Just a thought that dawned on me today. Revolting against Big seems to be really… big these days. Anti-corporate this and that. We snub name brand stuff for their planet abusing puppy kicking ways. Anything that seems to try to steer our consumership. Terri and I are not immune. Our thing is anti-breeder. We have purebred dogs but they are rescues. Moral pat on the back I suppose. Even though a rescue ends up costing more than a mill doggy. Anyway… I got to thinking.
Why hasn’t there been a move yet to snub the registered trademark, restricted planting, high dollar hops? Simcoe, Citra, Amarillo etc. What do you think would happen if suddenly people decided to protest Big Hops and quit buying beers with Big Hops in them? What if breweries pulled an Atlas Shrugged and just quit buying them? “No thanks, we’ll take the cheap good ones though. But you can keep the double priced, trendy, hard to get stuff. We’re done!”
There is already a movement by some to try to use locally grown hops whenever possible, but it’s going to be difficult to get to the point where other food products are. But I like the idea Jim. Would get us back to more localized brewing styles: simply using what is available wherever you are. Unfortunately, not much volume available here in SE Indiana.
I guess I would want to know if anything nefarious is going on . I do think trademarking organism can get pretty sketchy but the fact that it’s just hops makes it hard to get my goat up. When drug companies for instance are charging insane amounts for even common drugs because they can it’s hard to make designer hops a cause. Luckily my favorite hops are good old EKG and cascade.
Why are the anti-establishment folks “caving” for Big Hops though? Money. Just look at all of the “green” crap that’s out there that does more harm then good, all while lining pockets. (Cash for Clunkers, anyone?) I mean heaven forbid anyone just “making do” as opposed to buying whatever is “Best”.
I use tons of different hops because I like to experiment. But I don’t feel any big need to not use the trademarked proprietary hops. HBC puts out some pretty nice hops. In a shortage there are enough lesser known varieties to make good beer just fine, though.
Buying proprietary hops is what brought us all the sexy new hops. More public hops are around as well these days as universities step up their research.
Also, us homebrewers are a small fraction of the market, so say bye to practically all commercial IPAs if you want to avoid sending money to “big hops.”
I have no issues buying the proprietary hops. The demands of the market drive innovation. Without innovation, in any market, products become stagnant. I have never brewed the exact same recipe twice. Innovations and experimentation are what drive this hobby for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like many of the public domain hops, but if they were all I, or any commercial brewery, had to use, I would get bored real quickly with this hobby. That being said, I get what you are saying. I’d rather spend $13 a pound for Citra than $25-30… But I’ll pay the price in the end.
Centennial is a public hop and is often nearly as expensive as the proprietary hops. I’m sure the license paid by farmers to grow proprietary hops isn’t tiny.
A quick clarification: I have no issues with using trademarked hops. This was just a rant in relation to people who advocate one thing, but bend their standards when they aren’t convenient.
I heard the same thing. I think he went as far to say he can accomplish the same flavors with public domain hops. I don’t mind paying a few extra bucks for a specific trademarked hop, but it is annoying when you have to scour the internet trying to find one in particular when there is a bad year for a certain crop.
With all the small tap room “nano” breweries popping up, I wonder how they even get a hold of enough simcoe, citra, amarillo.
