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

[wombil]

Forty million litres,-----Not a bad backyard effort.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Being a small, craft, microbrewery would not be a guarantee for success.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Quote: 'It's like going to a farmers market and having McDonald's there because they have lettuce in their burgers.'

That's hitting the nail on the head.

So evolving craft brewers who large up! on scale become more a factory. Rather than craftsmanship?.

What's better? Good home cooked food? or take away?
Its a game on the consumer and what makes the economic wheels turn around.

Good beer, is good beer! under whomever craftman.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

the 'craft' label is important for brewers and people in the industry, not so much from a consumer point of view unless you're the type that buys things 'ethically'.
a
As mentioned earlier, the real issue is large corporate owned breweries masquerading as small backyard operations and squeezing out independent operators. Saying "it happens everywhere in every industry, get used to it" doesn't make it right or fair, and generally speaking beer is better fresh. I'd rather have an adequately brewed beer that's super fresh than a better beer that's stale, lightstruck or oxidised.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Here is an interesting article and podcast from brew news.In particular the definition put forward by the English Craft Brewers on what a craft brewery is.
https://www.brewsnews.com.au/2015/05/episode-52-jamie-cook-on-the-state-of-the-beer-business/

 

[Ciderman]

I think my biggest concern is the bigger breweries are actually using the wording 'craft' as part of the marketing and packaging. I Just bought a Suntory 'Craft Select' Brown ale because it stood out, or the word 'craft' resonated with me amongst all the other Japanese beers available.

It was awful...

 

[Bribie G]

Craft beer is orange in colour and chill hazed (we know this because it has to be served at -n degrees Celsius where n is a large number. )
It also has to have a stupid name like "old grandfather's jockstrap bloodhound false teeth".

Personally I prefer well made beers, served correctly, and brewed by whoever does them. Hop Thief 6, Four Pines APA and Pilsner Urquell to name but three.

As opposed to the consistently nasty Stone and Wood Pacific pale ale, a couple of the Wicked Elf cheese flavoured offerings and Australian Guinness on tap.

 

[Grott]

I may be old fashioned but IMO I've always believed "craft" made to be something made personally, by hand, skilled based and with limitations on output. To me I make craft beer, start producing in mass I would suggest the craft aspect is gone. One thing though, a lot of "craft beers" are called that so they can charge heaps, a bit like some "organic" products or " glutton" free. Not everything is as it seems.

Cheers

 

[droid]

I am the master of inappropriate comments that's why I hate funerals but what the hell...
my mrs bought me some red oak pale ale and it was something between beer, cider and lemonade absolutely friggin awful and I still have a couple in the fridge, it was on special but well within date. The guy leading the charge co founded red oak, so you know, no-ones perfect eh

 

[panzerd18]

Whats going to stop the big multi-nationals just creating a separate business name and then call it craft beer like they have been doing?


What is independent and what is not independent? Independent because it operates under a different business name?

 

[panzerd18]

Went into First Choice yesterday and saw a 6-pack of craft beer was advertised at $28.

I understand with alcohol tax the higher the ABV the higher the tax, but this was only 4.5% ABV I believe.

The Craft label is bordering on ridiculous with these prices.

Just because something is expensive, doesn't mean its always better.

 

[GalBrew]

Went into First Choice yesterday and saw a 6-pack of craft beer was advertised at $28.

That's a tad pricey :blink:

 

[mje1980]

More annoying is trying a new offering from an Independant brewery and it tastes like 15 other pale ales.

 

[Killer Brew]

The underlying issue here is truth in labelling. Consumers just want to be able to understand where products are made and by whom. The same issue is prevalent in the food industry (eg. try picking up a bottle of Real Iced Tea and work out who the manufacturer is. CLUE: it is one of the two big soft drink giants). These businesses go to great lengths to keep their sub-brands at arms length for the sole reason of making it difficult for shoppers to know who they are buying from. If they thought for a second that their master brand name would help them sell more product then you would see it plastered all over it. ACCC is right to try and push for greater truth in labelling to assist those who want to make a conscious decision to not support these conglomerates.

Disclaimer: the international conglomerate food company that I have been working for for 10 years are great employers and none of my above comments should be seen as any reflection upon them h34r:

 

[Bribie G]

Labelling in the drinks market as a whole is ridiculous.

For example Somersby European Cider is made by Independent distillers in Melbourne under licence to Carlsberg, and wouldn't you think that Somersby might have something to do with the major cider region of Somerset.

Mt Kosciusko brewed at Malt Shovel (come off it, probably brewed at Lidcombe like most JS nowadays).

And didn't Stone and Wood "craftwash" a beer by having it contract brewed by CUB or something similar?

I'd also agree with the post about craft brewers setting up then simply apeing American APAs, usually at a lower gravity as well as charging top dollar.

Actually my favourite go-to beer on tap when I'm in Newcastle is Murray's Moon Boy ale, it's an honest 4.5% quaffer made on Pilsner malt, as they state, with a well balanced hit of NZ hops and doesn't pretend to be the next Sierra Nevada clone. Fantastic beer to simply hammer a few schooners whilst on the pokies and you don't need to have a beard to enjoy it.

 

[fraser_john]

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

Should come up with a neat graphic, shorten the quote and make a fortune selling t-shirts to hipsters

 

[verysupple]

<snip>

What's better? Good home cooked food? or take away?

<snip>

Or what about that fantastic restaurant that serves over 200 pax regularly? Just because you serve a lot of people doesn't necessarily mean the food is shit. The same goes for beer.

 

[eMPTy]

Should come up with a neat graphic, shorten the quote and make a fortune selling t-shirts to hipsters

I'd wear one for shits and giggles.

 

[droid]

Should come up with a neat graphic, shorten the quote and make a fortune selling t-shirts to hipsters

Hipsters are on the way out bro, just sayin

 

[Bomber Watson]

I refuse to drink any beer that is not made with grain grown in Individual seedling punnets then malted /kilned one grain at a time to exacting and differing levels of roastyness, mashed in water from chuck Norris's swimming pool by a man exactly 27856800 minutes old at the time of strike, doughed in using his beard, steped 297 times, then boiled for exactly three days. Then it must be fermented by individually trained and named yeast cells. At least half of these cells must know how to rollover and fetch, and one should be called bob.