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But you didn't refute any portion of their analysis at all; all you did was show a correlation which supported _your_ bias... :)
The basic conclusion that the majority of the cost spread is in the non-food portion (ie., processing, marketing and distribution) and that the farm-commodity portion of food costs has dropped from 35% to about 20% during this time is pretty much incontrovertible irrespective of one's opinion on ethanol.
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"Rod & Betty Jo" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
Hi Rod, I don't know if you are a brewer, but if you use an ounce of hops per 10 gallons, you must certainly like it very mildly flavored. Rarely do brewers use fresh hops (i.e. green hops). I've used my home grown green hops as an experiment in three batches (each 5 gals) and the beer was very far from steller, but what the hell, it was beer. In fact, I only started liking lambics and Berlinner Weiss after I became a homebrewer. Most if not all hops used in home or commercial brewing are dried. They are shipped in leaf form, compressed into a plug form, or ground and compressed into pellets. Some hops are super compressed and sold as hop oil. A brewer would use slightly less (by weight) of the compressed hop pellets than the other hop forms for a given brew. Most home brewers that I know only use hop oil to rescue an under hopped brew. I don't know of any commercial brewers that use hop oil, but I suspect that some do. For a ten gallon brew of a medium strength beer or ale, I would probably mash 14-18 lbs. of malt and hop the brew with 3 or 4 ounces of bittering hops and 2 or three ounces of finishing hops. The hop quantities may vary depending on the alpha acid content of the hops. Brewing with high alpha hops (more bitter) requires fewer hops depending on the style being brewed. I ounce of 20% alpha hops will have almost twice the bittering as
10% alpha hops. Most hops used as flavor hops are close to the same alpha content. I buy malted barley in 50 lb. sacks at less than a buck a lb. Depending on the variety, hops are hitting a buck or more on ounce and noble varieties, two bucks or more an ounce. At this point the price of hops is approching 50% of the cost of the ingredients required to brew beer (again, I am talking home brewing). The price of hops has been rising for several years. The price of hops from the EU has risen to a much higher degree than North American hops. Grain prices for the homebrewer have remained fairly stable. Beer brewed with barley malt and hops is the most costly. The price comes down when corn, rice or wheat are added to the grist. I'm not into a pissing contest. I'm just relating my experience. Hank
Beer would BE an excellent choice for a pissing contest though.
rErdinger Weiss RULES!
"Rod & Betty Jo" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
The ratio of hops to grist is not quite the same when brewing 5 gals. versus 500 gals., but the difference (ratio) is not that significant. The home brewer probably pays a bit more for his/her hops (PC) as a percentage of the cost to produce a gal of beer than a commercial brewery does. It doesn't matter what the commercial brewer pays per ton or ounce compared to the 5 gal. a pop guy. If the home brewer pays a buck an ounce and a commercial brewer pays a cent an ounce and the price of hops doubles, both buyers now face the same percentage increase in their ingredient cost. This is very over simplified. What I'm really trying to say is hops are not an insignificant percentage of the cost of the ingredients used in brewing.
Robatoy wrote in news:15f60d44-dd3e-4204-8d89- snipped-for-privacy@p69g2000hsa.googlegroups.com:
Shit Rob, He plonked me not that long ago and I was agreeing with him at the time. He is one big motherplonker.
That's been going on for years. He paints himself into a corner then plonks his way out.
Har! That's pretty funny when you think about it.
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