Craft Beer Marking

As an old boss told me when I got flamed giving a presentation to the General Manager of my company: Baptism by Fire!

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I sincerely look forward to the next thread you start (on hopefully a less controversial topic).

Cheers!

 

Eh, I'm not quite getting that, just that maybe he's having a hard time putting thoughts into words. Happens to me a lot, and sometimes my stuff comes out sounding the opposite of my intentions. OTOH, it is Friday, and perhaps he's getting a bit of a head start on his weekend?

 

Yeah maybe it could be around how stores/breweries handle limited releases

 

Yeah, possible. I didn't intend to actually accuse him of trolling... just listed some of the things that COULD lead to that conclusion.

 

TGIF!!

Happy Hour is only a couple hours away for me. Sweet!!

Cheers!

 

Does it matter?

Bcbs still has lines and hype.

10 Barrel and Golden Road, 2 recently purchased by big guys out here on west coast, still make good beer

I hear/read/see alot about this "craft" wording and branding issue. Good beer is good beer, phonetics concern me very little

 

Well, there is this definition already out there:

GLOBAL ASSOCIATION OF CRAFT BREWERS

Local—At least 70 percent of a brewery’s products must be distributed locally—in and around a brewery’s community.
Independent—51 percent of a brewery’s products must be produced using a founder’s own money (without outside investors). This includes funding for brewery equipment, raw materials, bottling, etc. Breweries founded from a cooperation of multiple breweries/brewers may still be considered independent.

Creative—A brewery must show creativity throughout the brewing process and a willingness to experiment with different styles of beer.​

 

Have you been lurking the RN thread?

 

RN - I've been off BA for best part of a year - I may not be down with the latest acronyms

 

Does the GACBB still exist? The below linked website doesn’t work.

Cheers!

The Big five Breweries is proud to be a founding member of the Global Association of Craft Beer Brewers.

The Global Association of Craft Beer Brewers is the brainchild of a few inspired and independent brewers from a small Berlin brewery. After meeting up with a Danish brewer on a road trip through Denmark, the guys found common ground through experimentation with a new collaboration brew. From the brewing experience the guys gained not only a delicious new beverage but a feeling of camaraderie (to the right: pic of them selling their collab brew at a festival a few months later!) - even despite their different brewing backgrounds.

The GACBB stands on this spirit of collaboration and exchange. We believe that not only does this new generation of brewers share our attitude and our passion for brewing, but they share an interest in working together instead of always in competition. We invite independent craft brewers from across the globe to join us inempowering independent craft brewers around the globe.



Visit the Global Association of Craft Beer Brewers Website for more information

 

But the Boston Beer Co. sells well over a million barrels more alcoholic beverages than Yuengling does, but since the Brewers Association doesn't count BBC's cider, tea and other FMB's, they are listed at #2.

2015 Shipments
Boston Beer - 4,240,000 bbl
Yuengling - 2,805,000 bbl​

 

If anyone does a search, you'll find that I have posted previously as being highly critical and/or skeptical of the BA's various attempts at defining a "Craft Brewer", and how they got, essentially, publicly shamed by Mr. Marti of August Shell's when their ideas around "traditional" showed an ignorance of the tradition of American brewing.

Add to that their increasing the maximum production allowed in an apparent attempt to keep BBC from outgrowing the definition, and what are we left with? Well, basically we're left with what we started with anyway, as acknowledged by Steve Hindy, co-founder of the Brooklyn Brewery, a definition that "was to define the population of brewers the Brewers Association was representing."

IOW, it was not defining a product category, it was defining the purpose of a trade association.

Personally, I have come to prefer the outlook of "that other beer site that shall remain nameless" on this topic. They say,

Craft Brewing is a category in beer making. There is no qualitative value attached to “craft” or “craft” versus “traditional,” or even what we call “industrial” brewing. There are good and bad quality craft beers. Craft Brewing is a genre. It is not a quality certification.

We don’t see all beers as either craft or not craft, but instead on a scale of more or less craft.​

 

Oh good gracious man, surely you don't think my post implied any such thing.

Among my purview of acquaintances are some of scientific bent who assure me water was made by God. Arguably mankind has improved on that gift by using it as the principle ingredient in beer.

 

That should be a reasonable start. But keep in mind, as I think you recognize, local is not quite the same as flavorful and that getting someone to develop the mechanism to certify and put a mark out there for more general use will be a challenge which a number of people can commit to.

(As for considering yourself a smal peon, you only are one if you let yourself believe you are. )

 

That's OK, that joke was mostly for my own amusement.

 

Actually it apparently begins as a way of preventing others from capitalizing on/exploiting the Trappist reputation for quality beer. (Sort of an anti-marketing scheme if you will.) One Abbot is reported to have said something along the lines of, "We are not brewers who are monks, we are monks who happen to brew beer." They don't much care about selling more beer beyond what provides for their needs and charities. Westvleteren, Oval, and a few of the others could easily expand to sell more beer but chose not to do so since they have the income their lifestyle requires.

 

Oh sure, their goals are not specifically pecuniary, yet they must sell beer and other products in order to maintain their mission. If they didn't care about sales they wouldn't have felt the need for legislation to protect their market share.

 

Alas, poor chap, retirement does have it's perquisites. Well, at least you have something to look forward to.