What does "craft" actually mean?

This is to confuse personal taste and preference with objectivity. "Better" simply means "I like them more"
Many of the most acclaimed "craft" brewers learnt their trade and skills working for macro breweries.They simply decided to brew to different specifications, recipes, etc. BMC work to an exact specification which suits the majority of beer drinkers just fine and they do it with great skill and attention to detail.
As a homebrewer I used to do everything by hand so I could say I crafted my beers.But even a small "craft" brewery is largely automated with ,for example ,close temperature control.
It's not just about ingredient quality. I know a brewer who insists on Fawcett's floor malted Maris Otter and wouldn't use any other even if "it is half the price" Yet Fawcett's couldn't provide enough of this to run even a mid sized "craft" brewery and indeed most of them use pretty ordinary generic malt.
I have long felt that the term "craft" is a quite meaningless concept.After all, a craftsman is someone who is able through skill to produce exactly the desired article.And any brewer who has stayed in business does exactly this regardless of size.

 

In this country many see it as beer that is too cold, fizzy, overhopped (a major complaint), faddish, made with stupid ingredients (Kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass etc.), kegged rather than from cask, overpriced, appealing to young men who don't know anything about anything, and against all that is good about beer.

 

How so? In the beginning in the early '80s, it was defined as under 10,000 barrels a year - which basically meant, "smaller than Anchor" at that time. By the mid-'80s at least one industry publication, The Brewers Digest, called it "under 12,000 bbl/yr". And by the late '80s it had bumped up to 15,000 and there it has stayed. Yet I continue to see people here in the BA forum call breweries with barrelages 10 times or more that size "microbreweries" - so while it might be "self-defining", it seems that everyone's got their own definition --- just like "craft".

According to B.A. stats (2013), while only about 4% of "Craft" brewers are too big to be "microbreweries" or "brewpubs", that 4% (119 "regional craft breweries") brews over 3/4's of the "craft beer" --- and probably account for the majority of posts on this site.

Got an example of that? "Crafty" was popularized by the Brewers Association in a Press Release that accompanied their notorious (and, quickly, withdrawn) "blacklist" of the small brewers and specialty brands/dba brewery names from the large breweries that did not meet the B.A.'s "craft brewer" definition.

 

Yes, but it's even less understood in the UK . I was in Castle Rock pub (whose Harvest Pale was CAMRA's Supreme Beer of Britain in 2010) advertising "Our first craft beer" ..........kegged beer which of course can't improve after leaving the brewery, basically second division. At a Premier Division price.Lots of people think that craft means keg and that's worrying.

 

Exactly. all in the eyes and mouths of the "Beer Holder".

 

The term “craft beer” didn’t show up until Vince Cottone put it in his book “Good Beer Guide: Breweries and Pubs of the Pacific Northwest” in 1986.
craft is of course defined. I always liked to say craft beer is local only. Meaning only then do you have direct control over everything. But it means your really a small brewer.

The real answer to me is its just a term that has evolved over the years. If you old you can remember the dry years of the 60,70, and early 80's. IT was imports and domestic. of course there are regional players. Still that book was the first I read of.
YMMV.

 

From your perspective, yes. From his , the beer he's drinking is as well crafted as yours. It's confusing personal opinion with objectivity again.

 

Keep in mind the Brewers association is a marketing group that obtains membership dues and other profits and are in no way an objective judge. As you pointed out they have changed their interpretation of craft over the years to suit their needs and it's always been fairly arbitrary.

 

Right.
"Craft" has become a fairly meaningless word, just a marketing term.
The big brewers are starting to come out with some specialty beers that demonstrate more actual 'craft' than a lot of the newer small startups.

 

This is very much a matter of "the eye of the beholder", though. I do not hesitate at all to consider BBC a craft brewer who makes craft beers. I'm not sure what percentage of BAs feel the same, but to the extent non-BAs ever even bother to think about it, they probably make no great distinction between Sam Adams and any other brewer of beers which are not AALs.

The thing is, for a lot of people the term microbrewery is one we learned without having any idea there was such a thing as the Brewers Association or that it was an actual defined term. I first heard it in the 80s and it was used (by myself and others) as a catch all word to mean the new breed of US brewers who were not large incumbents. That doesn't make such a usage "right", but given its widespread use, it's not exactly "wrong" either in the right context. I tend not to use the term any more since I now know better, but I still tend to look at context before trying to decipher actual intended meaning (as I'm sure you do, too).

 

I will say this, BMC products tend to be VERY dry to me with little flavor. Now, whether or not this means "better" or "worse" is up to the person drinking it. But in my personal experiences I've had while associating with people that drink BMC, a lot of them don't even know the difference between a lager and an ale, or a porter and a hefeweizen. If I can speak frankly, they're opinion on beer doesn't really matter that much because they've NEVER tasted anything beyond BMC products. This is not meant to be an insult because I've met BMC drinkers that have tried a lot of craft beer but I hardly ever run into someone like this.

Now, you are correct, BMC producers do put a lot of effort into what they make and it does consistently taste the same every time you drink it and I'm sure I am not the only one that will admit that a lot of craft selections don't always taste the same every time you drink it. Although, we must consider one thing, companies like Anhueser Busch can afford to make sure they're beer is consistent. They can throw away a million dollars worth of beer if they find any slight indication at all that the flavor is not right. I have a feeling that most craft brewers simply don't have the cash to do this.

So again, it just depends on what you consider "quality". I usually go by what the beer tastes like as an indication of quality and the vast majority of the craft beers I've tried just simply taste better than BMC products.

On the flip side of this - would you say Bud Light is a better tasting beer than a lot of craft selections?

 

Kraft Beer made with velveeta.

 

I'm not sure whether knowledge is an issue here - how often do you see posts in which people say they like Stouts better than Porters even though they are the same thing?

I know brewers who will pull substandard beer. I was once in a pub drinking Beaver Bitter which, although good, didn't sing hymns.Just then the brewer came in with a delivery and we asked him what he thought. After a couple of sips he said "Not good enough , take it off sale and I'll give you another one from my van"

Whether it's "better" is a matter of opinion.Personally I don't like any macro lagers at all. But despite 30 years of exposure to "craft" beer my #2 son still prefers Peroni.

 

Some of the American craft breweries are approaching a scale, and volumes, which in many countries would place them among the largest breweries in those countries. To me this is telling in that it shows the difference that a brewer's or brewery owner's intent does to a beer's flavor. Industrial scale brewing is no hindrance to beer flavor, if the intent for flavor is there to begin with. Beer does not automatically become blander as the scale is increased, unless the intent for blandness is there also.

 

And some people would argue till dawn that porters and stouts are not the same. haha...

Experience is pretty big in my opinion. It would be like someone judging a piano playing contest but yet the person doing the judging can only play chop sticks on the piano. Again, nothing against people that drink BMC, I just wouldn't put a lot of stock into what they say about beer.

I would think some craft brewers can afford to do this but a lot of them can't.

I hear ya, some people just prefer that dry flavorless taste of macro lagers and thats fine with me. If thats what you like, go for it.

 

Just another buzzword. Just like how "chipotle" replaced the word spicy or when "husky" replaced fat. It's now become a marketing tool. Seems to be working too. Very crafty

 

I was going to do this but assumed some else already had... as for craft beer, I think something not mainstream.. thought some "craft" brewery are definitely mainstream now.