But… you made changes to do exactly that. 7 or 8 years ago you switched from honest percentiles to a completely contrived “score” that artificially and heavily boosts up the middle percentiles so that the new score more closely aligns with wine ratings. You explicitly stated that you wanted the scoring to mimic that of wine scores. So why are you pretending like you told the guy to take a hike?
Unbelievable. Are you getting paid to spout these brazen lies? Here we reveal one of the real truths behind the acquisition: ABInBev is looking for a sounding board to pretend like they are good for craft beer and a positive force in the community, and they are using JoeT as their megaphone.
As an American, I always assumed everything was just in the “style” of whatever origin a product might have on it’s label. If I was looking for something “authentic” I’d look for “product of _____” language or something that specifically spelled out it’s source.
To me, it’s kind of like “Nashville Hot Chicken” or any of the various types of BBQ (Carolina, Kansas City, Texas, etc), it’s based on something from that geographic location but I don’t actually expect what I’m consuming is actually coming from that region. I’m sure I could find some more relevant examples of product that aren’t so perishable (unlike chicken or bbq), but those two just popped in my head.
“French brie”, “Spanish wine” seem too generic to be marketed as real products in today’s market (though I wouldn’t be totally shocked if some company put out something so generic and tacky!).
In reading up on PDOs, I just learned that Newcastle beer used to have one, but they moved brewing operations across a river, and had to get their PDO removed so they could continue brewing in the new location without having to change the beer’s name.
Overall I think that PDOs are probably too protectionist for my own tastes, Newcastle being a good example of my problems with it. The new brewing location was just outside the protected geographic area.
Maybe not in the same store side to side, but it’s too much thinking to ask from a consumer.
I can get Italian San Daniele from an Italian grocery store at a similar price as fake San Daniele at Safeway.
And imported cheese can very often be cheaper than Canadian cheese; I’m talking of some good Gruyere. Price can’t be used to differentiate products for this purpose.
I’m not fussing about PDO protection, but about misleading practices. Again, it’s poor protection from consumers’ associations. (if they even exist)
Another example. I opened a package of something a couple of days ago, “imported by {company}”, no mention from where; that should be a mandatory information on food packages.
My opinion? It does not bother me who “owns” RateBeer. They can’t control me UT is no option for me. And, what is not “big money” nowadays? Google? Microsoft? Apple? Gas stations? Food industry? I will continue rating places at RateBeer! When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
That cost of analyzing the beers would prohibit small brewers from doing one offs or anything not produced in great volume. That is probably the intention.
That’s so paranoiac. So if you were behind authoring of the law wouldn’t you exclude small brewers and draft-only product? Haven’t almost all beer laws been applied based on scale? How can you, sight unseen, make an assumpton like this and believe it to be reasonable?
Another relevant issue is that many medium and large craft already have the equipment and run the tests anyway.
If i were an ABInBev lobbyist responsible for writing that law, i would make it as broad as possible. You think some lobbyist is going to say wait a minute, we can buy all the hops and own all the distributors but that is too far?
Ya, a better question is why would they want to put nutrition information on? I’m sure it’s not that they care about the beer guts of the nation. Or perhaps they really think people are going on the 60-day all bud light diet?
“buy all the hops”? Put down the koolaid John. Breweries are not hurting for hops because of AB. And the most sweeping ferderal beer legislation in recent years was the Brewers Association-endorsed legislation in the Republican tax bill of 2018 that provided sweeping tax breaks for craft brewers despite there being a record number now operating in the US. I love craft beer and buy only craft beer but I realize it’s an elitist thing and don’t feel right about shifting tax burden to consumers who are not of the same means.
Going on record here with a heartfelt statement. I respect, admire, and love Joe Tucker, and always will. He is, and always will be, one of my heroes. He is a visionary. To me, he is like the Willy Wonka of beer combined with the Carl Sagan and Fred Rogers of beer. He created a website for beer geeks to catalog, guage, find, and trade for great beers we would never have otherwise had access to. He jumped into the forums with guns blazing and simultaneously heIped moderate arguments that went on for weeks! I got so much fucking joy over the 80+ trades I made in the first 3-4 years on this site. New Glarus, Alesmith, Midnight Sun, Alaskan, Sakes out the ass, Tyranena, Dark Lord!, Russian River, too many to name. To be fair, I despise AB/INbev and their predatory practices and shitty beer, and don’t even get me started on those ludicrous commercials about corn syrup. My admiration for JoeT and hatred for AB/Inbev are mutually exclusive. My final point is this: I am concerned about intellectual property, but since I’ve never rated any Anheuser-Busch or Inbev product favorably (because they all suck, even beers that were once good like Goose Island prior to the takeovers), I doubt any of my rating excerpts would be used without my permission. Just to be sure, however, I will be consulting an attorney about this topic. Brewers are notorious for shooting cease and desist letters out of their asses. What goes around, comes around, and I never agreed to let an apex-predator, mega-corporation use my semantics in their advertising, and I will be diligent about that. I would submit that AB/Inbev should be less concerned about MillerCoors using corn syrup and far more concerned about cheapening the recipes of the various Bourbon County and Goose Island (and especially Terrapin, oh my God!) offerings. Cheers to you all!
UT is no option for me. And, what is not “big money” nowadays? Google? Microsoft? Apple? Gas stations? Food industry? I will continue rating places at RateBeer! When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
Breweries are not hurting for hops because of AB. And the most sweeping ferderal beer legislation in recent years was the Brewers Association-endorsed legislation in the Republican tax bill of 2018 that provided sweeping tax breaks for craft brewers despite there being a record number now operating in the US. I love craft beer and buy only craft beer but I realize it’s an elitist thing and don’t feel right about shifting tax burden to consumers who are not of the same means.
