Craft Beer Marking

It's not that the discussion is taboo, it is that you are not making a case.

So, then propose a definition and identify candidates to be doing the fact checking and awarding the mark, taking care to not exclude any of those mom and pop and small brewers you want to honor.

That's the way the Trappist Org. has done it. The criteria are quite specific and well defined and there is an identifiable, credible group allowing the use of the mark.

Edit: BTW you'll also need to stipulate who decides when and how someone is no longer a member of the group as well as who will be appointed to be making that decision.

 

It seems like what you're looking to achieve would be breweries being compelled to post how many barrels of beer they produce each year. I don't see any other reliable way of quantifying whether they're 'craft' or not. Sure, we could try to do something like this, but this isn't really required in any other industry and it wouldn't resonate much with consumers — I work at a beer store and can tell you that consumers aren't looking to do the math to figure out how big an operation bbls/year translates to for each bottle they purchase.

 

There is a bit of slippery slope here. You've just allowed Budweiser in to the group since Bud does not use corn and has been making basically the same beer since before craft was a gleam in anyone's eye. :-)

 

Budweiser is an AAL. It doesn't need corn. It's still corporate, i.e. not craft to me.

 

The only beer taboo I'm aware of is refusing to drink it.

Regarding the Trappist theme you've mentioned a few times. That's actually a marketing scheme the Monks came up with to sell more beer.

 

Edited from the perspective of the "big boys":
...So when a person goes to the store and sees "Hippy Hop" Beer on shelf with some cool can that is painted all pretty made in the garage of a part-time hobbist with no quality control is just another watery joke. I feel there is a lot of misleading going on to sway the buyer, can't you agree?

The big boys do take their product very seriously. It's incredibly disingenuous and patently wrong to say breweries like Goose Island, Lagunitas, Ballast Point, Unibroue, and others are "watery jokes" solely because they are affiliated with a large brewery. Are classic imported beers from Spaten or Pilsner-Urquell (owned by InBev and SABMiller, respectively) no longer good beers we are allowed to enjoy?

I get your passion, I just think you're letting that passion cloud your judgment about the larger beer industry.

 

And, for me, this where the BA caveat of "Independent" comes into play. I won't buy products from those breweries. I won't buy Ballast Point, might take a sample if I'm opening bottles with friends. In general, I tend to buy small and local brews. For the most part, there is an equivalent small-local option to every hype bomb.

I like the OP's basic premise, a small, independent, local (regional even?) logo (SIL? SIR?) for small brewers to use, if they wish, on their labels. Much in the way that the Trappist Diamond doesn't automatically guarantee a great beer inside, it just lets you know that it meets a certain definition. Perhaps just the Brewers Association allowing members to use their logo on packaging would accomplish this?

 

You said "corn," they don't use corn, they use rice. If using rice excludes them, what about those brewers of flavorful beers who also use rice?

 

In your OP you stated: “Sorry if this has been covered before…”

Hopefully you have gathered from the posts in this thread that this topic has indeed been covered many, many times and hopefully you have also recognized that this topic is quite contentious.

Maybe the next thread you start will be of a less controversial nature?

Welcome to BA!

Cheers!

 

Precisely - it's a place to toss around ideas. So give it a bash eh?

Otherwise it seems that there could have been one single response of "yes that's a great idea let's label it craft like trappists do, great point OP", then Todd could have locked the thread as the discussion had finished.

Edit - I'll pull something out my ass for example:

Craft Label should be:

Less than 10,000 BBL/yr
Distributed to a maximum radius of 500 miles
Only have one facility
Have a line up of at least 10 different styles
Be independently owned


yada yada yada

Then people could shit all over my idea, and come up with their own. i.e. have a discussion

disclaimer - i am not a brewer, and nor do I own a brewery. and this didn;t take years of research - just 5 seconds of making something up

 

This has nothing to do with rice or corn... Budweiser is part of the corporate monopolization of America's beer industry, and we should all be happy that we now have it back, thanks to "craft beer".

 

Ok, I don't want it. Nor do I need it.

 

I suppose that @AZBeerDude72 could ask the Brewers Association about this but my read from his post(s) is that he is not a fan of the Brewers Association organization in this regard?

Cheers!

 

I used to think that Quaker State was real craft crude when refined (being from Pa.and not from beneath the sea), but found out later from my scientist BIL that I was perfect ad fodder....Real Beer should be the designation, but we'll get around to the details later! Anyway, fretting the details of a definition and logo for "craft" beer is good entertainment, but I think most folks get what they like already.

 

Good. So what you are really saying is you don't want Bud included for what are basically political/social/economic reasons. So there's no need to worry about such things as the use of corn or rice in brewing. Problem solved.

 

Actually, it is near impossible to tell WHAT his basic premise is. In the OP, he proposed setting up big national craft brewers as the arbiters of who is craft, while at the same time talking about Mom and Pop while later in the thread eliminating BBC and Yuengling from the "club".

Take that, and add to it either ignorance of what the Brewers Association is and/or rejection of them as having been "bought" (hard to tell what he is saying, again), and then his refusal to offer any real quantifiable opinion of his own and what are you left with?

I can see why the "troll" word starts to enter the thread...

 

Then you are not fighting for flavorful beer, you are caving.