Craft Beer Misnomers

I really don't think they realize it, back in there day, thats pretty much all you could get as far as american beer, so in their mind, anything other than that is considered foreign .....another term that doesn't make sense to me is "Domestic Beer" seeing that there are over 3000 domestic craft breweries open in the US, I feel they need to change that label.

I tested a bartender once by ordering a bucket of american "domestic" craft beer after reading a sign that said "Special: all domestic beer buckets $10". He laughed at me and said "You can't get craft beer" which i replied "but the sign says ALL DOMESTIC BEER, and last time i checked (american craft beer) was made right here in the US!!" he laughed again and said you know what? I need to change my sign, here's your bucket.

 

OK - I would have said something...

It's one thing to call Blue Moon Craft, but Import Craft? I mean, sure, it's not brewed by an American owned company, but...

 

Haha, i don't think he would've taken too kindly to that, which is why i just laughed and shook my head...

 

That's awesome, I hope it was BCBCS

 

True story; was in a similar tavern, very close to my office, some years ago. Went there because my co-workers liked it and it was close. Went to the bar to get a beer, in line behind 2 girls who asked, "What imports do you have?" Bar tender looks down into the cooler under the bar, "We have Beck's, Corona, and Leinenkugel's."

I turned around and left and never went back to that joint.

 

Very similar to this ^ I volunteered at a beer fest to pour beer and the brewery, Lake Effect, I was pouring for brought 2 different beers a Belgium Blonde (good) and a Watermelon saison (which was F***cking amazing, especially on a hot day) and I can't tell you the number of guys that would walk up and just ask for "The Lake Effect". Well, that's the brewery, you've got two choices of actual beer. Immediately after telling them about the watermelon saison, they'd turn their noses up and say, I don't want a ***** beer with fruit, give me the Blonde. These are the people at a "craft beer" fest looking to get intoxicated. That's cool, they paid their money but how are you going to learn about craft beer if you can get outside of your antiquated ways of thinking?

It was just a cool experience to be on the other side of things for once and see what these brewers and people put up with on a regular basis.

 

My dad calls them gross beers, my grandma calls them motor oil, and my woman calls them my one true love.

 

Don't take this as a reply to ONLY your post, since many in this thread express similar thoughts.

I don't understand why folks get so worked up over what labels some bar puts on their menu! Yeah, it is ignorant, but so what? Humorous, sure. Silly and mired in a BMC world, yes. But, causing anger? Why?

He's making a nice profit off of every Blue Moon he sells. Profit is good!

 

Sure, but it's dishonest. Perhaps it's unintentionally dishonest if the bar themselves is ignorant, but if the people selling the beer have no idea, the people buying it sure don't either. The bar, however, has a responsibility to accurately advertise their product and clearly are not.

Admittedly in the case of Blue Moon it's ubiquitous enough that I don't think there's anyone out there saying "I want to try an import, but don't know what I want, I wonder what 'Blue Moon' is all about"; but the point remains that while I don't mind sheeple being overcharged for shitty beer, I do mind it happening dishonestly.

 

OK, point taken. But, I suspect it is not an intent to deceive; just ignorance.

 

You're almost definitely right, but unintentional or not, there's no excuse for that level of ignorance when it's your business (literally) to know better

 

Old menu?

After the merger with Molson, and the announced closing of the Coors Memphis brewery (where Blue Moon was brewed) in early 2005, MolsonCoors shifted Blue Moon production for the US to the Montreal brewery, so for a time Blue Moon was an "Import" in the US. (Think that came to an end with the MillerCoors joint venture a few years later.)

 

Here comes @jesskidden to split the thinnest hair he can find I suppose there's a level on which I'm being hypocritical, but can we just agree that if it's made by BMC it's not an 'import' regardless of which facility happens to have been the one to make it? And I doubt anyone disagrees that 'craft' is no better an adjective.

 

Continuing to split those hairs, I guess. Stella Artois, Corona, Becks, etc., are all AB-InBev beers.

I, personally, look on it as a category with certain minimal expectation, such as not being AAL. However, the Brewers Association would strongly disagree that "craft" is a mere adjective.

 

Alright, I surrender, I'm hypocritical about my beer designations, I don't like when 'big beer' horns in on terminology I think should be reserved for "not 'big beer'", but I can't figure out a way to define what 'big beer' is appropriately either. And you're right, 'craft' is not merely an adjective, but that doesn't mean it isn't also an adjective.

 

My dad calls them "specialty beers." Hey I'm gonna run out and grab some beer, do you want any specialty beers? Of course if I say yes, I can expect a sixer of Corona or maybe Sam Adams, but I never complain.

 

I don't take it personally when Miller describes Blue Moon as "craft", since they are clearly marketing the brand into the craft market segment. The Brewers Association wants to reserve the term "craft" for brewers that fall within their defined group: the brewers they are advocating for. Fundamentally, they don't want Miller to be "allowed" to market Blue Moon as "craft" because doing so is not in the best interests of their trade group. IOW, it is still just about marketing.

Bars and restaurants need to find a way to categorize their products for pricing and for consumer selection. So long as both "sides" (bar/restaurant and customer) know what the terms mean in the context of the menu, everything is good.

However, the point you made a couple of posts above is valid. Uninformed customers should not be mislead into believing that Blue Moon is an exotic import worth nearly twice the price of a Miller Lite, even if the deception is not intentional.

 

Well put. It's a lot harder to identify the hypocrisy in naming conventions when they're the ones you use than when they're the ones you object to.

 

I know thick beer is a misnomer, but generally craft beer tends to be somewhat on the heavier side in general. Light bodied hoppy beers are very refreshing when I come across them.

 

American Adjunct Lager. Bud/Miller/Coors. This was my only good deed for the day!