"Domestic Beer"

Change takes time. A long time. It not worth getting worked up over.

 

Well, most restaurant chains still associate "domestic" with the big breweries (Bud, Miller, Coors, etc). When I think domestic, I think those beers.

More and more places are using the term "domestic locals" to showcase craft beers within their region.

 

I dislike the improper use of the term Craft Beer far more.

 

I don't know how it is in the rest of the country, but in Chicagoland, no craft beer is distributed as domestic.

 

Bear in mind "craft" beer is very new term. I never heard of it until a year or so ago. It was always domestics, imports, or local/micro brews. To me, Hanks, Pete's, Pyramid etc. are just local breweries from their respective areas. Nothing craftier than the rest.

 

^ We're the minority when it comes to beer

 

As long as everyone knows what it means (like it or not) and no better term is produced, it will persist.

 

I'll go a step further...it's a lot ignorant. Maybe almost willfully so.

I'd bet there are a few people who don't give good beer a true chance simply because they don't like some of their perceptions about it ("hipster," "fancy," "sissy," "froo-froo," whatever). And because of that, maybe some of these folks almost want craft beer to also be foreign (an "import"), no matter what the reality is.*

*Of course, I have absolutely nothing to back this up with and this statement is loaded with generalizations.

 

For now, domestic remains a term that has referred to a style of product so long, its use will remain--for a while.

I don't think it is confusing to most. On vacation I see Domestic/Import/Craft on several menus. I think it will be much harder for folks to define craft in the future with distinctions now being based on ownership as well as the product itself.

 

Many arguments are had a "dollar domestic" nights around the country on this topic I am sure

 

Lot's of generic terms are used in common usage as specific terms.

If everybody who needs to understands the specific meaning in context, absolutely no need to get all persnickety about it.

 

So what do you suggest as a replacement? That could actually catch on.

 

"Adjuncts"?

 

Had that argument at TGIF's with their $2 drafts of domestic beer. They tried calling Sam Adam's an import. I very sarcastically asked if it is imported from the foreign country of Massachusetts?

 

Too geeky; also, includes a lot of craft beer (assuming you are using the term generically! )