A not bad article in Texas Monthly about Texas beer recommendations. http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/texas-craft-beers-recommendations I will always hate the term craft, it means nothing. Micro at least does mean something. I know the Big Bend guy started at Live Oak, and their Hefe is probably really good, but damn why no Live Oak? Still a good quick read.
Craft does have a meaning, but it kind of irks me how some people draw the distinction. Likewise with the word micro. For example, I recently snapped this photo on the tour at Saint Arnold Brewing Company. Micro is not the word I would use to describe this.
Although, compared to Stone, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Boston Beer Company, Founders, etc... its still MICRO. Just happen to be TX big dog of the spectrum.
Right, but then people will call Stone IPA a microbrew. I get that it's all relative, but you can't call everything micro just because it's not BMC.
Craft means nothing when trying to distinguish one beer from another. Every beer is "crafted" to taste like something. From Coors, bud lite, Blue Moon, or Saint Arnold Amber. Are any of the 1000's of breweries in the UK craft, or the 1000's of breweries in Germany? What about Saison Dupont or Chimay? No matter how big Saint Arnold has gotten over the years, it is still smaller than that other gigantic brewery down I10. I am not a big fan of either term, but at least Micro has some semblance of meaning.
And by the guide lines of Micros goes 15,000bbls is the maximum by definition, but that number gets bigger and bigger each year
Maybe we should make the distinction for mesobreweries...in between micro and macro. I'm nerding out. So sorry guys.
Well in that case, I would argue that craft has more meaning than you give it credit for. The big brewery on I-10 doesn't craft any beer. It repeats the same old recipe over and over again exactly the same each time like a machine, not that there's anything wrong with that, but perhaps there's a better word for it than craft. Compare that to other parts of town where you have brewers coming up with new beers, crafting something unique one a regular basis. Sorta like the IKEA factory compared to a carpenter's furniture shop. One deserves the craft designation more than the other. But anyway, you can argue "craft" means something or it doesn't, but it's the word people are using to make the distinction, and I prefer it a little more, since it doesn't necessarily have to do with size.
Before, say the last two years in basically London only, try walking into a pub in the UK and asking for a "craft" beer. They would look at you like you have two heads. Even though they might have some of the best cask beers in the world. There are always way to many inconsistencies with what the term means. I think the Brewers Association still has Spoetzl listed as craft. Their flagship is made with corn (to lighten the flavor, not add) and they are not independently owned. How can a group, who's only goal is to define the word craft in the beer world, get it wrong, even by their definition? I have plenty of problems with Micro as well, it just turns my stomach just a little less
According to the Brewers Association: Brewpubs are separate from production breweries....no I don't mean the Texas definition of a "brewpub." Actual brewpubs. Brewpubs: Restaurants and beer brewed onsite with limited distribution. Microbreweries: production breweries that produce less than 15,000bbls Regional Craft Breweries: Production breweries that produce more than 15,000 bbls but less than 6million. Large Non-Craft: Exceed 6 million Other Non-Craft: Breweries that don't follow BA definition of "craft brewery"
We could also throw in any number of European breweries who are often lumped in with "craft" although their production facilities are just as large as many BMC facilities and are the dominant brewers of their region. Definitely not micro in size and as industrial in production as BMC or the largest of American non-BMC brewers. "Craft" and "micro" and various other terms thrown around really just mean "not AAL or their global counterparts" and have very little to do with the size, skill, or techniques of the brewers.
If Microbrewery < 15000 barrels, then I propose the following to further distinguish: Nanobrewery < 1500 barrels Picobrewery < 150 barrels Femtobrewery < 15 barrels Attobrewery < 1.5 barrels Zeptobrewery < 4.65 gal (0.15 barrels) Yoctobrewery < 3.72 pints (0.015 barrels) For instance, I run a successful Home-zeptobrewery, because of all the spillage. If I were more careful though, I'd be into that attobrewery range. [Edited for math]
