Can extract be Craft Beer ?

[Nick JD]

This is all a load of bollocks anyway because no brewery would be able to make a profit using outsourced extract - they struggle to profit making beer from primary ingredients.

Maybe a tiny micro could do it through saving on equipment and real estate costs, but I struggle to see how even getting LDME at the bare minimum would be profitable, compared to a truckload of malted barley.

 

[jlm]

The U-brew it franchises seem to make a buck out of it.

 

[Armstrong]

Whether it was intended to be, or not, topics like this only serve to create a division between brewers. This is such an old argument I have heard a thousand times before ... just this time the terminology has changed to "Craft". In the US this was just a term selected to indicate the size or volume output of a brewery ... along the line of terms like "Micro".

The elitists love these topics as it gives them a chance to slag off at the lowly kit brewer ... terms like "goop" and "K & K brigade" are used in a derogatory fashion which I can only assume makes the poster feel superior.

How about this ... in my eyes a supermarket brewer who grabs a can of coopers and a kilo of white sugar is WAY further up the ladder than the guy who buys a carton of VB every week!

Brewer's unite!

If you brew in any form, you are ok by me!

 

[bum]

Ahaha. Awesome post as usual, Armstrong.

People who don't take an egalitarian approach to brewing methods are pricks but VB drinkers are scum.

 

[Nick JD]

The U-brew it franchises seem to make a buck out of it.

Might have something to do with the customer "sprinkling" the tax-avoiding yeast.

But I think you might have nailed it on the head here: is U-brew-it "craft beer"?

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Whether it was intended to be, or not, topics like this only serve to create a division between brewers. This is such an old argument I have heard a thousand times before ... just this time the terminology has changed to "Craft". In the US this was just a term selected to indicate the size or volume output of a brewery ... along the line of terms like "Micro".

The elitists love these topics as it gives them a chance to slag off at the lowly kit brewer ... terms like "goop" and "K & K brigade" are used in a derogatory fashion which I can only assume makes the poster feel superior.

How about this ... in my eyes a supermarket brewer who grabs a can of coopers and a kilo of white sugar is WAY further up the ladder than the guy who buys a carton of VB every week!

Brewer's unite!

If you brew in any form, you are ok by me!

You obviously didnt read my first few posts, nothing about divisions or feeling superior.

Nev

 

[JDW81]

If you brew in any form, you are ok by me!

I agree with you on this one.

However, people are entitled to an opinion and this is what was directly asked for in the OP.

 

[verysupple]

I voted "never", because if you are using extract, part of the process is some other entity's craft, not your own.
You are either a craft brewer or not, you can't be a "semi-craft brewer".

Edit: For some reason my PC hates putting " into what I type.

The question is about "craft beer", not "craft brewer". So by saying the extract is "some other entity's craft" implies that the product has been 'crafted' and therefore must be "craft beer". Syntax is a funny principle

 

[JDW81]

Making beer with someone else's dehydrated wort ain't craft brewing.

You could take this one step further and say that using someone else's malted barely isn't craft brewing either as you had no hand in the craft of malting (or growing, harvesting or distributing the grains).

 

[manticle]

It could equally be argued that the maltser malts, the brewer brews - just like the butcher traditionally slaughters and dresses the animal and the chef cooks and serves it.

A better analogy might be the use of hop extracts or even pellets as opposed to flowers.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

The lines must blur at some stage. At what point does it become craft beer?

If someone puts a can of LME or a Kilo of DME, a kilo of sugar and a kit yeast into a fermenter, is that craft beer? Surely not.

What if they use US05 instead of the kit yeast, craft beer?

What If they add some hops to the brew?

They put the fermenter into the bath and wrap some wet towels around it. Craft beer?

Substitute the sugar for dme or dextrose?

At what point does it become craft beer?

 

[manticle]

Tell me what 'craft beer' means and I can give you the exact point at which it becomes thus.

 

[Nick JD]

CUB don't make craft beer. Neither do they use malt extract.

"Craft Beer" is a useless term that to me, indicates it comes in 4 packs and is for wankers.

 

[bum]

just like the butcher traditionally slaughters and dresses the animal

This is also traditional at QLD case swaps.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Craft: A craft is a pastime or a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work.

Beer: Beer is an alcoholic beverage

 

[manticle]

@bum

Shouldn't that be 'undresses'?

@black devil dog - using extract in a beer doesn't preclude any of that. Furthermore, look up the definition of a craft brewery as Nev originally stated.

I agree with nick though - the term means bugger all to me so calling something 'craft' is no indicator of its quality. I have tried some very ordinary All Grain beers from micros.

 

[bradsbrew]

@bum

Shouldn't that be 'undresses'?

They're dressed up first, sometimes even a little make up is used. But yeh they do end up undressed. :blink:

Sorry for the OT but surely we have done Nev's homework already. B)

 

[mckenry]

Some interesting points of view here. My gut instinct is that, no, extract is not something that goes into craft beer. Why? I cant really define what craft beer is for a start, that would preclude extract, but to me craft beer conjures images of artisans toiling away, making something from scratch, more for love than money. (a poor business model to be sure) A romantic ideal, of small batches, varying ever so slightly from batch to batch. Doing the lot, from recipe formulation, to packaging and everything inbetween. I just cant see extract fitting into 'my model'.
As Nick says - I'm probably a wanker.

 

[KingKong]

I think 'craft beer' is completely a dynamic term. Until there is an authoritative definition. It will continue to be dynamic as the beer industry manipulates the term to squeeze every last dollar from it.

In answer to the question, I don't know.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Looking at the posts the term Craft seems to be a hurdle point.
Time to move on and agree or disagree that "Craft beer" as a descriptor is in a perpetual beta.
Maybe a term like "Traditional Crafted Beer" is more suitable ?
Open to ideas as I would like to explore this further.
Nev