Is this nitro-keg stout from a regional family brewer a so-called “craft beer”? What about this notoriously boring cask bitter from another? What about the keg version of this borderline bland but kind-of-OK cask beer?
There is nothing inherently ‘craft’ about one beer or another, and no device you can use to measure a beer’s ‘craftness’. Because it is more subjective than deciding whether a beer is ‘real ale’ or not, it boils down to whether:
(a) there is something like a consensus that a particular beer has craft status (i.e. it ticks all the boxes and leaves little room for argument) or
(b) someone has made the case for it ticking at least some of the boxes.
That might be drinkers (or ‘fans’ as we increasingly frequently call those who boost one brewery or another) or, more often, the brewers themselves. One way the latter can do so is by being transparent about their methods and materials.
Actually, a better question than “Is X craft beer?” is “If Y is craft beer, why isn’t X?”
Ninety nine per cent of the time, though, if you’re asking about a particular beer, you’re being mischievous, and already know the answer.
P.S. Are Eddie and the Hot Rods punk? What about Elvis Costello? What about the reformed Sex Pistols?
Tags: craft beer, subjectivity
I’ve put this on the main article on craft beer as well, but we cannot box tick on this matter, this is far more subjective that a score out of 50 over 5 categories. I’ve put a new post up here about it. http://www.northernbeer.co.uk/?p=742
Box ticking as in “useful indicators” we think is fine; box ticking as in a scoring system doesn’t. And you’ll always need an extra box to tick for “no-brainer, it just is”.
Exactly I think Brewer X is craft, you think its isn’t, but Brewer Y is craft. Both make good beer, let leave it at that. Certainly tick boxes can be a signpost for people, but not the authority regarding it.
For me Eddie and the Hot Rods was a pub rock band, until I went to a gig in Torquay summer of -79. It was punk, pogoing all nite long, my first big live experience. Ten times better live than on vinyl. Cask v bottle today.
Gunnar — thanks for dropping by! Live vs. recorded offers us another whole world of beer analogies to play with…
I am puzzled by this agonising in the blogosphere about what is and is not craft beer. Why exactly does it matters whether a beer or brewer is or is not “craft”? Surely all that needs to be asked is “is this good beer”? which, given that beer is a very personal thing, more or less equated with “do I like and am I enjoying this beer?” Of course there are times when you will come across an obviously well made beer that you happemn to dislike but even then it should be possible to discern the wheat from the chaff.
It seems to me that the term “craft beer” is essentially useless – and in any event I guess that 99% of theb ere drinking population neither know nor care about it. The debate seems to be a prime example of the somewhat self obssessed bloggers’ bubble which has little relation to what goes on out there in the real world.
PS – hope this late night posting doesn’t provoke another “rattle out of pram” retort as my last one did.
John — no, toys should stay in the pram as, on this occasion, you’ve managed to challenge us without being rude…
So, a few points.
1. Craft beer is not just a phrase being used by beer bloggers but also supermarkets, mainstream print publications, small breweries hundreds of miles from London, well read online newspapers and even on more than one actual bricks-and-mortar building.
2. In two years time, we reckon a good chunk of that 99% of the drinking population will recognise and be using the phrase craft beer. Not all of them, but a good chunk.
3. Sniffily opting out of the discussion about what it means leaves it to marketers and journalists to define through repeated usage.
4. We don’t like the idea of a definition of craft beer in the UK which excludes cask ale.
5. Finally, on this point: “The debate seems to be a prime example of the somewhat self obssessed bloggers’ bubble which has little relation to what goes on out there in the real world.” I’ve got to ask — where do you think we do our drinking? On the internet in some kind of “cyber-pub”? Of course not! We go to real pubs with our real world mates and families, mostly in small provincial towns, such as the one I’m from, and the one we live in.
Bailey, that comment’s an excellent summation of why this should be important to beer lovers / makers.
Really interesting post & comments. I do wonder if we get to a situation where ’99% of the drinking population will recognise and be using the phrase craft beer’ whether that phrase will be defined in as many different ways as there are people using it?
I’ll be part of the 1%. It’s a meaningless, unnecessary term. And I’m really bored by the endless, pointless discussions about it. Can we all agree, as with Seymour Skinner’s real identity, to never mention it again?
Hello Ron, good to see you again. Surely this sort of thing should be up your street – evolution of beery terms, like all your carefully documented changes in meaning of “mild”?
In London we were struck by how prevalent the term “craft” had become, but as Bailey says in earlier comments, this is not just a London thing. New breweries are launching all the time, out in the sticks, and identifying themselves as “craft”, with at least a couple hinting at an opposition to “traditional” ale.
We’ve said it before; we have tried to form definitions of our own because we have already been asked by non-beer-geek mates to explain “craft”, and because we don’t want the discussion to be dominated by ignorant PR and marketing types. Sadly, looking at recent Time Out and Huffington Post articles, it looks like the pithy “craft is opposite of real ale” is becoming lodged in the general consensus.
Ps, it’s from a few months ago but I like Euan’s discursive approach to the subject:
http://pubology.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/craft-beer-pubs/
Here in Ireland the beer / pub market is more or less divided up between to conglomerates, Diageo and Heineken, owing Guinness and Murphy & Beamish respectively. Over the last few years there has been a small yet significant growth in a more youthful diserning market looking for something other than the big two. This has seen a growth in micro breweries such as O’Hara’s, Dungarvan, Galway Hooker etc enter the market. I like some of their beer, indeed some are fantastic, others are not to my taste. That is not to say that they are better beers, or better brewed or brewed by better brewers than the big two. Thay are just different. They are made with care and attention but so are Guinness, Murphy and Beamish. Saying one is craft and the other isn’t is futile. If you like the beer then drink it. Simples.
Because it’s just a lame marketing term, not something real.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I dislike the term “real ale” just as much and never use it.
Ron — not sure I buy the distinction between ‘something real’ and a ‘marketing term’. A lot of elements of our language start as marketing terms but, because people like them and find them useful, they catch on. They become real because real people are using them. Lots of other marketing terms get nowhere, despite the best efforts of PR people. (E.g. “Free range” has taken and is in every day use; “farm fresh” hasn’t.)