Craft Beer Industry Concerns - what is and isn't craft beer

[crowmanz]

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/craft-beer-industry-concerns-come-to-a-head/6512740

 

[mwd]

Agree JS is no craft beer just megaswill with a small bit of flavour. Never had a Matilda Bay product yet.

 

[mckenry]

If you cant reach the bottom of your mash tun with your mash paddle in your own two hands, you aint a craft brewery.

 

[sponge]

Agree JS is no craft beer just megaswill with a small bit of flavour. Never had a Matilda Bay product yet.

Haven't had a fat yak?

EDIT: The beer, I mean..

 

[welly2]

There's two Matilda Bay beers that I drink - Alpha Pale Ale and Minimum chips. I do enjoy them but I know they're nothing more than "megaswill with a small bit of flavour". As I've whinged on a bit here before, up in Darwin we're really limited to what we can buy so you've got to drink what you can. Even the "craft beer" pub has about a handful of actual craft beers and the rest being megaswill under the pretence of being craft. It's pretty frustrating.

 

[DU99]

Little creatures where does that fit in.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I have concerns about what is and isn't a craft beer, it's very hard to differentiate between the Australian craft beer and the megaswill.

 

[GalBrew]

Obviously if your beard doesn't reach the bottom of your mash tun you are not a 'craft' brewer. But seriously all the bullshit about what 'craft beer' means......really is the term even required anymore? As far as I can see there is beer, some is produced in large factories, some not. Some taste good, some not. All have a degree of marketing wank about them that I don't really care for.

I will drink the beer I think tastes good, not overly fussed about the ownership of a given brewery, or how it is brewed. What is more 'craft'? An MG steam ale or JS hop thief? Both fine beers IMO. At least one is brewed in a brewery owned by the brewer.

 

[droid]

ed - whoops more posts since I started my reply

how about the definition? "craft" means different things to different people. to me craft suggests something made at home, something your grandma makes or on a small ie; local group/community scale. but maybe at the moment "craft" in beer terms also suggests styles of beer maybe not recognised by the swilling armies...yet

"garage" is out there as well so what should that mean? how big can a garage be? soon enough one of the big boys will use "ghetto" as a descriptor, that'll piss me off

 

[eMPTy]

I don't even care about this 'craft' label we are putting on certain operations.

What gets me is the misleading labelling and marketing in which a large brewery has every intention of pretending to be something they are not (e.g. the Byron Bay label in the link).

I just want to know who the brewery is and where they are based. Easily. Is that too much to ask?

 

[GalBrew]

I don't even care about this 'craft' label we are putting on certain operations.

What gets me is the misleading labelling and marketing in which a large brewery has every intention of pretending to be something they are not (e.g. the Byron Bay label in the link).

I just want to know who the brewery is and where they are based. Easily. Is that too much to ask?

I fully agree on both points. I don't care of x 'craft brewery' is owned by y 'mega brewery', but it would be nice to know which brewery a given beer is made in.

I think in the context of beer the word 'craft' is so nebulous that in effect it has no meaning.

 

[welly2]

I fully agree on both points. I don't care of x 'craft brewery' is owned by y 'mega brewery', but it would be nice to know which brewery a given beer is made in.

I think in the context of beer the word 'craft' is so nebulous that in effect it has no meaning.

Agreed. I think there's absolutely no reason why a megaswill brewery can't produce a "craft" beer. The fact that they're also producing beer by ton does in no way stop them from making crafted, hand produced beer as well. I don't think "craft" is a good label to determine the size of the brewery. Craft is a technique or method.

 

[Blind Dog]

Obviously if your beard doesn't reach the bottom of your mash tun you are not a 'craft' brewer. But seriously all the bullshit about what 'craft beer' means......really is the term even required anymore? As far as I can see there is beer, some is produced in large factories, some not. Some taste good, some not. All have a degree of marketing wank about them that I don't really care for.

I will drink the beer I think tastes good, not overly fussed about the ownership of a given brewery, or how it is brewed.

This

I don't honestly care where a beer is made, or by whom, just how it tastes. I've had shit 'craft' beer from local independent breweries, and beer I've really enjoyed from the international behemoths. I know which I'll be buying again.

Passing off is a whole other issue, and deserves far more that a $20k fine.

 

[NewtownClown]

It's no mystery; after years of debate, the CBIA defines a craft brewery in Australia as an Australian based brewery that produces less than 40 million litres of beer annually.

 

[GalBrew]

With respect to the CBIA, brewing less than 40 million litres of beer does not imply 'craft' or 'premium' or whatever positive spin you want to put on it (rightly or wrongly). I would argue that the industrial behemoths with their infinite manpower and superior technology and QC would have a far better chance of producing a better beer than some guy in an industrial backlot with repurposed dairy equipment.

Just putting it out there.....

 

[Vini2ton]

Have a look at who owns what in the wine industry and the way corporates go about business. This has been going on for hundreds of years. If you had established a small and successful product and were offered squillions for it, who wouldn"t take the money and run? Survival of the fittest, a free market with no "red-tape", isn't that the way? The big guys always screw the little guys.

 

[mckenry]

It's no mystery; after years of debate, the CBIA defines a craft brewery in Australia as an Australian based brewery that produces less than 40 million litres of beer annually.

Sweeeeeeeet! I was worried if I ramped up production I'd be declared a macro brewer. Knowing this gives me another 799,350 brew days this year and I can still call myself craft. :wub: :wub:

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Being 'craft beer' doesn't mean it's good, better or best, it should just mean it's not brewed by a mega brewery.

 

[GalBrew]

Being 'craft beer' doesn't mean it's good, better or best, it should just mean it's not brewed by a mega brewery.

Then they should find a different description for themselves. Like 'micro' or 'small'.

 

[TheWiggman]

... or 'craft'?