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

[Danscraftbeer]

#107 was what I was referring to, O T .

erm, :unsure: I must be a dumb arse because that's at least as cryptic as my first confusion.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Please can people just spell out the words for frigs sake. What's so hard with that.
To expect every reader to know abbreviations is ridiculous because abbreviations can be interpreted in a multitude a variations leaving one in a multitude of interpretations. Blaahhhh! Or I'm just stupid and then again I wont be the only one. Is there some in house code or something? :chug:

 

[Feldon]

Please consider readers of all kind. I myself don't know what you refer to as IS craft? :unsure:
I'm a common dumbarse that gets easily confused with abbreviations etc.

By "IS craft" he simply meant "is craft" - he was using the capital letters to emphasise the word 'is'. In internet speak its called 'shouting'.

"IS" was not used as an abbreviation for anything. Same with the other capitalisations he used in his post.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

IS - Islamic State. h34r:

 

[Dave70]

Here's the definition via Bestnaturalfoods.com according to no less a luminary than the late Greg Noonan.

http://www.brewerspublications.com/authors/greg-noonan/


Craft-brewed Beers

“Craft beer should mean natural beer brewed in a non-automated brewery of less than 50-barrel brew length, using traditional methods and premium, whole, natural ingredients, and no flavor-lessening adjuncts or extracts, additives or preservatives.” – brewmaster Greg Noonan

Full article.

http://bestnaturalfoods.com/newsletter/organic_beer.html

 

[sponge]

Non-automated ey..?

Pretty sure there's a whole bunch of homebrewers who wouldn't be making craft beer at all then.

Just beer, only beer.

No craft for you.

 

[Dave70]

Non-automated ey..?

Pretty sure there's a whole bunch of homebrewers who wouldn't be making craft beer at all then.

Just beer, only beer.

No craft for you.

Does the fact that I occasionally use an auto lever bench capper for bottling instead of corks and a wooden mallet make me 'big beer' do you think?

 

[klangers]

The notion of "craft" as being anything other than a marketing ploy is simply absurd. It has no tangible meaning. The whole argument with labels and origin is a reflection of the industry-wide regulations in Australia.

It was originally coined by what were small breweries trying to differentiate themselves from the big boys so they could make a buck. Since they had nothing else to compete on, they pushed the "hand-made", small batch, warm-and-fuzzy-let's-grow-a-big-beard-and-give-our-beers-cutsie-names operation.

All of a sudden people liked the beers that were being brewed, and the small breweries became big. The big breweries noticed and decided to do what they do best - cash in on trends to make money.

The fact that this thread is so long is testament to how well the marketing ploy of "craft" has worked. It's one of those words where everyone has their own interpretation and is therefore perfect to divide a market through confusion. Where we had "the beer market", we now have "the craft beer market" as well. This is a marketer's dream because they can now pit the two camps against each other ("only wankers drink craft beer" vs. "don't be uncouth and drink that SWILL") and now we have more fronts to fight the competition war.

This notion that no automation or shit technology in general somehow makes beer "craft" is just naïve. There's no way "craft" beer in this sense would be anything other than a curious oddity that would be brewed at home due to the ridiculously high labour requirements. Unless, of course, mechanisation is allowed (but don't worry "automation" is still banned) so the 100 hL mash tun doesn't need to be stirred by a team of 10 strong men (with massive, un-hygienic beards of course). While we're at it let's fire up the coal boiler and ensure that it's hand-stoked, so we'll have to employ a full time stoker (and pay for his black-lung health complications). At the end of the day, automation and mechanisation have enabled vastly better living and working conditions for all industries. It's not about making the product worse, in many cases it makes it better by improving repeatability and traceability.

The reality is that beer is beer - a fermented drink made from saccharified starch and flavours.

 

[sponge]

Does the fact that I occasionally use an auto lever bench capper for bottling instead of corks and a wooden mallet make me 'big beer' do you think?

Well I never.. Might as well be CUB.

Timber fire, horse-and-cart pulley, fermented in an old bathtub or nada.

 

[Dave70]

The notion of "organic" as being anything other than a marketing ploy is simply absurd. It has no tangible meaning.

Just trying it on for size. Yep, makes for a nice fit.

 

[TheWiggman]

I'm going to be literal and use an English dictionary.

Craft: "an activity involving skill in making things by hand." or "an activity that involves making something in a skillful way by using your hands"
Beer: "Beer"

Craft beer is beer which is made skilfully by way of using your hands. Rules out many of the larger brewers, includes most of the smaller brewers.

When I do a web search for 'craft beer' above all else I get links to products, copious advertisements and locations which sell beer. Which says it all as far as I'm concerned and explains why we've been talking about this for 7 pages now.

 

[Blind Dog]

At what point is beer 'made by hand'?. Every brewer knows that beer is made by yeast. So there is no such thing as craft beer, just people who think there is.

Personally, beer comes in 4 categories:
- beer I've never tried
- beer I've tried and wont bother trying again
- beer I've tried and enjoyed
- beer that's marginally better than anything else on offer, so its that or go home

Way too many 'craft' beers fall in the 2nd category.

 

[Westo]

If its sold on tap at the local mega-swill pub then its a safe bet to say that its not craft beer!

 

[wide eyed and legless]

This thread should have ended at post 128 by Klangers, this is a discussion that will never be resolved, and the small craft breweries should go back to being called "Micro Breweries".

 

[GalBrew]

This thread should have ended at post 128 by Klangers, this is a discussion that will never be resolved, and the small craft breweries should go back to being called "Micro Breweries".

Agreed!

 

[Blind Dog]

This thread should have ended at post 128 by Klangers, this is a discussion that will never be resolved, and the small craft breweries should go back to being called "Micro Breweries".

Or even post 8 by Galbrew - its all just marketing spin (Galbrew may have used a different term!)

 

[spog]

Please can people just spell out the words for frigs sake. What's so hard with that.
To expect every reader to know abbreviations is ridiculous because abbreviations can be interpreted in a multitude a variations leaving one in a multitude of interpretations. Blaahhhh! Or I'm just stupid and then again I wont be the only one. Is there some in house code or something? :chug:

If you were as pissed as I was you would have understood what a was blathering about......
I must learn to control myself,nah stuff that.

 

[///]

So with a bit of history with this topic, maybe what we want 'craft beer' to be is not the argument. What it ain't is maybe the point.

Beer is a food product. We went thru the 80's and 90's of consolidation. It happened, that's all fine. Maybe though, we like to see how things are made after a few years. We also like to know the bloke who makes the beer.

With those things there will be a breadth of difference. A small shop who pays wages versus a mega company who pays dividends to shareholders maybe helps. With that, the small bloke can afford some risk, make something left of centre, heaven forbid they can make and sell something off the wall which is new and innovative and never been done before. And, he still pays himself a wage. Winner winner, chicken dinner

The mega takes a risk, it fails and with the loss is the 're-assignment' of the marketing manager responsible. The craft brewer made a different beer and it took a few weeks to sell. No one 'real-assigned', it's all good, it is craft beer and something new is tried.

And then someone came up with the idea of making a killer US IPA and then adding grape fruit to it. And then sold for a $USD 1 billion ...

So what is craft? Something. Fluid and always changing

 

[Dave70]

I'm going to be literal and use an English dictionary.

Craft: "an activity involving skill in making things by hand." or "an activity that involves making something in a skillful way by using your hands"
Beer: "Beer"

Craft beer is beer which is made skilfully by way of using your hands. Rules out many of the larger brewers, includes most of the smaller brewers.

When I do a web search for 'craft beer' above all else I get links to products, copious advertisements and locations which sell beer. Which says it all as far as I'm concerned and explains why we've been talking about this for 7 pages now.

I'll see your literalisim and raise you some silliness.
Fosters eh. Blow me down.

 

[spog]

I'll see your literalisim and raise you some silliness.
Fosters eh. Blow me down.

Ahh,Fosters. I have a Fosters story for you all,so gather around kids and listen.
Twas an Arctic Xmas in Kirkenes northern Norway in the year 2000, a time of year when the sun doesn't come above the horizon so it's dark 24 hrs a day which probably goes some way to explain my older brothers demeanour ,tinted with his storm trooper attitude .
It was 27 degrees below zero and while waiting for the bus and being Aussies we spotted a pub.( right next to the bus stop ).
Upon entering we saw the pub was festooned with Fosters paraphernalia !
I said G,day to the barman and he said " oh Australian do want Fosters ?". And this is where it turned to shit.
My brother ever the diplomat replied, " **** off mate no body in Australia drinks that camels piss that's why your selling the shit here".
I kid you not.
The look on the poor buggers face was priceless , the quick talking on my behalf and asking for Norwegien beer to smooth the problem over and then talking about the cold and the differences in culture etc soon solved the problem.
And to this day the stormtrooper still owes me a slab of piss for saving our arses from being kicked out into the snow.
The useless prick wouldn't shout if a shark bit him....fuckwit.