Goose Island...Craft Beer??

The reduced Federal Excise Tax on beer is based only on the size of the brewery (on the first 60,000 bbl. for breweries that make under 2m bbl./yr) and has nothing to do with the Brewers Association's definition of "craft brewer", save that they once also used it as their definition of "small brewer".

Breweries that make adjunct, "non-craft" beer also get the tax break (it was designed before there were really any "craft brewers" [save Anchor], in 1976) and if the B.A. gets the limit raised to 6m bbl./yr non-craft companies like Pabst and Yuengling will also benefit.

Craft may be "stupid" but it's a step up from microbrew (and easier to say than "everything other than US style adjunct light lager and light beer").

 

I'm going to borrow a quote made on another forum regarding one of my other passions,

I feel the exact same way about craft beer. I don't need a definition, I just know when I'm drinking it.

 

Thank you for posting exactly what I have been saying to friends all along.

 

In the beer wars, GI is a Quisling Craft Brewer owned by ABIbev-as is Terrapin. We will live to regret not pushing back on these breweries as we did about stopping the Germans after the Sudentland.

 

I say hell yeah they are. Just had King Henry last night and holy crap do they know what they are doing.

Cheers!

 

Miller-Coors' (not A-B) Tenth and Blake subsidiary owns less than 25% of Terrapin - the percentage specifically picked apparently to stay within the Brewers Association criteria for "craft brewer". Not quite the same thing as being owned outright such as the A-B/GI deal.

 

That's a strong analogy.

 

They are not craft or micro. They are owned by a corporation whose stated purpose is to crush or takeover the craft market. Everyone should boycott them and their beers. I'm super serial.

 

Shit, not only is Godwin's Law brought to fruition, but a Quisling reference to boot! I shall dub this the "Bradybeer Corollary"...

 

Apply a version of the "Turing test" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test
Give the beer to someone to taste blind and ask for their opinion.The taster won't have a clue about what he's sampling so won't be biased or prejudiced .What matters after all is what's in the glass not what's printed on the label or where it was brewed.

 

Let's be honest here. The objection to Goose Island is typically about who owns them. As long as they make great-tasting beers with all barley (no adjuncts), I don't care if they're owned by the Kardashians.

 

Isn't their flagship, or at least, best-selling beer their 312 Urban Wheat Ale? Hardly an all barley malt beer...(but, then, for many some adjuncts are more equal than others).

 

Wow. Mixing history metaphors -- nice. You do remember who won that war, right?

 

If the subject thinks the beer has human intelligence, then that means it must be craft?

Seriously, though, your test might prove that the beer is a craft beer, but not that the brewer is a craft brewer. It seems obvious to me that anyone can make craft beer, but that doesn't make them a craft brewer.

 

Good point. When I think of ``adjuncts'', I think of corn and rice, not wheat. I stand corrected.

 

FYI, the BA's definition of Craft Brewer does not require all Barley:

"Traditional: A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewers brands) or has at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor."

 

semantics game here. yes they brew craft beers - flavorful, etc. but now since Goose Island is A-B, I'll plan to no longer buy their stuff.

 

More for me!

 

Call 'em whatever you want, but they make some damn fine beers. King Henry and the BCS beers are pretty much as good as beer can get, and their normal beers (IPA, 312, Honker's, PJ, etc.) are tasty, too.
They're "crafting" those beers pretty skillfully.

 

You're right there, for sure, but i know that. I'm just saying, there are plenty of places to drink dummy beer at most airports. With a big airport like O'Hare, why can't they just be content to offer some discriminating choices without contamination? I don't think they would be any less crowded, especially if they still offered the generic stuff in bottles. Just seems like someone isn't bothering to think this out. If you're going to be a "brewpub"/brewpub/beer kiosk then do it right. There's no fear anymore, the public is there for it.