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

Got it. So even though these breweries don't identify with the craft movement, and don't consider their beer craft beer, and are from countries that made good beer prior to the craft movement, we're going to go ahead and call them craft anyway?

Personally I'm just going to call what they make "beer". And good beer at that.

On a side note..... @GreesyFizeek

 

I thought they were still called micro brews.

 

Always a pleasure chatting with you!

Cheers!

 

Why are they not craft? Just because they are not made in the US? Wouldn't be the first time words in the English language have been extended to include things not from an English speaking country.

 

Is legacy traditional beer a thing? Could also apply to Yuengling? For breweries that kept pre-mass market traditions?

 

I voted no because I feel that, ok, "craft" beer has become more inclusive, more mainstream, increasingly tied to community identity and far, FAR more accessible than even three years ago. With the shift in perception and availability, there should also be a shift in identification that shuns the preconception that it's created for a specific crowd or a specific taste. Let's be honest, how many BMC friends do people have that turn their nose up at the word "craft" because the name carries with it the memory of a time when they tasted a palate wrecker and hated it? Or when they went to a "craft" bar and felt like they were a leper? Or when they saw that commercial questioning the masculinity of craft folk, or at least extolling the masculine virtues of BMC?

While I do not know what the term should be, I do believe the next step in the promotion of "__________" beer is to overhaul in a positive way, the identity of it in general.

 

The term definitely separates people. As much I don't like Bud and the like, when I go to a package store and see totally different if not entirely separate displays for AAL and craft beer, which I simply refer to as good beer, it looks kind of silly. I have been to one package store here in Connecticut and they had a piece of yellow tape between the BCM and good beer. Not a very inviting gesture for someone looking to try something different.

 

If they, too, are "craft," then how are consumers to differentiate between them and the newer German "craft" beers that try to be unlike such traditional offerings?

 

Craft beer is a movement no? A "thing". A lot of breweries in the USA self-identify as being part of the craft movement, of being craft breweries, brewing craft beers.

And this has definitely had a global impact. There are breweries in countries from Finland, to Germany, to Japan who consider themselves craft.

But there are plenty of breweries (such as the ones I mentioned) that pre-date craft, that don't identify with the craft movement. So is it fair that they get lumped in with everyone else? If I'm in the UK and someone tells me that there's a great new "craft" brewery, I'm going to assume they make American style, kegged beer. Without the craft part, I'm going to assume traditional real ale etc. There is a difference

 

"Craft" is the new term for "imports" (i.e. non-BMC beers). Just call them all "imports" whether they are made in your home country or not. Same difference.

 

Well that's not really our problem now is it? Who appointed us the arbiters of correct standards of usage of the English language (or any other language)? Also, notice how poorly the French effort to legislate to keep French "proper" and undchanged has suceeded (not at all well). While the official term is "communication electronique" the man on the street can often be heard calling it "email." The French have lots of English language terms slipping into the language despite the laws they have in place. Some of them sliding in the back door from French speaking Canadians, often picked up unwittingly by French tourists from the locals.

In English we use both beef and cattle. The simple reason for that is that the Normans won the battle of Hastings in 1066 and created a new upper class in England. That upper class (the Anglo Normans) ate "beef" and the lower class (the Anglo Saxons) herded cattle.

What I'm describing is not what "should" be but what is. The language has a force of its own just as do the tides and the wind. We can fight and shout against them all we want but that won't change or prevent the change.

 

So what you're saying is that you won't have any problem with me calling them all "imports."

 

Sure when your computer program has only two categories (domestic and imports), based on pricing, you'll lump all craft into the import category rather than sell it for the lower price of the domestic. Lost track of the number of times we've had a thread here complaining about certain beers brewed in the US being in the Import category at bars. :-)

 

No. I'm saying I don't have any problem going with the flow of the language and calling them Craft because that does not specify anything about country of origin and so doesn't carry as much misleading meaning.

 

This is why I'm against the term in general. This really shouldn't be a new thing. All that's happening is that things are getting back to how they were a century ago when there were local breweries that served local people.

Think context. I don't know how all of you people end up in these mysterious bars so frequently where there are no non-BMC options, but, in general, I'd think you could see it coming. I live in an area that's pretty mixed, economically speaking. Lots of bars with a broad selection, but I'm not going to go into the VFW or biker bar down the street and ask what they have on tap. It'll probably be pretty obvious. Same goes for 'artisanal cheese'. I'm not going to go to the Greasy Burger and expect a cloth-aged cheddar when I ask for a cheeseburger. And I'm not going to go to the cheese shop in town or even Whole Foods and ask about cheese and assume I'll be discussing cheese-food product that individually wrapped.

 

But in countries with traditional, intact beer cultures, the term "craft" *does* imply beers that owe inspiration to a specific country of origin: the U.S.

 

I'm with you as far as flow of language for the population in general over an extended period of time.

Beer lovers, who I assume are interested in all aspects of beer, deciding to label non-craft breweries as being craft - don't agree so much there. Maybe not in the USA, but in other countries there are breweries making good beer, where some is craft and some is not. Wouldn't it be useful for all of us if we could discern between the two? Or just scrap craft altogether, because we can all agree that no matter what - it's all beer.

 

The most positive aspect of the "craft" term to refer to US-brewed non-AAL, light beer and other "macro" styles, is that it's so much less cringe-inducing than "microbrew".

"Microbrewery" as a term for the new, "smaller than typical of the era" breweries - and which has ALWAYS been limited to breweries under first 10k and later 12k and finally 15,000 barrels a year by industry usage standards - was bad enough ---- but "microbrew"

Note, too, that the largest portion of US "craft beer" is not brewed by "microbreweries" but by what the Brewers Association terms "Regional Breweries" (15k-6m bbl/yr).

 

Sure. But there are limits to how finely grained the distinctions have to be for communication and that depends on the circumstances and the audience. If someone asks me, "How can you call Weihenstephaner a craft brewery, its German isn't it?" I can say simply "well the beers they make are not mass market beers such as Becks, etc." If the person wants/needs more information than that I can say "That's a brewery that predates the use of the term craft being applied to beer since they were making certain kinds of beers other than mass market beers long before the reawakening of specialty or carefully crafted beers in the US. In fact in some ways their beers were the inspiration for what we now call craft, just as were some of the very nice ales from the UK and/or Belgium. And that effect is now returning home to influence other brewers in Germany or other brewing countries." But I'll tailor my reply to my audience.

 

Throwing my hat in the keep ring. The term is an anathema to corporate meh, imo.