Artisanal weed vs Big Weed

I just think the guys at the top, the military-petro-agripharma corps, realised jail time for ganja just wasnt going to help them win the war against people self medicating with herb, if anything this BS thought police/prohibition just signalled to the true and living that a battle for rights was at stake which helped make cannabis a cult symbol of striving for freedom from totalitarian fascist opression by private corporate lobbying of corrupt govt. officials/career politicians.. so since that was putting egg on their faces over and over in the collective zeitgheist, like the stuffy vultures they are, they decided to get smart and make this financial.. a game they can much more easily win. Especially with local and state govt. already on their side and all the money in the western world behind them.

For one thing, no one who cares about cannabis has pockets deep enough to compete with the big boys. Secondly in a "legal" system they can just take all your money and cripple you over and over.

They put you in a semi legal situation so they have all the power. I think they just want the next generations to think cannabis is just slightly buzzy shite that tastes like various fruits like a E-cig or vape pen cartridge full of fake terps..

DTOM420 said:

I don’t understand all the animus towards the ‘big dogs.’ The beer companies and marketing didn’t “convince” us of anything - they identify a market trend/general preference and they serve it. That doesn’t mean they serve all consumers. They serve the biggest segments. Most beer drinkers can’t stand artisan beers. Never have, never will. Doesn’t make them wrong OR the big beer companies wrong for identifying and serving them. Their job is making money (beer is simply the means theybuse), not educating folks about beer or changing their palates.

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Beer barons were already controlling a vast market with a handful of key players before Prohibition.

If you haven't noticed, corporations try to make production cheaper as a rule.

Now I'm going to leave the math up to you on this one, but I must beg you to consider the consumer.

If he never had a watered down corn and rice "beer" cut with sugar and tried one, would he call it beer?

My guess is the reason many people consider adjunct beer actual beer is because that's what Mom and Dad bought and why change it?

The reason you prefer German beer is because it is, just as you said, real.

The Germans had to pass a law in the early sixteenth century to keep people from adulterating beer.... so you're still going to get real beer even if it's cheap there.

But after immigrants settled into the US immigrated brewing families fought for control of the market and changed the face of beer forever.

The market was changed or created, not identified.

Then after lots of advertising commending them on knowing which beer helps you get more tail in school and land more fish in retirement, people are proud and secure in their desire for cheap beer.

Perhaps one day people will believe weed is supposed to taste like nutes and burn with a fizzle.... after all, some believe beer is made of rice and corn sugar.

I may have missed a bunch in the past ten years or so but this has always been common knowledge among cannabis users. Big weed taking over, or cigarette companies flooding the market with garbage, used to be common sayings around here.

Now it seems like it is happening or transitioning that way and I don't hear many people complaining. Big weed as in the corporate profit machine and designer weed or name brand pop strains seem to be merging into a jumbled mess. The marketing hype pretty much is big weed as far as I can tell. Profit investors and other middle parties all conflict with quality safe affordable cannabis for one reason or another. I could talk about this all day long but it's approved from the same government who brought you thalidomide babies fentanyl epidemic and tobacco ads directed at children. People were fighting for cancer treatment, and now you have companies treating it like the next addictive commodity junk food, cigarettes, alcohol etc. "Entertainment" or recreational sector does not care one bit about quality or anything. It is much more a case of package and sell as many for as much as possible. What is being called legal, is really a calculated subversion. Lots of money exchanging hands but there is no quality assurance or safety test, only the same joke that we see in our food and alcohol supply distribution chains, where 19-20 people line up to take their cut after being grown on the mega farm.

Much different from this:

Boneyard Seeds with Tony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEXgW3_D7Kc

Mass marketed stuff will cater to the lowest common denominator and cheapest production, like with corn, tomatoes etc; bug resistant, easy to harvest and process, middle of the road flavour. Look how heirloom vegetables, pot distilled whiskeys, etc. Have become popular. People get tired of the same old same old and want something raised with actual *taste* in mind.

On a tour of one of the big breweries a friend asked a brewmaster how they made their beer different from other brands. His answer was pretty candid; he said they spend more time making it taste *just like* other brands lol. It was the *marketing* they spent the effort on.

Candid means the opposite of a lie.

Why doesn't their beer taste like the other brand's?

I'm guessing you aren't aware it doesn't.

CRISPR Genome Editing. welcome to big weed

CaptainDankness said:

Maybe, but at the same time you have Sam the Skunkman claiming CRISPR is not GMO and many here have agreed.

Now sure I agree it's not as bad as making Round Up ready GMO weed, but it's going to be genetically modified. I imagine with CRISPR it won't make cannabis more dangerous or anything, as what I got from Sam was it's just cannabis genes they're working with.

Can they take over? Yeah, possibly if it tastes amazing and dank I'm going to like it. They may also make strains high in certain cannabinoids which might be a lot better for medicine.

Of course I'm sure heirloom varieties will always be available and have a small market share, but overall Americans are happy with Budweiser and I do like it more than a lot of expensive beers. Honestly I hate most of the micro brewery beers.

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I'd like to see these comments that state CRISPER isn't GM.
I've not seen one yet. I have seen Sam mention CRISPER but do not recall seeing him say that CRISPER is NOT GM.


Budweiser gives me the shits... same as anything manufactured by Anheuser Busch.
BUSCH = Brewed Under Several Clydesdale Horses...
The local breweries are much much much much much much better.

mean mr.mustard said:

Candid means the opposite of a lie.

Why doesn't their beer taste like the other brand's?

I'm guessing you aren't aware it doesn't.

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Mm, I think there’s a difference, even within the big brands. But I don’t think there’s a huge difference. I think they gear towards the biggest market; the most widespread labels like Coors, Bud etc. are all what, pale lagers? In Canada, there’s not a very big difference between Labatt”s Blue, Molson Canadian, Coors , Budweiser etc. I don’t find it so, and I’ve drank a lot of beer

If only I could find Double Diamond again ...

Continental lagers are weak and flavorless.

The market was created not identified then catered to.

Shitty "beer" ruined beer for North America for a hundred years.

Immigrants from Europe were then and are now surprised to find the beverage many refer to as beer vastly differing from what they drank in their homeland.

Although there has likely been effective marketing in those countries for our shoddy offerings I doubt the big beer giants can defeat Guinness drinkers.

mean mr.mustard said:

Continental lagers are weak and flavorless.

The market was created not identified then catered to.

Shitty "beer" ruined beer for North America for a hundred years.

Immigrants from Europe were then and are now surprised to find the beverage many refer to as beer vastly differing from what they drank in their homeland.

Although there has likely been effective marketing in those countries for our shoddy offerings I doubt the big beer giants can defeat Guinness drinkers.

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I’d wish that CAMRA existed here (in the Dominion of Canada) except that pub culture never existed here. I wonder what real ale tastes like. And what Malawi Cob and Thai Stick are like

I always wanted to try Lebanese blonde hash.

Malawi cob curing has certainly got my attention, I'm concerned about the microorganisms and exact action of fermentation due to my concern for old battered lungs that can't take much more abuse (infection being devastating).

Thai sticks are still being made? They're on my bucket list!

I have grown and bred Thai strains and they are potent! They are also a fucking nightmare of a mess!

If you find your way down to Ohio I can show you real ales as far as the liver can quiver.

:friends:

mean mr.mustard said:

Continental lagers are weak and flavorless.

The market was created not identified then catered to.

Shitty "beer" ruined beer for North America for a hundred years.

Immigrants from Europe were then and are now surprised to find the beverage many refer to as beer vastly differing from what they drank in their homeland.

Although there has likely been effective marketing in those countries for our shoddy offerings I doubt the big beer giants can defeat Guinness drinkers.

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I recently had a short discussion with a gent who
honestly claimed liking his beer without flavor.

Busch lite was his go to, and thought the Yuengling
in my cart was like drinking bread.

To each his own, I guess.

I swear, this is what white culture looks like. Bear Whizz beer, less threatening, I guess? In Germany, beer is considered FOOD by almost everyone, in fact beer was invented to preserve the food value in wheat, so drinking bread might not be so far off (and what would be wrong with it?).

Bland is what? Less of a challenge than everything else? Safe? I dunno.

As the expression goes, "American 'beer' is like making love in a canoe."

mean mr.mustard said:

I always wanted to try Lebanese blonde hash.

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You and me both!

Here in the benighted hellhole that is “God’s country” hash has always been a rarity, was usually black and sticky, occasionally sand-colored, but never in any quantity.

I remember one afternoon hanging with my BF, we go to the park to meet a friend of his. Friend has just scored hash, so we all head over to his place, head up into the attic, and he packs a bowl. There’s maybe seven of us, and the bowl goes around, and around, and after awhile I have to pee at which point I don’t remember how to walk. So I crawled off the couch, into the bathroom but afterwards still couldn’t walk...so I crawled out into the room, said good bye, and crawled down the stairs, through the kitchen (“bye, dear - hope you had fun!” from his mom), out to my car.

After thinking about it for, I dunno, I climbed onto the hood, and then through the driver’s side window. Viola. It turned out that I remembered how to drive, because it was sitting down. The next thing I remember, I was at a stop light, wondering where I was. I kept going forward, and then I was home. I parked the car, and crawled out, crawled to the door. My brother heard me fumbling with the lock.
“What’s going on with you?”
“Kid, I am one stoned motherfucker”
“I’ll cover for ya”

I crawled downstairs to my room, and then it was the next day....

I have not been that stoned since...’70, I guess. I was 19.

“mean_mister_mustard” said:

Malawi cob curing has certainly got my attention, I'm concerned about the microorganisms and exact action of fermentation due to my concern for old battered lungs that can't take much more abuse (infection being devastating).

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It’s caught my attention, too, but I’m coming up to speed on several things simultaneously and haven’t fit that into my live tabs yet. I am familiar with fermentation and believe that’s an aspect of curing tobacco, but yeah, huge subject, maybe I’ll live long enough.

“mean_mister_mustard” said:

Thai sticks are still being made? They're on my bucket list!

I have grown and bred Thai strains and they are potent! They are also a fucking nightmare of a mess

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I was told one time that we were smoking Thai stick, but I recall nothing else about it. Then again, when it came to cannabis this place was a big hole. Still is, but if anything with trichomes showing hits my neck of the woods, I never even hear about it. Must be above my pay grade.

I hope you get your wish and have the Thai high we all want!

What is it that makes them such a nightmare?

Dropped Cat said:

I recently had a short discussion with a gent who
honestly claimed liking his beer without flavor.

Busch lite was his go to, and thought the Yuengling
in my cart was like drinking bread.

To each his own, I guess.

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Guy probably thinks black pepper is "spicy" too.

White Beard said:

What is it that makes them such a nightmare?

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I have never grown a Thai variety, but I have heard that they grow, and grow, and grow, and keep growing, basically never stopping.

And they take forever and a week to mature; not uncommon to hear 20+ weeks.

Couple those two things with a 30 foot tall plant equaling maybe a pound of trimmed herb, and you could possibly start to see a reason why not too many people want to invest in growing Thai varieties. Even if it is acid in plant form.

CRISPR is genetic modification, but so is all selective breeding.

St. Phatty said:

Why would it be any different from chocolate ?

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Good chocolate is made with high quality ingredients, cocoa butter, milk, cocoa liquor, vanilla. Nestle chocolate is made with the cheapest ingredients corn sugar, "Natural Flavors", brown dye #372, Thickener ? Ground cardboard ?

The cost of good chocolate is in the ingredients. Even mass produced good chocolate is expensive.

With beer it is the same Coors and Bud use corn and rice to ferment because it is cheap. You average beer swilling arm chair TV watcher just wants the alcohol. Same as Mad Dog 20/20 vs Napa Valley Wine.

Good Beer/Real Beer is - Water, Barley, Hops, & Yeast. You will pay more because the manufacturer pays double possible quadruple for Barley grains then he does for rice and corn.

Home brew beer is not better then the 1,000 square foot micro brewery and 1,000 foot micro brewery is not better then the 10,000 square foot micro brewery. Good systems can be scaled with the same ingredients in you get the same product out.
Homebrew is not near as constant as a good micro brew because a home is not a good environment to control factors and keep products consistent. Things can get a tad funky once in a while.

St. Phatty said:

My guess is there's Big Hops and there's local hops.

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Most hop farms I have seen are very small 15-80 acres. hops are interesting because they are similar to cannabis in many ways including growing and processing.
Hops sell for about $3-$10 a lb that is what cannabis is expected to drop to in the next decade.

Personally I will pay extra for good indoor cannabis or imported from a special climate then your average outdoor.

Same genetics
100watt lights & coco in a basement
100watt lights & coco in a commercial building

Are people going to pay 10x more for the basement stuff ? No.

I am looking forward to global exotics Colombian Golds, Oaxaca ,Thailand and local landraces. That I will pay extra for that.