New Craft Beer Stand at Yankee Stadium

I tried Batch 19, didn't pick up any happy taste

 

Gotta love that refreshing happiness! #autocorrect

 

Whatever. Someone spoke up because they didn't like the choices, not because they didn't like the fact that it wasn't beer from craft companies. If they had GI BCBS, GI Sophie and Pilsner Urquell on tap no one would have said shit, but the same "fake craft" situation would be happening nonetheless.

In my experience, beer enthusiasts like to complain about BMC until they find out that a beer they like is owned by/has been bought out by them. Then the complaints get awfully hushed.

Maybe I got this guy wrong though, maybe he stands his ground and truly stays away from BMC.

 

The issue was in the fact that it was labeled a "Craft Beer Destination" and there was no actual craft beer represented. Don't put Applebees on a list of fine dining establishments and give it a false representation. It's not to say Applebees is a bad place to eat, but it's more that it is being mislabeled and portrayed as something that it is not.

It is the consumers that don't know and do care that are more hit by this because it's giving them a false sense of understanding of what craft beer is. If you (the general you) were gaining interest in craft beer and wanting to explore what was out there, and had very little information about it as you were just starting out, this type of mislabeling would give you a false understanding of what craft beer is.

People may (and do) like Batch 19 and Blue Moon but to call them craft beers, simply under the definition, is false. That's what this was all about.

And you're right, if all of that GI stuff would have been on there, it's a good chance that no one would have said anything, but I'd like to think that something still would have been said because more people ARE becoming educated about where things are and what true craft beer really is.

 

There are several Goose Island IPA taps at the Stadium (field level right field line where you walk in to the main concourse from the Great Hall by Hard Rock, right field bleachers, Malibu Terrace Deck). That's the extent of the "real" craft beer scene at the Stadium. I got excited for 10 seconds on Opening Day when I saw the craft beer stand in the Great Hall. Then I got close enough to read the sign and moved right on by to my GI IPA stands.

 

I agree. I also agree someone would have said something if there were nothing but GI there. Someone like me! Ha ha. Then that person would have been flamed thoroughly (at least if they did it on these boards).

 

But there is no "THE " definition of "craft beer" - MillerCoors is free to call their some of their beers "craft beers" (and do - http://www.millercoors.com/Our-Beers/Great-Beers.aspx ). Even the Brewers Association, the group that is most associated with the term these days gave up trying to define "craft beer" and only defines their opinion of which US (and US only) breweries are "craft brewers".

Even the B.A.'s Chairman of the Board Sam Caligione admitted here in the BA Forums:

In fact, two of the most notable US breweries with "craft" in their official corporate name - Minhas Craft Brewery and Craft Brews Alliance are NOT "craft brewers" under B.A. definition. There is no commonly agreed upon definition or legal/copyrighted protection for the "craft" term.

*The B.A. once used to claim something to the effect that "Craft beer can only come from a Craft Brewer"​

but for whatever reason, they have dropped even that vague defiinition.​

 

It's seriously a joke what some places try to pawn off as craft. I find it absolutely insulting that these people think I'm so stupid that I both don't know the difference between craft and this macro bullshit, and that I'd actually pay a small fortune to drink it.

Even if the word "craft" has no real definition, and it's free to be used in regards to damned near everything out there....I STILL know better than to think that because you have these beers labeled as "craft" beers for the purpose of selling them...that I'm actually getting a superior product. Again...completely insulting.

 

I'd still be hard pressed to call Blue Moon, Crispin Cider, Summer Shandy, or Batch 19 a craft beer...even with all it's happy flavor

 

I s

My major concern comes in the form of a major misunderstanding on the consumer end. For someone who doesn't have the knowledge but who is interested in exploring what craft beer is and has become, will see mislabeling such as this and think "this is what all the fuss is about?"

It's like telling a child who has no prior understanding that the sky is green. To them, they don't know the difference.

 

Oh...I agree wholeheartedly.

 

Well, the Brewers Association has painted itself into a corner on the "craft beer/craft brewer" thing. "Craft beer", like it or not, has come to mean any beer "style" that's is not "adjunct light lager" or "light beer" (or, some other trational US "macro" brewery styles like adjunct cream ale and adjunct malt liquor). And it's come to mean that BECAUSE of all the recognized craft styles by B.A. and the beers their member brewers make (such as pre-craft style American adjunct bock beer, Shiner Bock).

While few would consider those MillerCoors products "craft beers" (or even "Beer" at all in the case of the cider) the Brewers Association largest "craft brewer", the Boston Beer Co., has a large subsidiary company, Traveler/House of Shandy, that markets shandies brewed in a BBC brewery. They also make and market one of the largest selling US ciders - Angry Orchard - as well as previously creating the HardCore cider brand. Another of BBC's largest products is Twisted Tea - a Flavored Malt-Beverage line. The B.A.'s third largest craft member, New Belgium, has as it's flagship the Belgian-style Fat Tire.

So, compare those recognized Brewers Association Seal of Real Craft Beer Approval "craft beers" to the 4 MillerCoors beverages in the OP- a cider, a shandy, a Belgian-style beer (now approaching 20 years old) and a beer based on a per-Prohibition recipe. The only differences are ownership.

 

Wilmington Blue Rocks had a pretty fantastic bottle selection for a stadium. I remember DFH 90-min, Allagash White, Evolution Lot 3, along with some Long Trail, Abita, Greenville, Yards, and more; I think one beer each from ~15 breweries total.
$7 per bottle.