When can we stop calling it "craft"?

Well, I think when a conversation requires differentiation you need to use the term 'craft'...it's all about context here.

Not to put good beer on a pedestal, but OP's comments are akin to asking why my son's hand print painting (medium: fingerpaint on a print paper base) isn't considered art like the Mona Lisa. I love my son and his 'art', and his very conception could be attributed to one too many craft beers, but he's not quite da Vinci.

 

Ditto

 

Uncle: Well, I have this other cooler over here with some Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold, Sam Adams Noble Pils, Paulaner Oktoberfest and the new Anchor California Lager...

You: Uh...

 

I think Dave was just providing a smooth way out of appearing like a douche and wasn't making a pronouncement that Good Beer is literally only all malt ales.

 

True and understood. Just pointing out that it's a tricky subject when you neither have the term "craft" to throw around nor the BMC/macro lager bogeyman to hold up as the enemy.

 

What's your definition of mass-produced? Every beer we buy? I have some reservations about applying the term "mass-produced" to 10- and 15-bbl batches of beer.

 

Relax. He asked for a way to explain why he doesn't want to drink a certain style of beer "without using craft, artisan, microbrew, or any other word that would show a distinction between what he drinks and what you drink."

Would it have been better if I suggested he say "no thanks, I don't like any of those beers?" It would have been understood as saying, "wow, I am a beer drinker, and you brought all those different beers, and truth is I think they all suck."

Then again, it would have put all beers on equal level, which is what you want with your comment?

Or should he have just grabbed a beer he disliked, and drank it? Is that your point? For me, and I am guessing I am older than you, I have had the last crap beer I intend to drink. Having consumed more crap beer in my life than most all of folks now reading this I don't think any accusations of snobbery can be pointed my way.

We all like what we like, and beer is beer. I like some lagers, don't like others, I like some ales, don't like others. How about you?

 

I sometimes call it "fancy beer" when talking to a hardcore BMC fan. Comes across more self-deprecating and less pretentious.

Otherwise I just call it craft beer. It's the most popular term and thus the one beer people will most readily recognize in a conversation, which serves the purpose of conversation to begin with. If I refer to "craft beer" in a way everyone understands and someone wants to play Professor Pedantic and start a semantics debate about my use of a vaguely defined term with questionable boundaries based on the current state of *Charlie Brown adult talking noises follow this part of their statement* then that's their problem.

 

I've taken to calling B.M.C. "commodity beer". They're thought of by those who are directly involved in their manufacture and delivery as "units of consumption" After one management meeting I once turned on the sales/marketing manager and told him "can you please stop referring to what we make as "liquid".... " The person who started this thread has it right..... Beer making is a craft and what the others do is an industrial process. The bland, flavorless, 50%adjunct brewed, IBU at threshold, products sold as "beer" to the American public for the past 70 years no more resembles beer than wonder bread resembles bread, or folgers resembles coffee. If I were giving this speech there would be lots of air quotes

 

If that's what you/he believe/s, then why not say it? Things just like that get said on here all the time. As for what I would do: I'd grab a Heineken or two (or three...I've had many "craft" lagers that are far more poorly crafted) and start to settle in and, as you say, relax. Cheers!

 

I've never called it anything but beer. I hear what you're saying.

 

I drink beer, but I don't drink Eurolagers or AAL's, so I wouldn't grab a Heineken or Bud, but I also wouldn't want to insult the person kind enough to offer.

I eat chicken, but if a Chinese man offered me a chicken foot I would decline, but wouldn't say, "I don't eat that crap," and I also wouldn't eat one to be polite. I would decline graciously as I could, eat something I enjoy.

 

As I said in another post above, I understand where you are coming from and am just pointing out that it's a tricky subject when you neither have the term "craft" to throw around nor the BMC/macro lager bogeyman to hold up as the antithesis of craft. On here we have both the former and the latter when discussing these things -- plus a (mostly) sympathetic "choir" to preach to. But when we leave the cocoon of BA and get out into the world where BMC isn't seen as evil incarnate, it's not as easy to define what "craft" may mean to those who are hearing the term with increased frequency -- often now from the mouths of the very bogeymen trying to co-opt the term.

 

Breweries are producing large amounts of standardized product using industrial machinery, often automated systems. They are widely distributed & taste the same across the country. It's hard not to call something you can buy in a grocery store in both Florida & Washington "mass-produced".

 

My vote is no response. Just stare the person down, look right through them until they walk away.

 

No doubt. As much as I will never buy anything from Abinbev or MillerCoors, I wouldn't necessarily turn it down if it were offered to me. I am not that picky with beer ultimately and will enjoy a cold High Life to the dome if it's offered to me by someone that is showing they care about me and my comfort. Thank god for Sam Adams! He usually makes an appearance in such coolers!

 

As far as Sam Adams goes- the cool thing around here is that people usually get their seasonal twelve-packs for get-togethers, so there is even more variety to choose from. I don't buy them myself, though they are a welcome sight at times.

(I still buy some SA products, though- I like the Boston Ale, Black Lager and Cream Stout. Those are still some pretty nice beers.)

 

I think that Sam Adams Black Lager is a tasty Schwarzbier and I buy six-packs of it from time to time.

Now that Shiner is being distributed in the Philly area I have had my eyes open for a six-pack of Shiner Bohemian Black Lager; unfortunately I have only seen it as part of a variety pack. I will keep looking.

Cheers!

 

I think it's like that here, too (in the variety sixers). For somebody looking to try it that might not be that bad a deal (I think it also has their Alt and American Wheat Ale in there, which are not too shabby for their styles), but it would be nice to get by itself on a regular basis, especially for the price.