[MrBill]

I am going to try to learn more about beer making in general. I think that post peak oil depletion that it will be an attractive, local, viable industry. But best to get started now. Experiment with the recipes even if it won't be possible to grow any hops where I am at the moment.

My idea before with or without peak oil decline is that just in Bavaria alone there are hundreds of local breweries. Some only sell beer within a 100 kms of where it is produced. And some in those great pop-top, reclosable bottles, too. A lot of them are being crowded out by larger brewers, and, of course, the multinationals.

I would love to buy a brewery and its brew master and move it lock, stock and barrel back to Canada to start-up a regional brewery. Somewhat larger than a micro-brewery, but smaller than the national brands.

I have no idea whether it is economically feasible? But I think a lot of us cheer for the local underdog and would flock to a locally brewed beer that has our name or town on it. And if it is true German beer made by a real Bayern Brauemeister then it would surely taste better than the mass produced brands.

Also beer is a recession proof industry. Even when you're down and out you find a nickel for a cold brew on a hot, depressing day! ; - )

p.s.

RE 1664. Starvid I am glad you said it and not me. Gimme a German or Czech beer any day! ; - )

[IslandCrow]

Will relocalization get us back to the situation where most pubs brewed their own beer? Sounds like a possible post-PO job. MrBill you sound like you don't really want to go back to farming to make a living!

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', 'W')ill relocalization get us back to the situation where most pubs brewed their own beer? Sounds like a possible post-PO job. MrBill you sound like you don't really want to go back to farming to make a living!

[IslandCrow]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Starvid', 'N')ot very likely. Economies of scale go a long way when measured against costs of transportation.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Starvid', 'N')ot very likely. Economies of scale go a long way when measured against costs of transportation.

[JJ]

In 1976 bought Texas Pride, Shiner and Lone Star for .99 a six pack; they were all considered "crap" beer. Now look

[WisJim]

Regarding hops:
There is a world-wide hops shortage, apparently, especially of organically grown hops, due to the demand for craft beers and organic beers.

Hops can survive quite cold winters (I have a few hops plants that are 12 to 18 years old in western Wisconsin that have survived minus 40F), but they are quite susceptible to some mildew diseases, so hop production has concentrated in climates with dryer summers. Wisconsin had been a major hop producer 100 years ago or so, but disease drove the industry out. I am thinking, however, of planting a row of hops by my orchard as a potential cash crop to market to local micro-breweries.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=623644
http://www.weeksberry.com/HOPS.HTML

[MrBill]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', 'W')ill relocalization get us back to the situation where most pubs brewed their own beer? Sounds like a possible post-PO job. MrBill you sound like you don't really want to go back to farming to make a living!

[efarmer]

Whereas I started in this thread a bit tongue in cheek, I find it fascinating that when we think of things like bread, beer, fresh foods, and many of the core staples of quality life, we realize that while they can be done on a personal basis, they are done to a level of fine art when a person in a community specializes in them. Time and time again I see a natural human inertia towards the viewpoint that re-localization is a much more potent medicine than the quest for some high tech liquid fuels breakthrough. There is nothing better in the world than someone you know and respect, and perhaps even love, making you something to eat, or drink, or wear, or live in, in such a manner that the transaction is largely in your own immediate area and in return for something tangible you can provide to them.

America was originally conceived as a network of self sufficient and self governing communities that supported state and national governments as very lean backbones run by temporary volunteers. Cheap oil centralized government and took the experiment hostage, perhaps expensive oil and energy will free it again. Regardless, we are about to find out.

[smallpoxgirl]

Farming hops strikes me as being kinda like farming peppermint. You get it going and it will kinda take over. It's a viney plant that likes to grow on structures. I had a fence covered with it in Olympia, WA, and a friend of mine had a huge mat of it growing along one side of her house in Montana. Montana and Washington both have dry summers, so that would go with what WisJim was saying.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', '.')..Time and time again I see a natural human inertia towards the viewpoint that re-localization is a much more potent medicine than the quest for some high tech liquid fuels breakthrough. There is nothing better in the world than someone you know and respect, and perhaps even love, making you something to eat, or drink, or wear, or live in, in such a manner that the transaction is largely in your own immediate area and in return for something tangible you can provide to them.
...

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he average price of a pint of bitter in Britain's pubs could rise from around £2.20 to as much as £4 next year, the industry has warned.

[jasonraymondson]

How about you all do what I do, and don't drink.

I have never understood why everyone feels the need to drink themselves stupid.

[bl00k]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', 'I') have never understood why everyone feels the need to drink themselves stupid.

[Cloud9]

Everyone doesn't. Still a good cold beer is right there in the top ten.

[I_Like_Plants]

Pubs used to brew their own stuff. Just the ingredients were brought to the pub, and generally old-time pubs were set up near a source of water - England is a green and verdant land.

Brew-pubs started coming into fashion in the US about a decade ago, and this sort of thing, rising prices making them not only fashionable but practical again, will bring them back.

I think even the Amish drink beer. It used to be considered a food.

[eastbay]

What a hideous way to waste your money.... bunch of drunks.

[Bas]

I believe they used to drink beer as water in medieval times; it was the cheapest/ only sure way to purify water from germs. That kind of beer held less alcohol though, maybe 2 or 3 percent, or about half of your average beer today.

[I_Like_Plants]

Actually the average beer in the US is 3.2 percent alcohol.

[Andrew_S]

It'll probably be four quid a pint when petrol is something like £1.60 a litre (just over £1 a litre now). Unless they're predicting that, that article is sensationalist bollocks.
The pubs are suffering because smoking tobacco has been outlawed in pubs.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hilaire Belloc', 'W')hen you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves
For you will have lost the last of England