshest drop and 4-5 local breweries have a fresh drop this weekend too and it's those styles that we couldn't get before. The worst part is, new beers aren't even memorable and everything tastes the same. The cream will rise to the top tho.
What city are you in?
I have drank a lot of beer in SD
How many times did that lotion appear in this video?
Considering most APA (the correct name of American efforts) is unbalanced and barely drinkable, it was only a matter of time.
nice. I heard Portland. And I saw lots of other brewtubers. oh ya something about Sandy Ego. Cheers !
It is a damn shame about Stone, but I think craft beer is just more appealing to people when it's smaller
Awesome stuff
Man, you came through Texarkana and you didn't get to try my homebrew Club's beer. You are now dead to me. Well, you can always come back. Four States Fermenters till we die.
Nice catch James!
Awesome video, very informative!!
I was ready to hate this clickbate title, but holyshit dude you nailed it. Nice work.
Cheers! 🍻
Originally from Birmingham Alabama where the scene has boomed in the last 15 years but that was because it didn't exist in alabama before then legally.
I live in Oregon (3 years) and of course I drink great beers but honestly I'd rather sit back with a a cold cheap beer rather than going to destination places.
I'll go to a spot if it happens to be near where I am for fun but not sesrcjing like I used to is a huge change.
Whatebr it is my friends, I cheers y'all to the next beer. Bless up.v
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You can still buy craft beer?
Always be chill…
52 videos coming back
I recall when the original lcoation of Mike Hess would need to close at 8PM because of the weird zone laws where the brewery was located. Stone and Green Flash had financial issues due to poor management and market insight...they assumed that just because San Diegans love their beers, other cities would want their beer as well....instead they were viewed as outsiders just as bad as macro beer trying to encroach on the local scene. A trend I am seeing in San Diego County is moving to cities that had no or very few breweries a decade ago. 10 years ago, if you wanted to get a beer, you often had to either go to Miramar or Hop Highway.....now, I can grab a pint at Imperial Beach, Bario Logan, North/South Park, La Mesa, etc. I actually prefer this trend of opening craft beer past certain zip codes as I get to explore more of the county on my beer escapades.
That and co2 shortages are shutting places down
Naw co2 was only a mini crisis for about a week. There’s ways around co2. Smart breweries would just ferment under pressure to create co2 naturally