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

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by Orca, Apr 14, 2015.

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Should we continue using the term "craft" to describe beer?

  1. Yes

    152 vote(s)
    44.6%
  2. No

    81 vote(s)
    23.8%
  3. Not sure

    16 vote(s)
    4.7%
  4. Don't care

    92 vote(s)
    27.0%
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  1. Orca

    Orca Grand Pooh-Bah (4,710) Sep 18, 2010 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I've felt for a while now that the word "craft" as it pertains to beer is virtually meaningless, and that its continued use might actually be detrimental to what most of us consider to be "craft" beer. First, most people don't seem to even agree on what the word means. There's also the matter of smaller breweries now being bought out by the big macros; what are they now? Is it more about the ownership or the product?

    But beyond all of that, and perhaps even more importantly, I think that referring to a certain segment of the beer market as "craft" tends to put it off in a little corner and isolate it in many people's minds as something different or other than just plain "beer." And I think that if anything, we should instead start talking about the beer brewed by the thousands of smaller breweries across the United States and around the world as just plain "beer," and the big conglomerate breweries should be given their own separate designation: macro or AAL, or whatever seems most appropriate. Where I live, when people talk about beer they are basically only ever talking about what many people refer to as "craft" beer. I think that is as it should be.

    Anyway, I thought it was time to put this question to a vote, and see what the BA intelligentsia think. Cheers!
     
  2. MRLMedic

    MRLMedic Initiate (0) Oct 26, 2013 Massachusetts

    We must! "Beer" to the majority is Bud/Bud Light.
     
  3. Orca

    Orca Grand Pooh-Bah (4,710) Sep 18, 2010 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    That's my whole point. It's time to change that paradigm.
     
    jbertsch, PatrickCT, FrancisT and 2 others like this.
  4. rozzom

    rozzom Pooh-Bah (2,620) Jan 22, 2011 New York
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Yup - scrap craft. It excludes big chunks of good beer from the rest of the world, while at the same time implying the product is well-"crafted", which often couldn't be further from the truth

    Just beer. There's good beer, bad beer, and a ton inbetween
     
    Gemini6, R3ason, doowhat and 10 others like this.
  5. brendanryan1234

    brendanryan1234 Initiate (0) Jan 28, 2014 Massachusetts

    This. A million times over.

    "Craft" beer always sounded really corny to me.
     
    Gemini6, ahawkman, blassor and 3 others like this.
  6. MRLMedic

    MRLMedic Initiate (0) Oct 26, 2013 Massachusetts

    I think we'll always be the small majority. I spent 280 bucks on 24 beers last week. What's a 30 rack of Bud run? 13? I mean, it's a select crowd. We're far from the majority. Beer in the US will always be the macro's.
     
    DoctorZombies and John_Beeryman like this.
  7. alwaysplayin

    alwaysplayin Initiate (0) Feb 27, 2012 Ohio
    Trader

    Are you suggesting we try to foll the common man with words like "Crizzaft" or "IP-Azizzle"? History says they'll catch on to that, too...
     
    MRLMedic likes this.
  8. Lamnic

    Lamnic Initiate (0) Mar 1, 2012 Connecticut

    According to the brewers association, American craft beer was 11% of the total US market in 2014. So yes, still craft.
     
  9. rozzom

    rozzom Pooh-Bah (2,620) Jan 22, 2011 New York
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Haha yeah - it's like when I hear that beer/cheese/whatever is "artisanal" - it makes me shudder a little
     
    ahawkman, cjgiant, LMT and 2 others like this.
  10. marquis

    marquis Pooh-Bah (2,313) Nov 20, 2005 England
    Pooh-Bah

    If you plonk a glass of beer in front of me and ask "is this craft beer ?" and I can guess right every time then perhaps the word "craft" might mean something.There's lots of beautifully brewed beer about but just as hand thrown pottery doesn't do the job any better than the stuff from a factory it would be difficult to say that small scale brewing delivers a better product either. And some "craft" breweries would have been among the biggest in the world at one time.
     
    JuicesFlowing and BBThunderbolt like this.
  11. lambpasty

    lambpasty Initiate (0) May 3, 2013 New Hampshire

    On the one hand I feel like some people perceive it as pretentious, but on the other hand I suppose I do like having a way to differentiate between macro and non-macro.

    I voted "don't care" though because I like drinking the beer I like a lot more than categorizing it :grinning:
     
    DoctorZombies likes this.
  12. John_Beeryman

    John_Beeryman Initiate (0) Jul 19, 2014 Virginia

    Yes. I don't care what people perceive as pretentious.
     
  13. Greywulfken

    Greywulfken Grand Pooh-Bah (5,815) Aug 25, 2010 New York
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Yes, as long as there is BMC beer, there has to be craft beer.

    It's like that, "you can't have good without evil/beauty with ugly"-kinda thing :wink:
     
  14. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,375) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society Pooh-Bah

    Craft beer means a beer that is not Bud Light, Bud, Coors Light, Miller Lite, etc.

    Since the vast majority of the beer consumed in the US is Bud Light, Bud, Coors Light, Miller Lite, etc., the term of craft beers is very useful!!

    Cheers!
     
  15. adamsns6696

    adamsns6696 Initiate (0) Jul 21, 2013 Maine

    Hasn't this thread been done 100 times?
    Regardless yes it should be called craft because you have to differentiate somehow. and if you don't call it craft it will have to be referred to as something else. As soon as you say it should just be called "Beer" you'r grouping it in with all bmc and all mass produced beer.
     
    drbenderdo and yemenmocha like this.
  16. BBThunderbolt

    BBThunderbolt Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,846) Sep 24, 2007 Kiribati
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I've never cared for the term craft. As has been discussed here on BA dozens of times, Budweiser is a well-crafted beer. To make as much beer as they do, in as many locations as they do, and have the consumer not know which of the 13 breweries it was crafted in, is a sign of true craftsmanship. Does that make Bud an enjoyable beer to me? No, it does not, but that is certainly a well constructed brew.

    Since we seem to have done away with the term 'Microbrew" (which I thought works better than craft), and if we need to call it something, how about Small Batch?
     
    cjgiant and rozzom like this.
  17. FrancisT

    FrancisT Initiate (0) Apr 11, 2008 Vermont

    If someone puts a free range beef burger in front of you with high end cheese, dressings and they also took the time and care to assemble it properly and then puts it next to a shitty McDonalds burger do you call the free range burger craft? Nope, its a burger, a much higher quality burger but still a burger...but I've always thought referring to our thing as craft beer was a bit corny. I get it but its still corny. I liked Microbrew better...thats me though.
     
    BeerBob, rozzom and TMoney2591 like this.
  18. Urk1127

    Urk1127 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,790) Jul 2, 2014 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I consider the word craft as hand crafted because 98% of what even I'd considered "craft" beer is. So it should be kept to differentiate itself from mass produced, no love or creativity , into making it, products. Not saying the BMC beers don't love their product. But I see them as more of "the man" type figure in the authoritative boss kind of way.
     
  19. Orca

    Orca Grand Pooh-Bah (4,710) Sep 18, 2010 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I just want to explain my point one more time, then I'll drop it (and yes, this discussion has been done a thousand times, but I'm not sure if we've ever taken a vote). You all say we use the word "craft" to "differentiate" better beer from the macros, and I understand that concept. What I am suggesting is that it's time we start differentiating the macros from craft instead. I respect your choice to disagree with the assertion I'm putting forth; but since "craft" beer really did come centuries before what's now considered "regular" beer, I think it's time we start occupying that space again and put the macros on the defensive. Let them have their own differentiator; why should we just hand the macros the position of the "default" definition of beer?
     
  20. UCLABrewN84

    UCLABrewN84 Initiate (0) Mar 18, 2010 California

    Doesn't matter to me. I don't drink beer based on whether or not it has a "craft" label attached to it.
     
    JuicesFlowing likes this.
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