Which brewery or brewer do you consider to be the current" face" of craft beer?

I vote Dogfish. Being an hour a way I am loyal. I've had the opportunity to see them start,expand,mature as a Brewer. Been pretty cool to see something locally evolve into a beer many enjoy across our nation.

 

I agree with Dave: Shaun Hill.

Shaun lets his brewing do 'the talking'!!

Cheers to Shaun Hill for being an excellent "face" for brewing high quality craft beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Actually, I believe Lagunitas is from California. Anyway, no matter, Lagunitas is not a bad choice. Lagunitas along with Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams. I choose these because they seem the most mainstream of craft beers. Whenever I'm at a bar that does not have a wide selection, apart from the usual BMC offerings, you can still find these three I've mentioned.

 

that guy from Alpine... I hear that he just loves people

 

I think you have to be large, but still cutting-edge, approachable but still part of the in-crowd, and have renowned products in a few styles...

I'm going with Stone - big enough that they're represented everywhere, priced reasonably enough that you can try their products without breaking your budget; they produce some defining beers, like Self-Righteous, the Bastard line, Enjoy By, and more, but are still pumping out experimental and collaborative products that are interesting and well-executed (Xocoveza, Dayman, etc.).

I'd consider Sierra Nevada as a runner-up - though their barrel-aged releases are over-priced - but they have some great beers, and a broad product line.


Ruled out:
DFH seems to have gotten too gimmicky over the time I've been drinking craft, and their products can be rather pricey. I don't have a go-to DFH beer and I can't recall the last release from them that really captured my attention.

Sam Adams - for the most part, to my tastes - makes too many beers that are not quite on par with the rest of the industry. Good, diverse, large, affordable: yes - but what's their beer that really defines a style?

 

John Maier. Part of his face has been made into a beer.

 

Well, ignoring the anachronistic use of the term "craft" (which was created specifically to describe the new US domestic beers coming from the "microbreweries" and contract brewers by the mid-70s through the 80s and would not have been applied to imports at the time), my beer fridge was never empty and I never went thirsty.

I drank good beer in that era, and imports - which tended to cost twice as much as domestic brands in the pre-craft era - were a pretty small (less that 10%) percentage of my consumption.

What'd I drink? Oh, let me think (well, actually "copy/paste" from old notes)...beside some of the beers that started coming from those new brewers on that linked list above, and the various AAL flagships of local and regional brewers, there was:

Ballantine XXX Ale, Ballantine India Pale Ale, Ballantine Brewer's Gold Ale, Ballantine Porter (aka Krueger Old Surrey Porter), McSorley’s Cream Ale, Lord Chesterfield Ale, Black Horse Ale (Trenton and Koch), Rainier Ale, Pickwick Ale, Croft Ale, Genesee 12 Horse Ale, Schaefer Cream Ale, Schoenling Cream Ale (Little King’s), Carling Red Cap Ale, Pabst’s Old Tankard Ale, Liebotschaner Cream Ale, Gibbons Ale, Kodiak Cream Ale, Tiger Head Ale, Neuweiler Ale, 20th Century Ale, Utica Club Cream Ale, Utica Club Sparkling Ale, Anchor Steam Beer, Anchor Liberty Ale, Anchor Porter, Yuengling Porter, Stegmaier Porter, Narragansett Porter, Narragansett Bavarian, Koch Jubilee Porter, Boarshead Stout, Koch Holiday Beer, Matt Holiday Beer, Augsburger, Augsburger Dark, Augsburger Bock, Prior Light and Prior Double Dark, Geyer Bros. Dark, Old Chicago Dark, Haffenreffer Private Stock Malt Liquor, Christian Moerlein, Hofbrau Deutschlager, Schaefer Braunslager, Royal Amber, Esquire, Horlacher Perfection Beer, National Premium, Andeker, and many seasonal bocks and draught-only dark beers.​

Could probably add another dozen or so beers from that period that I never found - but after 40 years, it still hurts to discuss the ones that got away. And many of the above I'd gladly have back on the shelves over the fruit- and other-flavored "craft beers". Especially the ones that are still marketed after being dumbed down (usually by Heileman and/or S&P/Pabst).

 

Even with as much of a beer nerd as I am, if any of those guys walked into the room right now, I wouldn't have a clue who they were. I think the most widely known face of craft beer has to Jim Koch, with Sam Calagione in second, by a fair bit. Maybe Garret Oliver gets 3rd?

Would you recognize Dick Cantwell if he sat on the barstool next to you? Vinnie Cilurzo? Matt Bryndilson? (apologies for any name mangling I may have done in the creation of this post. It's early, and I didn't look any of them up.)

 

Stone who? What one person at Stone would a lot of people recognize as being from that brewery, just by face value?

 

those two dudes that run this site???

 

If we're talking brewer, I'd have to say Jim Koch due to the commercials and his appearance on mainstream TV shows.

For breweries, either Boston Brewing or Sierra Nevada since they're so ubiquitous at bars, restaurants and stores.

 

Its @TheJermis. He has a Fathead of himself.

 

I agree with you completely. Have you ever had the chance to watch the short-lived Discovery Channel show "Brewmasters"? It follows Sam and really makes you appreciate his product that much more.

 

Ha!

 

Sam Calagione from Dogfish and Shane Welch from Sixpoint to name a few

 

Homer post

 

I don't think you can have just one "face of craft beer". With craft beer being so diverse in terms of styles and flavors you'd need a panel.

• Greg Koch of Stone Brewery. Sheer desire for better beer, almost tip of the spear for the craft beer movement.
• Sam Calagione of DogFish Head. The Creative and Unique boundary pushing side of craft beer.
• Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery. Blending the world of food beer and wine and teaching people that its beer isn't just for BBQ's and Pizza and has a place from the highest end kitchens to your bowl of Kraft Mac&Cheese.
• Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing. Reviving the small brewery and making simple yet non conforming beer.
• Charlie Papazian (not of brewery but important non the less). Most if not all brewers own or have read his books and cut their teeth on his methods.
• Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Brewing. Taking Hops from a background flavor into the spotlight.*
• Rob Tod of Allagash & Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River*. For bring back some of the old world techniques and styles and bringing the "wild" back into beer.

* yes Vinnie can also be placed along side Grossman for teaching us what a damn good IPA is.

You can go on and on and on about who you feel should be a head of a movement but i don't think its possible to have just one. And that is just the USA. You can go international and place Jeppe and Mikkel and BrewDog...

 

Uh, first of all, thread says, "brewery or brewer" - so I went with "brewery"

...and in response to your query: Greg Koch (@StoneGreg) comes to mind...

 

Not testy, just curious. even with as much time as I spend looking at beer stuff on-line, I wouldn't recognize him if he walked through the door right now. Which is why I still think Jim Koch and Sam Calagione are easily the one's that the most people would recognize if they saw them on the street, thus making them the "faces" of craft beer.

Plus, I hate those MFing gargoyles!!!