A Single Word: The Case for Beer
The March 2015 cover of All About Beer Magazine.
There is a word that is used often in the beer world, but means different things to different people and organizations. The use of this particular word has seemingly muddied the water of the industry, causing confusion, blind passion and confrontation. The word, of course, is craft.
The word craft has played an important role in reshaping the global beer industry landscape to how it is today. After the word microbrew fell out of fashion, smaller breweries needed a way to distinguish themselves from larger breweries. That goal has largely succeeded, and the craft segment continues to grow. A recent report says that the U.S. craft segment combined recently outsold the total volume of Budweiser. Sure, it took 3,000-plus breweries to tackle one giant, but it happened.
Overall, the word has become co-opted. While it is about beer, it’s also about marketing. Now the so-called big guys are in on the game, knowing that there is a trend these days toward small and local with certain products. That’s why we see brands like Blue Moon, owned by MillerCoors, using the term “Artfully Crafted” in advertisements. Conversely, Samuel Adams uses the line “For the Love of Beer” in its advertisements, with no mention of the word craft.
Now, here’s the tricky part. What does it mean?
For the Brewers Association (BA), a trade group, it means “promote and protect small and independent American brewers, their craft beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts,” according to its mission statement. It has promoted the word craft and placed guidelines as to what craft means as a way to define its dues-paying members.
For some consumers and brewers, it’s the battle of “us vs. them,” with people saying that the larger breweries make “crap” or “poor-quality” beer. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those brewers use the same ingredients as smaller brewers to make the same final product: beer. And while some consumers are throwing stones at large corporations that make technically perfect beer, they give a pass to some smaller breweries that fall under the craft banner but make and release clearly infected or inconsistent beers. Why?
As a media company, we rely on using words properly. One year ago this magazine took the first step in limiting the word craft in our coverage. Our feature articles no longer differentiate between craft brewers and not because we don’t have a solid definition. As we’ve always done, we report the news of breweries around the world. All breweries. Of course we know this will not be universally recognized, so you can expect to see the word pop up from time to time in quotes, or when certain groups, like the BA, talk about membership, or in our business coverage, where craft is considered a specific sales segment. It’s our duty to cover that as represented, and we will.
One word shouldn’t be a dividing point. Ultimately, it should be about the beer in the glass, and whether it tastes good to the individual drinker. In the same way that the word microbrew is still batted around, we don’t honestly believe that the word craft will disappear anytime soon, but we do believe it’s time to have a conversation about what it really means. Is it a helpful word that makes beer better, or is it necessary at all?
There is a lot of passion surrounding this one word. And we believe it should be the right word, the beverage we cover, the one we enjoy. That’s why, as often as possible, we’re just going to call it beer.
This column appears in the March 2015 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Look for it on newsstands on Feb. 3 and subscribe here.
John Holl
John is the editor of All About Beer Magazine and the author of three books, including The American Craft Beer Cookbook. Find him on Twitter @John_Holl.
I’m not sure what this part of the sentence is meaning. 5th paragraph, 4th sentence:
they are give a pass to some smaller
shouldn’t it be: they are giving a pass to some smaller
Not a big deal, just thought you’d want to be pro.
Good eye, Chris. All fixed up.
I have always interpreted “Craft” to be it’s literal definition. “An activity requiring skill to create something by hand” I think that it can be agreed that anything made by hand can in some way interpreted as art. Now there is good art and there is bad art and there is good art that is reproduced in mass quantities like Van Gough’s “Starry Night”… Who hasn’t seen that on a waiting room wall? So as it relates to beer, at some point someone made a test brew (or several) liked it, felt pride, and shared it. So to me all beer was once and original piece of art, good, bad or down right ugly it should be respected. The bottom line is that we are all Van Gough’s and fighting Gauguin will just result in us holding our own bloody ears.
Refreshing article! Thank you!
Great article. Thanks for the clarity and bravery in the face of current demonization of any beer deemed ‘corporate.’ Again, well done.
So, what is the point of this article? Was it just to legitimize how you guys as a company use the word craft when talking about beer so you don’t get your ass in a ringer down the line? Where in this article does it explain what craft really means, I thought that was the point.
Couldn’t agree more. It’s time to move past all the ignorance, arguments, and public shaming of enjoying a beer that doesn’t fit into a subjective BA definition. Blue Moon was around long before most of these “true craft” breweries and helped pave the way for their success. If you don’t care for the beer, that’s perfectly ok, but there’s no need to attack it.
The problem with this article is that you disregard the corporate companies like AB-Inbev Business model, where profit is above all. For many of us that cherish and love Craft Beer, drinking a pint goes beyond the beer itself. I take in consideration who is behind the beer I drink. It’s unfair to say the craft beer community gives a pass to bad craft breweries. People that do are really lacking. Actually breweries always talk about how unforgiving craft beer drinkers can be. If you are a serious craft beer advocate you will call out any brewery when they make a bad batch of beer. Twitter will let you know in heart bit. Now technically perfect beer has nothing to do with being good. Now, if you think Bud light is a good beer, I cannot take you serious.
Blue Moon has not paved a way for no one’s success that’s not to say it’s necessarily a bad beer). It actually enjoys the success others have paved for the segment. This is an uninformed comment. Breweries like Anchor Brewing, Wynkoop Brewing, North Coast Brewing, Deschutes Brewery, Great Lakes Brewing, Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head, Stone, Ballast Point, Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, Ale Smith and Goose Island (which is owned by AB-Inbev now) and many others are the real entrepreneurs that paved the way to what Craft Beer is today, bringing a new standard of quality and creativity that are trade mark of craft beer today, This same magazine, which I subscribe has an excellent article on the advent of craft beer. Breweries that experiment with different ingredients and start to brew beers with bold flavor which were forgotten by the consumer since Corporations with plenty of money to through around worked hard to convinced everyone what they should like and that one rice water flavor style of beer was the best thing out there and you didn’t need anything else, but thanks to craft breweries a good portion of the consumers woke up and appreciate the new challenges those breweries were giving to them. They reminded consumers that drink a beer can be an amazing new experience. The so called, “Big Breweries”, realize that change on consumers mind, even if still small, and are trying to play catch up. But what you are asking me is to support a company that sat out to lay off few thousand of their employees and that has lobbying to make difficult for the growth of other breweries. That use power and money to bully smaller competitors. I believe a good portion of the new Craft Breweries is mediocre to say the least. I won’t deny that. But that doesn’t take the credit for the ones that are creating amazing beers with the best quality products, supporting other local business and respecting their consumer in a more personal level.
I can respect your opinion and think it’s your right to think the way you do, but unfortunately I can’t agree with your view.
This comment is the perfect example of the ignorance pervasive amongst defenders of the word “craft”. Beer is beer. Drink what you like.
Have I in any moment said that people should not drink what they like? The ignorance here is yours. What I was talking about was quality and beer sale and priduction practice. Many people are happy eating BK. And it’s well and good if that’s what they want. So don’t confuse the search for quality or the desire to buy products from a Business that respect, employees and and comsumers and experiment and try to inovate with the singular understand of a word. Craft is just the word chosen for the segment and it’s a perfect word To describe that part of the industry. My point is that the article has nothing good to add and said “nothing about anything”
Great article, and about time the beer industry moved on.
You hit the key point. Size has nothing to do with quality. AB brews Goose Island in NY. MillerCoors brewed a lot of Sam Adams beer. Both are/were brewed very well. Many small brewers also brew really bad beer. I have had my share of poorly balanced or bad quality small beer.
What is great for consumers is this focus on craftsmanship has led to increased options by all brewers. Increased competition makes everyone better. The quality of beer on the shelf continues to improve.
I finally understand, every beer is miller lite.
Gil, craft brewers are “bringing a new standard of quality”? Let’s not confuse personal preference with quality of product. I don’t drink Bud Light, because I don’t prefer it. But the quality standards of production on beers like that are far superior to smaller operations. I think that’s the point of this article. Let’s raise the bar for the entire industry, not spend time bickering over a word that’s divisive
I have been reading about beer ingredients and how some of the larger breweries use high fructose corn syrup and preservatives in their beers. To me that would distinguish them from the smaller breweries using only pure ingredients. How about ingredient labels on all beers so we know what we are drinking?
I have long been a craft beer lover. And believe you me, I can tell the difference between a “Craft” beer and “Assembly Line” beer. For me at least, the inconsistency in the product is part of the allure. I raise my own meat, keep chickens for eggs, and grow my own fruits and vegetables. Seldom are two end products the same in appearance or in flavor. That is part of the adventure. Consider apples! My apples are small, misshapen, and sometimes have a blemish or two. But when you bite into them, you will need a bib because of the burst of flavorful juices that erupt from the fruit. But you will never see my apples in the grocery store produce section because they aren’t big enough, perfectly round enough, dark red enough. And that’s ok because to me, my apples aren’t boring enough to be represented in that display.
Gil has completely nailed it above, and makes the sorts of points that this article should’ve contained, instead of an apology for mass-produced, cynical, insipid filth that insults the word ‘beer’.
For me the difference between your so called normal beer and Craft beer is enormous, ever since i tasted my first craft beer which was a pale ale i never bought a single bottle of normal beer. For me CRAFT BEER FOREVER.
Up until 2011 I was not a beer drinker. My Cousin started to make it that year. I never cared for beer because what I experienced was always a Bud, Miller, or Coors. It just had no flavor to me. I went to Reforger in 1987 and had a limited exposure to some German beer but none of this type of beer did I see in the States.
I now drink beer. I like whether an ale or lager a dark beer. Not too much a hop fiend so although I will drink an IPA I am just not into hoppier beers.
That being said I am not so sure that beer is beer as said above. Good beer is good beer. Bad beer is bad beer. And this may be our own personal preference as well. I was at a concert a year ago and a person handed me a coor’s light. I am thinking if you have to drink light beer should you be drinking beer at all? What is the point? It tasted like water to me that just had a slight yellow tinge to it.
It’s quality control may be awesome but I do not drink beer just to get wasted. I drink it for being a tasty beverage.
That all being said to me Craft just means small commercial brewer or home brewer but as I believe the article stated/implied it has been co-opted to mean high quality beer when that may be far from the truth.
I went to 6 beer fests last year and just went to my first this year. There were some really nasty flavors and many so so. Kind of upset that this first of the year one was supposed to be a Bock Fest but hmm odd no bock beer. None of the brewers being showcased and again craft brewers other than the larger Sam Adams who at least had their Winter lager decided to bring beer as to the type of fest it was supposed to be. Such a disappointment.