What Does Craft Beer mean to you?

It's in you.
It's in me.
A little somethin' called, tegridy.

 

Funny to post this, obviously written some time ago. In my heart it's still true, and will be again.

They call me a hop head and I live it, son. If there ever was a hop head than I am one. Love the taste of herb with a breath of pine, with linger that clings like a lupulus bine. So fine to taste hops throw down zest, orange, grapefruit, peach, and mango best. Love it to swirl through alcohol spice with some bitter that ends things awfully nice. They call me a hop head, and I guess that's true, drinkin' a G-Bot as I write this to you. With a Two Hearted backup, Heady behind, you can say this boy has some hops on his mind. And I admit I love them, can't get enough. With no IPA this life would be tough. But I never have to worry or look for a hook up 'cause in the backyard grow some righteous Chinook up. So gimme Sunshine, Lunch, and Jai Alai, Green, Sculpin, Abrasive, and all in between, Head High and Bad Boy, Notorious, Duet, Hop Slam, and Pliny, so glad for hops to fill my glass, kick ass on my tongue, and never rest till praise fully sung. Put one in my hand when I go below. I'll be happy buried hoppy. This I know

 

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No you got it right and very well written. Only addition I’d like to add is craft beer should be brewed by people with a passion for the art of making beer. I think that is a critical attribute as well.

 

It is a rather meaningless expression. All beer is crafted and the size or age of the brewery makes no difference in itself to the quality of the beers.
I grew up in an area where there were three excellent small regional breweries. Lovely beer though little variety. These breweries hane gone but the same beers are still brewed in small "craft" breweries and are still my favourites.
One brewery, Bateman's advertises itself as "Craft brewers since 1875" and why not?

 

Good beer is almost a spiritual thing for me.

Beer has made us happy since the dawn of civilization. It predates bread, the wheel and the written word. We crawled out of the caves, began drinking beer, and set out to conquer the world. Beer is something we've always loved, and we love it no less today. Six thousand years ago, a dude in Mesopotamia painting animals on a clay pot would relax with a beer after work. It's like you're drinking in history and making it a part of yourself.

 

I've heard beer was the primary reason humans made the switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture

 

It doesn't mean much at all to me. For one, I've been drinking beer since 1987 and so I've seen buzz words come and go, and the only thing which ever mattered to me is if the beer was good, or served a purpose.

Now that the acquisition stage is well among us, it is for sure a joy to watch so many turn a blind eye to their former local/small convictions in the name of drinking what (still) tastes good, post-acquisition.

That being said, I do applaud the support small business mentality - but applying that to beer while running counter to that ideal in other categories amounts to good old-fashioned American bullshit.

So yeah, craft means nothing to me. It's a word, and an annoying one at that. Some **** was annoying the store clerk at the growler fill station, trying this and that and holding up the line. This guy actually uttered the phrase " Haze Craft". He said "I'm into haze craft, whether its beer or cider". He then carried on about apple cider versus apple juice, with "haze" being central to his argument that apple cider is better than apple juice.

Now I much prefer apple cider to apple juice, but either way, if this guy's head exploded all other the twelve-pack aisle, I would have smiled.

 

I equate the word "craft," as it pertains to beer, to "artisanal" as it pertains to anything small batch and made by someone who has a love and skill for doing it, and I've carried that feeling with me as I got older and converted my love of handcrafted, selected, well thought out beverages from the coffee industry I got my start in to beer. Lofty concepts like subtlety, nuance, flavor marriage, texture, etc., are the things that just made me more of the hedonist I already was and I dove all the way in, made a career shift and have been selling craft beer for just about 10 years now. I added it to my already growing list of hobbies and interests that focus heavily on the 5 senses and pleasure principle and haven't turned back. All my homebrewing, training, experience, never seems to get me jaded with beer and has actually made me more intrigued to see what beer can become. I've had my mind blown and I've had my heart broken, it's a very dynamic experience to say the least.

 

Beer. I skip the term "craft". Shrugs.

 

Here's a piece I've had since the early 90s and I love it. The beers were quite good and ahead of the American market, but they did sell

 

To add to this, in short while I feel that all beer is made, not all beer is crafted, and not all beer that is crafted, is crafted equally.

 

Copying and pasting what I wrote in a past thread.