Poll: should we continue using the term "craft" to describe beer?

Absurd yes, but yet you and others also use it in discussion to identify a particular subcategory of the term "beer." I always assumed it was for purposes of clarifying quickly, easily and efficiently what general type of beer was being referred to.

So given that the mass market beer companies in the US have a strangle hold on the term "beer" some other linguistic device is needed for people to differentiate what they want to talk about from those beers, we need an alternative. As I said before, give us a better term if you don't like "craft" but recognize that simply saying "beer" won't solve the problem. It just side steps it.

 

I use that term (Fernsehbier) when quoting others, but I assign very little meaning to it -- and certainly don't share the meaning beer geeks have blithely assigned to it.

As to what term to use, why not just refer to the particular "style" as it is understood in its respective culture? If the macros/industrial producers are all about adjunct lagers, there should be little potential for confusion when talking about the innumerable other options out there.

 

@draheim

Yup, there was some ‘interesting’ discussion in this poll/thread.

“I concede on all points.” It does indeed appear that the word “craft” is here to stay (until a new word is ‘invented” and popularized via usage?).

Cheers!

 

It doesn't much matter how you use that term. Lots of people use it to differentiate and do assign menting to it.

So imagine you just turned 18 and have never had a beer but have been watching mass market beer commercials for much of your life and decide to start trying out beer. What does the term Pilsener mean to you? After all some of the mass market beers are Pilseners, right? Or what meaning would the term American Adjunct Lager have for you (remember AAL would not be allowed since that implies you already know/understand where those letters come from and what they mean)?

 

I imagine an 18-year-old these days would google the term "Pilsener" and see (probably from the first hit, the Wikipedia entry) that it refers specifically to beers produced in Pilsen -- i.e. Pilsner Urquell. (Kids aren't watching much TV these days, ya know...) Then, in order to find out what meaning the term has, that person would have to go find the object that the signifier/referent "Pilsner" is referring to. If s/he then picked up a 6er of Miller Lite ("a fine Pilsner beer") in addition to the Urquell...well, I guess it would be up to her/him to decide which beer was better. Or is the goal somehow to make sure people no longer pick up macro beers and only drink "craft"? If so, is mass-produced (fizzy yellow) Urquell "craft"? Or is Mamma's Little Yella Pils a better representation somehow, because it is expressly identified as "craft" Pilsner?

 

To me "craft" beer means "home-brewed". I never did like calling the beer from a brewery "craft" While "crafting" a beer is an important part of any brewery, once that beer gets beyond the brew master and into line production, it is no longer "craft". It is a "product".

 

I wasn't advocating the use of it, just stating to his question that something like that already exists in the food world.

For what it's worth, I'm not a big fan of using these designated terms either because it creates a false mindset that the "craft" or "gourmet" option is automatically better. I know there's been a handful of beers I've had over the years that are classified in the craft camp, but that I would immediately reach for a Bud Light over ever drinking them again.

 

Naahh

 

Nice to imagine that sort of thing but we have 30 somethings and older on this site who have fingured out how to do internet searching or site searches on their own.

But that term doesn't refer specifically to beers produced in Pilsen. The German brewers have been using the term for years and doing their own version of it. Indeed, German brewers back in the 19th Century are the ones who brought the term and made the beer in the US (indeed in Philly we have an historical marker that indicates right where the first known Pilsner beer brewed in the US was brewed).

 

Right. So they do the research...and drink the Original ("Ur-quell", meaning "original source") and the others...and see what they like best. If they like the ones that call themselves "craft" best, then they might become devotees of that movement and use that term; if they like the original best, they may become a devotee of those more traditional options and eschew the term; if they like mass-produced ones best -- like 90% of the population -- they might forget all about it and go drink those. In either instance, the strict dichotomy of "craft" vs. "non-craft" only applies in the heads of "craft" devotees -- and even then, apparently in only 43.5% of them.

 

Sure we can try that but for as long as I've been on this site I've tried to avoid "craft" and used the term "mass market" beers to refer to what most everyone else calls BMC and I've seen others use the term "industrial lager" and so on, but that word "craft" keeps chugging along as new members join the site and older ones drop off. I think one day when the BA "grows up" and no longer has an inferiority complex there's hope for a new term, but as I indicated in my first post in the thread, given whats happened to the meanings of the terms "hype" and "price gouging" I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a new term.... :-)

 

You know, I think that if that would actually work, it would have happened by now, and we would not be having this discussion at all.

 

Very true. On the other hand, more and more people seem to be beginning to understand that just because something says "craft Pilsner" doesn't mean it is any better a representation of the "style" than even a mass-produced version. If people insist on using the term regardless, then there's nothing wrong with disabusing them of their belief that "craft" = "better," right?

 

I think "craft" is a fine way to describe the beer we prefer. The macros will always have the major market share. To me, that is just "beer". There is nothing special about it. My family owns a coffee shop and I like good coffee. I know who roasted the beans, how hot the brew water is, and how many grams of coffee goes into my cup. It's "craft" coffee if you will. Folgers and Maxwell House is just coffee. A lot of people don't care what kind of beer they drink or what kind of coffee they drink.

 

How about calling it Liquid Love?

 

I just call it beer. Regarless of what the BA wants to jam into thier definition, the real difference is arbitrary. If Lagunitas made a clone of Coors Light people here would call it craft. If Coors made a clone of Sucks, people here would say it wasn't craft. It makes the word meaningless.

 

If you think "craft" sounds a bit snooty , I understand your point. But to distinguish from mass market, spend almost as much on advertising as on ingredients, AAL we need an adjective.

Off the top of my head "fine", "local" , "small" all kinda work, but each its limitations. "Craft" maybe better describes the industry in 1998 than today, but I'm not sure any other term conveys as much information.

Maybe that's the next poll, "If we supplant "craft" what word do we use?

 

That potentially could be an interesting exercise but the bigger challenge is getting a 'selected' word to be popularly utilized by people. Even is there was a newly 'selected' word chosen how do you get it to genuinely accepted word that everybody will choose to use in their discussions? While there are some folks who seem to be 'offended' by the utilization of "craft" to describe beers that are not beers like Bud Light, Bud, Coors Light, Miller Lite, ... the reality is that "craft" is used by lots of folks; folks who are BAs and folks who are not BAs.

Cheers!