I've seen a few posts the past few weeks about such and such beer is craft and something else isn't and was wondering how exactly did the term "craft" get applied to the smaller brewers? I'm a writer by trade and in my nerd world get hung up on the tiny differences in word choices. Therefore, the second part of my question is, why didn't weren't "craft" brewers labelled "independent" brewers? In my dorky writer/editor world, I think that might be a better term, especially with the larger brewers doing their faux craft beers and buying smaller brewers. And for the record, I don't care who makes my beer as long as it's good. Just have some fun with word choices.
Lots of discussion in the past on this topic. I won't do it justice except to say that craft is a controversial term and means different things to different people and organizations. Some groups invoke rules about total production, percentage of total production made of beers with corn or rice adjuncts, and probably things I am not thinking of right now. hard and fast rules that I have seen seem to omit worthy brewers and admit dubious ones (my opinion).
Below is the Brewers Association’s definition of a craft brewery (from their website): Craft Brewer Definition The three pillars of the craft brewer definition remain the same; however, under the BA Board’s direction, some elements of each pillar have been modified to reflect the evolution within the industry. Specifically, the craft brewer definition now states: An American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional. • Small: Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales). Beer production is attributed to the rules of alternating proprietorships. • Independent: Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer. • Traditional: A brewer that has a majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation. Flavored malt beverages (FMBs) are not considered beers. Small While the “small” component of the craft brewer definition previously encompassed the flavored malt beverage (FMB) exclusion—as FMBs are not beer—that language is now contained within the traditional segment of the definition, where it more appropriately applies. The update also added a parenthetical “(approximately 3 percent of annual U.S. sales),” which gives context to the small percentage that 6 million barrels or less of annual production represents vis-a-vis overall beer industry sales. Independent The revised language more tightly aligns with common beverage alcohol terminology used throughout the beer, wine, spirits and FMB businesses. Traditional The revised definition recognizes that adjunct brewing is quite literally traditional, as brewers have long brewed with what has been available to them. “The revisions to the craft brewer definition reflect the evolution in thinking regarding the elements of the definition. As the industry continues to rapidly advance, so must the framework that upholds and reflects it,” said Gatza. Fish concurred: “The revised definition provides room for the innovative capabilities of craft brewers to develop new beer styles and be creative within existing beer styles.” He added: “Taken as a whole, these changes are about looking forward, about the BA of the future, making the association stronger and keeping staff focused on the vital work they do for all of us in the craft brewing community.” The Brewers Association craft brewer definition debuted in 2007 as a necessary framework for craft industry statistical reporting and trend measurement. The association amended the definition in 2010—changing “small” from annual production of 2 million barrels or less to 6 million barrels or less—to allow growing craft brewers not to be penalized for their success, to reflect the realities of doing business in a marketplace dominated by 100+ million barrel, multinational brewing corporations, and to align with the association’s excise tax recalibration efforts. Contact: Abby Berman (on behalf of the Brewers Association), (646) 695-7044
In the mid/late 1980s, when the term "craft" first popped up as a (better) alternative to the then popular "microbrewery" term, most of the Top 10 US brewers, all of whom brewed primarily adjunct lagers, were also "Independent"- including AB, Coors, Stroh, S&P (Pabst/Falstaff/General/Pearl), Genesee, C. Schmidt, Pittsburgh. Only Miller (a Philip Morris subsidiary) and, eventually, Heileman (bought by the Australian Bond Corp. around that time) weren't independent. "Craft" was an attempt to define the new breweries by their product - different than the mass produced adjunct lagers. The "microbrewery" term was merely based on size, and "independent" would have only referred to ownership.
Plus, I suspect that many craft beer fans would be surprised that their favorite brewery isn't "independent". Many, if not most, need some upfront cash from somewhere, and whether it's family, friends, investors, or banks, they've got to answer to somebody. They may want brew nothing but barrel aged walez bro, but they need an IPA to pay that nut.
It very much depends on how you define “independent”. As the Brewers Association defines it: “Independent: Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.” Cheers!
It is interesting that they single out the fact that you can't have more than 25% ownership from another alcohol beverage company that is not a craft brewer. So the way I read that is, Diageo couldn't own more than 25% of a brewery and still call it a craft brewery (because they are a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer). But say General Electric could own more than 25% of a brewery and it could potentially be a craft brewery (because they are not a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer). How does that make sense?
Interesting. It's also potentially interesting to note that in regard to music, "independent," shortened to "indie," started as a reference to ownership but eventually came to suggest a (fuzzily defined) genre. Give people a chance and we'll end up transmuting one's relationship to the means of production into an aesthetic category; we'll never have a workers' utopia, but we'll always have 31 flavors.
General Electric isn't responsible for the near-oligopoly of the US brewing industry in which two companies, AB and M-C, control nearly 3/4 of the beer market and account for about 90% of all beer brewed in the US. GE doesn't have the contractual business connections with the middle tier such that about half the US wholesalers are "AB houses" or "Miller" and/or "Coors" houses, in many regions of the country the only choices for breweries looking for distribution. GE did not go from having a market share of approximately 4% to nearly half of all beer sold in the US in the period since Repeal, as AB has. Note, too, that the Brewers Association is not above disregarding that clause - see, for the most notable example, Anchor Brewing Co's purchase by the Griffin Group.
I get what you are saying. I just think it is funny that if someone were to start a small craft brewery, and say GE or Google or some other huge corporation were to buy 75% interest in their company, they would still be considered independent by the brewers association. Alternatively if they sold 26% to say Inbev they wouldn't be considered independent.
