Most "Googled" beer names in 2014

Brewer's Association is a marketing group that has no bearing over anything other than the Brewer's Association. Claiming their rules are facts that apply to the entire "industry" defies basic logic. It is your opinion, but you're hiding it in confirmation bias.

 

No it won't. The line will simply be moved and rightfully so. SN makes better beer than 90% of all "Craft" breweries IMHO.

 

Show me the best ("quality") potato salad you'd ever had, I probably won't enjoy the taste enough to finish a small portion.

You refer to the quality of the product as perceived by an individual's taste, which is subjective. The definition of "craft" has more to do with qualitative factors rather than the quality of those factors itself. ie.: Does the beer introduce alternative ingredients? Is it true to a classic style, or was the recipe altered to create something unique? Is a portion of the brewery's business owned by a company that has nothing to do with the brewing process? Does the brewery produce smaller, limited, or rotational beers or is the majority annual and mass produced? Etc.

There's a lot of business/political technicalities that come into play too, as several people already mentioned.

TL;DR
This is an asinine discussion though. If you don't think a macro brewery can still produce a few "craft" or at least "craft-y" beers, go argue the definition of craft in a dedicated thread. I'm pretty sure the majority of us can agree on what tastes good, etc., so let's stick to talking about that.

 

Hit the head on the nail. Seriously, let's not turn this into a discussion on the definition of craft.

The OP's topic is aimed at a sociological discussion based on trending searches over the past year.

 

Man, I thought the most "Googled" beer would've been KBBS. Since I thought it was typo for KBS...

 

Of course taste is subjective. Beer doesn't just go down the drain for being off. I was just being flippant to make a point.
For me, the quality/attention to details argument is romantic and doesn't hold any water.

When Vinnie Cilurzo related the story of when he brewed the (possibly) first DIPA, he said, “Our equipment was pretty antique and crude, so I wanted to start out with something that was big and, frankly, could cover up any off flavors.” Can you find a more appropriate poster child/hero of the craft segment than that? With the booming growth of small breweries, do you think that statement no longer has relevance? When was the last time Anheuser-Busch had that problem? As was pointed out by the above posts, this has nothing to do with "preferred taste."

Does rice count?

 

I find it interesting that Bud Light is #7 while Budweiser is #1, since (in sales volume) Bud Light is easily #1, Coors Light #2 and Budweiser #3.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to sound like I was trying to quash your point. I was more just trying to highlight that if we are going to talk about the definition of craft, talking about "quality" doesn't mean much in this discussion unless you attach it to something more specific (like gradient mashing, hopbacks, etc.). Pretty sure we're on the same page.

Absolutely! Along with un-malted wheat, corn, and other adjuncts... These are important body/profile modifiers!

 

Maybe it was people wondering where Budweiser went...

 

Madison
Addison
Braylen
Jaylen
Jaden
Kaden
Braden
Aden

 

Seriously, why would you choose a Light over a regular ol' Bud?

 

the line will have to be drawn at some point? lol
Sierra Nevada is a craft brewery. Are they big, sure.
draw the line, ha.

 

The question is how many people got their PhD in Beer from Google University

 

The problem is that there is no such thing as a dividing line between craft and non-craft. It's actually a spectrum, where on one end you have artisinal single-batch beers where cost is no option, and on the other end you have some chemical flavouring in a bottle being pumped out of a factory that has never touched malt in its life.

Arguing that a brewery is or is not craft because of that amount it produces is ridiculous. It's the same as arguing that a particular sports car is less sporty because everyone is driving one.

 

Who are "we"?

 

I actually discovered this site when I googled "Budweiser". In fact, Budweiser may have been my first Google search.

 

Removing Sierra Nevada, one of the greatest, most influential and successful craft breweries of all time is just as good as saying "hey lets remove Glenfiddich from the Scotch classification." Absolutely ridiculous.

Edit: re "because they're too successful": So success is the deciding factor of what's craft beer and what isn't? lmao!