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Comment by mbenjaminsmith | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised there's no discussion of "Gypsy brewing" in this article. The pioneer of Gpysy brewing, Mikkeller, has brewed beers in collaboration with BrewDog before and Gpysy brewing is counterpart to this "open IP" style of doing business.

I think it represents a much more interesting vision of "postcapitalism" than just opening up IP. Renting out excess capacity (in a brewery or other production facility) allows IP-only companies to get into the business. Not only has it allowed Mikkeller (and others, including his estranged twin brother) to get into beer with litte or no capex, it's allowed him to operate on different continents, solving another host of problems for working in a global marketplace.

Apply that model to other industries and there could be a Cambrian explosion in innovation and creativity.

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Brewdog got lambasted for using another brewery's excess capacity (I think it was Meantime) because people felt that it was less authentic since it "wasn't being brewed by Brewdog". While I don't necessarily agree with this, I thought it was relevant to your comment.

Yeah, it's a silly line, like saying your code isn't authentic if you didn't own the laptop you wrote it on. It's funny the things people will find to pass judgement on.

Yeast contamination can be an issue, as can water sourcing.

Well yeah, that's why you use a well-run brewery until you can afford the upkeep of your own. Besides, Meantime is a great brewery. I doubt those concerns - while legitimate - were high on the list with that brewery.

Was a great independent brewery now a SABMiller profit center.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32747973

I think water (assuming the brewery is competent/has decent quality control) is a big issue wrt resulting taste. Anything we drink is mostly water after all. This is the only explanation I have for why all the "Japanese" beers one can get outside of Japan taste so awful -- they're all produced on license -- and I assume the recipes are the same. Note I'm talking about industrial beers here -- so hardly the best beers in the world -- but I still think they taste markedly better if you get them in Japan. Could be a consequence of rosy memories, of course.

The really excellent homebrew site brulosophy focuses on doing triangle tests to determine which factors have the strongest influence on the resultant beers - while a shocking number of things they've tested don't reliably produce a noticeable change in the finished product, water chemistry was one of the few where there was a reliably significant difference.

http://brulosophy.com/2015/04/06/water-chemistry-pt-1-mash-m...

Mikkeller's Beer Geek Brunch Weasel - a stout brewed with civet coffee - is my all-time favorite beer, and I know a thing or two about beer. If you're any kind of beer lover, Mikkeller's beers are not to be missed.

Brunch Weasel is great -- and I don't particularly like stout or any alcoholic beverage mixed with coffee. I get it whenever I see it for breakfast or brunch.

It's also worth visiting a Mikkeller bar. They have a number of small-run beers on tap and those get rotated frequently. I once had a pilsner that he managed to pack 10% ABV into while still making it taste good.

Actually a lot of them are to be missed, they are famous for going with every crazy idea and many beers are completely panned.

Some of the Belgian contract brewers they use are very interesting. They use electrochemical treatment of water to get it just right for the different styles of beer.

Although they called it a much less romantic name ("contract brewing") back then, Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) was "gypsy brewing" in 1984, over 20 years before Mikkeller appeared. Brooklyn Brewery started with contract brewing too. I hardly think you can describe Mikkeller as "the pioneer".

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