Faux Craft

I mostly don't like that they don't put their own names on most of it. Crap like Batch 19 and Black Crown seem to be winning people over despite this.

 

I mostly like it because it gives your standard BMC drinker exposure to a different set of beers they have (probably) never tried or think to try. It *could* give the same drinkers the inclination to try actual craft beer, find out that it is much better, then become a craft beer drinker.

Slippery slope fallacy and all that, I still believe it is good.

 

If it were to expose people to the world of craft, and get them to explore than I don't mind. But if people stop at shock top thinking thats craft, then i'm against

 

I wouldn't dream of the day I can buy an amazing mass produced ipa!

 

I'm not sure I'm able to say that it's a "good" or "bad" thing. But I'm certainly not butthurt about it, and I find more pros than cons with the faux craft beer.

Pros:
- Blue Moon, Shock Top, Batch 19, Third Shift Lager, etc...while vastly surpassed in quality by many craft examples of the styles...are absolutely better beers than Bud Light, Coors Light, etc. I'm fairly content to drink a Blue Moon if BMC are my only options. I would rather have better beer on tap and in the store.
- Kind of along those lines, the definition of "craft" beer is pretty hazy. I would rather have a very good "faux" craft beer than a very bad real craft beer. It could be a super hyped quadruple IPA from a big name brewery, and if it tastes like crap, I'd absolutely rather have a Blue Moon. To an extent, I ignore what is craft/faux craft/BMC, whatever, and just recognize beer I like to drink and beer I don't like to drink. If Coors or Bud makes a very good beer, then I will drink it.
- Many of the faux crafts are gateway or training wheels beers into the world of good beer. They're usually cheaper than crafts, widely available, familiar brands, and the flavors aren't overwhelming. I'm sure many BA's realized beer didn't have to be carbonated corn water for the sole purpose of getting drunk when they had their first Shock Top or Blue Moon. If people try these faux craft beers, get curious and start trying more beer, I think we can thank the BMC companies for some new beer advocates.

The main con that I see is the sneaky labeling. I fell for it with Third Shift Lager. I just thought it was some brewery that we got new distribution of. The beer was underwhelming but alright. I looked up the reviews and saw that it was a Coors product. It just irked me.

 

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There are plenty of top notch mass-produced IPA's (Torpedo, Stone, NB Ranger, Bell's Two-Hearted, etc) and the breweries that produce them will happily increase capacity with demand. Involvement by any of the mega bev conglomerates not required.

Edit: Sorry, Lagunitas. You know I love you.

 

I don't really care. If it is good, I will drink it, no matter who makes it. If Bud can make a decent IPA and sell it to me for $4 a six pack, why wouldn't I drink it?

 

It's like they were trying to be sneaky, yet if you think about it, only the big BMC boys (and the boston beer company) would have that large an advertising network.

 

I made the mistake of buying some Bud American Ale or whatever it was called on the strength of a couple reviews here. God that was awful.

 

Mass-produced Pliny the Elder? Yes please. (I know that's never gonna happen)

 

What's next, the "Big Two" in Canada putting out IPA's?

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It's bad, because it's almost all marketing and no substance. If a die hard BMC drinker 'branches out' and says, "OK I'll stray from my comfort zone a tiny bit", and there is no real payoff, what incentive do they have to go any further?

 

Oh no! It's even worse than you suspected :

 

Blue Moon & Shock top aren't horrible. I drink them if there are no other choices, but am never excited about it. So it really doesn't make much difference to me.

I don't drink Bud, Coors light, other AAL's etc. I don't want to waste the calories & liver activity.

 

Why would you ever shop at a local farmers' market when you can get the same products at Wal-Mart for cheaper?

 

Even if only 10% "move on" from the Blue Moon/Shock Top/etc. after being exposed to different flavors, then that's a net good thing in my eyes. The other 90% would have stayed at Corona, or whatever else, anyway.

 

Yeah, that outfit was always stealing Craft Beer's styles and conventions.
Check out the stemmed "craft" glassware!

 

Yeah, but they're huge companies that have many brands that they own. To some extent, that's like disliking General Motors for making vehicles that say Hummer, Chevrolet, or Cadillac.. It's still General Motors, but those are their brands and they label them as such. Same with bmc.. It's more our own responsibility to make smart purchasing decisions. Members of this site typically know better, so we shouldn't be all that surprised to find out who makes certain beers..

As far as the topic of this thread goes, I think that if people enjoy the beer that some are considering to be "faux craft", then great for them! Why should we care what other people are choosing to buy and enjoy? Just because I have a steak for dinner that I thoroughly enjoy, doesn't mean that the person having Spam isn't enjoying their meal as much or more than I am, so good for both of us! Hopefully my comparisons made sense to everyone because they made perfect sense in my head lol.