I was under the impression it was the intersection of the venn diagram of communists and imperialists, as long as imperialist means imperialist (defined as using economic, military, diplomatic and cultural power to influence countries around you in a way that is beneficial to you, and may be either beneficial, inconsequential or detrimental to them) and not just “western and capitalist”

Hops are highly sensitive to the soil acidity and minerals in terms of the compounds the plants produce, so sharing plants is largely infeasible, plus because it’s the US many of them are trademarked so there’s no sharing for that reason

I get it’s a big jump, but I’ve been clear I’m restricting it to the most popular types of beer and explained why US bred and grown hops had the good fortune to be the most aromatic disease resistant hops, so I still don’t think it’s unreasonable

Again, none of this applies for styles beyond 3-7% golden beer fermented with yeast only, and even then there’s a few exceptions for certain styles where the aromatics are different (eg bitter, which is less about the aromatic hops and more about the earthy notes of the bittering hops), but for the most popular lagers and pale ales I think it holds

So there’s obviously a split between objective fact and opinion and conjecture, but:

• Outbreaks of powdery mildew in the early 20th century meant it became somewhat infeasible to grow most aromatic and flavoursome hops, leading to research and breeding programmes to produce disease resistant hops with other desired characteristics
• Most of the mildew-resistant hops were wild and from the US and Canada
• Hop breeding and research started in the UK but ended in the 2000s
• Oregon State University has been breeding hops for almost 100 years
• The USDA also has their hop research center in Oregon
• The US is responsible for 40% of hop production, of which over 98% is in Oregon, Washington and Idaho
• Cascade hops, from the USDA research center in Oregon, started the craft beer movement due to the combination of high flavour and disease tolerance
• German hop research started in 1926, but only had any real success after the 1980s

So essentially, the US has just got very lucky when it comes to hop production with good soils and disease resistance, while German beermaking was set back leading other styles to become and remain popular, such as very lightly hopped wheat beers, sour beers where the acidity comes from the fermentation instead of hops, and more recently Belgian style beers that are stronger abv so the stronger alcohol taste substitutes for some of the strength of the hops

There probably are also studies, but they tend to look into mechanisms/variations whereas this is more of a series of coinciding factors which don’t really need much research to make sense

That’s why I said average at best - average beer is going to taste way better than bad beer and also perfectly acceptable, I don’t mean it in a negative way, just that in the standard 3-7% golden beer fermented with only yeast category, Cascadian & New Zealand hops provide the best and widest array of tastes regardless of what you’re after, as that’s where the soil is best and where the breeding is generally done

This looks to be completely political, their profits are huge and from the article it seems like the closures are largely just reshuffles, with the real job losses coming in management… I really wouldn’t be surprised if they end up refilling the positions though and just wanted to make a point that they don’t like being taxed on their huge profits

If you’re drinking beer from hops that aren’t from the US (or New Zealand but that’s a way smaller market) then there’s a very good chance your beer is average at best (unless it’s a stout, wheat beer, bitter, sour etc. rather than a lager or pale ale, but those two are most likely)

Exactly, money card trumps everything, with fame card and class card a close second and third; race is unfortunately still powerful but you really think Obama or Oprah are getting trumped in much of anything by a white family from detroit who are living below the poverty line?