For few years now I am going sometimes to cinema that is part of the Europa Cinemas network.
It is partly run by my city and one of the university. It is quite cool to be able to watch some art films from around the world, documentaries but they are still showing the big American blockbusters.
They don’t sell popcorn or cola but they have craft beers on tap that you can take with you to the screening room - my French friend really like that part of the experience ;-)
The tickets are really affordable ~6-10€ but I usually spend bit more on the beer.
It looks great but for me it is missing the beer tap.
They are only open on weekends so they wouldn’t make enough to justify the alcohol licensing costs. Additionally, because this is South Carolina, the alcohol insurance costs are insanely high. The only local bar in town had to stop selling beer after 5pm because they couldn’t justify the insurance that covers that. South Carolina is strangling independent alcohol establishments by requiring unreasonable insurance minimums.
Yeah as a Czech guy it is quite a bit different here.
I know someone in the military that got a lot of cash from the military to move back to the states after this department in Germany was done. He spent it entirely on beer in Czech Republic and had to pay out of pocket to get back home. He told me the amount of money he was given and this was back when I knew that a beer there cost a dollar. “You spent $3,000 on beer?” He didn’t know I knew the price of beer in Czech Republic.
That is really confusing even for me. For that money you can buy pretty large second hand brewing setup. Like 200-300l everything included.
As a brewer I know you can spend as little or as much as you want on a brewing setup. I can make a decent hefe on my stove with regular kitchen supplies and some bottles. But if I’m going to make a Delirium Tremors clone I’m going to need substantially more professional equipment costing a lot more than $300.
The problem with being in Czech Republic is that you can’t make beer for cheaper than they sell it. I remember 20 years ago when I had to explain to a person after person that you cannot brew Budweiser for cheaper than you can buy it. The math really only worked out if you’re trying to brew something with a lot of hops or some extra maltiness. That’s back when you can buy a six pack of ipas for $7. Those days are gone. But at the same time brewing cheap beer is not cheap anymore.
Hops and malt are expensive now for the home brewer. Cheapest beer I ever made was using just straight corn syrup and bread yeast with a little bit of Brewers gold hopes I had gotten for free. And even now I don’t think I can make that beer for cheaper than I can buy it.
It’s pretty much why I stopped brewing. Now if I make something it’s because I harvested most of the stuff I play on property. I’m eagerly waiting for the year. I get a decent plum harvest off my trees to make some wine. I’ll pick up some local honey and harvest my own elderberries to make a mead.
Anyway, back in the late '90s none of that was an option. Especially if you were stationed in Germany. It was definitely cheaper to travel to Czech Republic and pay retail prices at a bar for beer than to make it on your own.
My brew kettle got tax. These days it’s more likely to be used for making chicken stock than brewing any beer.
I brew not because the price but because I want to try stuff and do some bit wild stuff that just isn’t available here.
I also worked in a professional craft brewery so I know a bit about the pricing and stuff like that. But I don’t think you need that much advanced brew equipment to make something bit more demanding.
Back in the day some beer categories were impossible to find and brewing or round trip airfare was the only option to try something. These days you can get pretty much anything other than a Westvleteren 12 or Pliny as long as you have enough money
If I wanted 5 gallons of the original Killian’s Red recipe before they turned it into a lager I had to new it myself and as a side benefit I could do it for about half the cost.
Most people don’t have a five gallon pot, carboy and 48 bottles and 20k BTU. They definitely don’t have a wurt chiller to avoid excessive hop isomerization and self regulating temperature control to make sure their DT clone doesn’t taste like bandaid. Basic beers don’t need much stuff but try to brew a specific IPA or most any beer above 9% and things start getting expensive real fast.
For me it is still quite hard to find specific product or something which doesn’t exist yet - for example last year I brewed beer with wine grape juice and because I doubled it as school project I found out it is quite hard to tax it so nobody is making it.
So yes I get the point but for me it still offers some added bonus compared to commercial beer.