What does "craft" actually mean?

http://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/craft-brewer-defined/

 

I think they actually changed the rules as BBC and SN grew... Somebody correct me if Im wrong..

 

All this, but with an emphasis on American breweries. So, while non-US breweries may fit the bill (De Struise, De Dolle, St. Bernardus), they generally aren't "craft" in most people's parlance. Even if they really are.

 

Drink what you like, dog. Craft or otherwise.

 

craft /kraft/
noun

1. an activity involving skill in making things by hand.

 

Regardless of how the BA has defined the term I've always believed craft lives in the heart of the consumer

 

Much like any other amorphous marketing term, it's kinda meaningless, but it's generally used to mean "not those big, corporate, sell-out beers". The term brings to mind hard-working, gifted, and passionate artisans, devoting their lives to their art without as much care toward excess remuneration. As we all know, though, this ain't exactly the picture, necessarily, and the term has been co-opted by plenty to just elevate their choice of beverage over others'.

 

"Craft beer" was coined around the time that microbreweries became to large to be called micro anything. Yet, they still wanted to distinguish themselves from the macro breweries. Its mostly a marketing term.

"Crafty" is term I've only heard used by macro brewers when they want to talk down to "craft" brewers

Personally, I agree with alexsergio, ignore the marketing battles as best you can. Find brewers that brew good beer, and enjoy what they produce.

 

definitions mentioned aside, when i hear the word craft, i think of a craftsman making it. a person who is dedicated to perfecting what they make with their hands. someone who experiments and tinkers with recipes and equipment and puts hours of thought and effort into their products. a craftsman makes a very special and often times better version of something else that's mass produced. i think mostly of a carpenter or something along those lines. with beer, there are plenty of craftsmen making our wonderful craft beer...but that's not to say that some of the brewers at the big breweries aren't craftsmen....they just don't make as personal and small batch a product...but they probably have the skill to do so, and most probably home brew small batches, still.

 

An independently owned brewery but Yuengling is independently owned and not considered craft so...

 

definition 1: brewer's association definition. strict definition (though they can change it to suit their purposes)

definition 2: "small brewer" relative to bud/miller/coors, who makes things other than adjunct lagers and shitty wheatbeers. participant in the so-called craft revolution that started in the early 2000s after a sort of failed version in the 90s. this is the "you know it when you see it," definition; it's also the one where if one person wants to argue that, like, the stuff the widmer brothers brew is or is not craft, no one can really be right because the definition is kind of relative to whoever's talking (e.g. some people care who owns the brewery, some people don't).

notably, the definition in 2 is probably loose enough for it to be possible for bud/miller/coors to make craft beer. i'm already like wayyyy deep in "who gives a shit?" territory, so the rest of the semantics is up to you.

edit: also, goose island poses an interesting theseus's ship problem for anyone who really cares whether a beer "is or isn't" craft. was BCBS craft just until the contract with AB was signed? so the same beer in barrels would have been craft if it managed to get released a month earlier, or something like that?

full disclosure: i do have an opinion on all this by the way. i think the beer in GI's tanks/barrels did magically become "not craft" once they were bought by AB, b/c the brewer's association definition is the one i go by; i also couldn't care less who's "craft" or not. i do hate AB, but it's not because they fail to achieve some label or something.

 

The limit was increased from 2 million bbl/year to 6 million bbl/year to accomodate BBC a few years back. Sierra Nevada may just get a little over 1 million this year with the Mills River NC brewery. SN will not be close to 2 million when the NC is fully running.

 

Craft is a code word/name for high quality beer. you know, stuff that destroys BMC in every way.

 

There is plenty of craft that is way worse than bmc.

 

SN and BBC were micro for a while but have grown large while still maintaining the quality of their beer, so I'm still comfortable calling them "craft".

 

Really? I've only had a few craft beers that I thought were worse than BMC. the vast majority of the ones I've had are better than any BMC product.