Last week Boak & Bailey offered a list of Ten signs of a craft brewery, interesting in itself and also because of the comments that followed. It got me thinking that “craft beer” can be one of those “you know it when you see it” things. Which is why a snapped this photo Saturday.
I don’t know if this is a one-time feature or there will be more.
The makeshift tap markers belong to 2nd Shift Brewing in New Haven, about an hour west of St. Louis. They were pouring beer at the STL Hops 4th Anniversary Party, held at Perennial Artisan Ales.
Hopefully the beer on the right isn’t as tasteless as its name.
A touch of the handmade about the marketing and design? That’s an interesting example, because we’re quite snotty about bad labels and pumpclips, but there’s no denying that you’d never see Budweiser or Guinness sold this way.
I don’t understand why so many people agree that it is little more than a marketing term, then try to fit a definition that is less objectionable than that provided by the Brewer’s Association.
Why don’t we all just agree it is a marketing term, ignore it and let it die a quiet death? And, for god’s sake, give up the notion that everything has to have a label. It’s only beer. (I don’t remember who said that, but it makes a lot more sense than obsessing about it.)
Mike — I don’t agree it *is* a marketing term, although of course marketeers do like to bandy it about. We’re not marketing anything and we certainly find it useful.
And of course not everything *has* to have a label, but conversations are a lot easier when you can express an idea (in however compromised a fashion) with two words rather than ten, or twenty. Unless you have to keep stopping to justify your use of particular words or phrases, of course.
Bailey – The Brains’ announcement would seem to say something about the growing importance of the concept of “craft beer” in the UK.
Stan — that’s a fascinating development. It might be a marketing gimmick, or it might be frustrated brewers finally getting what they’ve been lobbying for, and what Stuart Howe at Sharp’s has had for a while: permission to play.
But just because they call it craft beer doesn’t mean we necessarily will….
Sorry, also meant to say: it is getting to be more commonly used in the UK (just as it’s going out of fashion in the US, I understand…) and I think it would be daft for those who support “real ale” not to accept that people like and are using the term and help to define what it might mean in a British context.
At the moment, there’s a danger it will *just* come to mean gimmicky, kegged beer made by younger brewers.
Bailey, it’s not a marketing term? Oh? Why then is it proudly used by a marketing organisation? Useful? I’m sorry, but I find it a ridiculous term because some beers called “craft” are among the worst beers I’ve tasted.
As far as label is concerned, label’s can sometimes be useful, but only if they are universally accepted and understood. Is “craft beer”? As you wrote yourself, there is widespread disagreement about it. How is that universal?
Mike, it was a term used by brewers before it became a marketing term. Because it subsequently became a marketing term doesn’t disqualify it as a descriptor. A significant reason that there’s no agreement on what “craft beer” is, is because the craft world keeps changing — smaller brewers become larger brewers, some have to contract brew, some have outside part-ownership. Some folks resist change, others accept some level of it. Many bring their own agenda to the term.
Labels don’t have to be universally accepted to be useful. There isn’t agreement on labels such as “Christian” or “feminist” or “middle-class,” but we still in aggregate have an understanding of the terms even as we may disagree on what they mean/to whom they refer.
Bill, and if the term was used by brewers first, how does that then disqualify it as a marketing term?
Yours, btw, is the third version of the history of the term I’ve heard.
As far as labels, the examples you gave did not, I believe, support your point as I do not see them as nearly as divisive as “craft beer.”
But, then again, my point was why does everything have to be labeled?
“Bill, and if the term was used by brewers first, how does that then disqualify it as a marketing term?”
Because its original use was as a descriptor, not as a sales pitch. It was a term to define something in order to talk about it, not something created as an advertisement.
Doesn’t matter whether _you_ see the other terms as nearly as divisive as craft beer — just that they can be divisive! I don’t agree with the negative connotations of calling a term a “label,” but you need terms to be able to talk about things — you yourself use the term craft beer all the time in comments here. You used the term in talking about the most popular types of US beer a few days ago, and you’ve used it when comparing newer American brews to brews done by older European breweries. You’re not using “craft beer” as a marketing term in either instance, so obviously it has use to you as a term to define what you’re talking about. Not as a label, not as a marketing device. A useful term.
Bill — thanks for expressing this so clearly. “Label” is just a label…
Bill, you wrote the “original use was as a descriptor” – and this is based on what? That breweries want to describe their beer as “good” (ie, well-made) is descriptive? Sorry, I disagree with you about that.
I don’t see the use of a label as being negative, I see the _over-use_ of the term as negative — as I wrote in the comment immediately above yours. Of course, there are some instances where labels can be useful, but then, when they are accurate and descriptive. “Craft beer” is neither. The fact that the Brewer’s Association have one description and Boak and Bailey have made a completely different description is kind of a clue, isn’t it?
About me using the phrase: I think you must have me confused with someone else. I looked at my postings here going back to mid-September and can’t find a single use of the phrase. Not really surprising, because when it became fashionable, several years ago, I didn’t like it any better.
Mike – Although Stephen Beaumont recently cited a stray use of the word “craft” by Michael Jackson in 1977, it seems that Vince Cottone was the irst to use and define the term in 1986.
Your comment about this 16 months ago was pretty succinct.
To add a thought of my own, although you see the term “craft” often in print (in print also meaning on a screen) you don’t hear the people who work at small breweries (in other words, brewers) using it that often or the people drinking their beer. Maybe that’s another sign of a craft brewery.
I’m pretty comfortable with vague, imprecise descriptors. They’re only a problem when you’re asking people to sign up to something based on them (viz. joining a craft beer association) or awarding tax breaks based on them. But then there’s nothing wrong with having “the tax definition of craft beer”, “the association’s definition of craft beer” or “Boak and Bailey’s definition of craft beer”. As long as, when it matters, everyone knows which one is being used, where’s the problem? (For the record, our personal definition has nothing to do with the size of a brewery.)
Stan — that’s a very good point. St Austell, our local big regional brewery, have taken to describing one of their beers (the OK-but-not-great Trelawney) as “crafted”. Instinctively, that made me roll my eyes in irritation. Methinks the lady doth protest, &c. &c..
Stan – words and opinions can change over time. Since I wrote that 16 months ago, I have seen more flippant and marketing-driven use of the term. It (the term) seems pretty useless to me today and even though I speak with various beer enthusiasts, I’ve never heard it in other than a marketing context.
Personally I stay away from the more outrageous branded beers. Its just obnoxious to me. I don’t want to drink a beer called goat penis, because the whacky in your face branding probably means the beer is probably the same; over the top.
I like tradition blended with modern style.
I also love Ska music. Ska’s cans, bottles, and names are all fantastic iin my opinion. I respect breweries whose brands are a reflection of the people running the brewery.
Another good example is Cigar City. They are letting the whole world know about tampa and Cuban culture through beer. Fantastic.
I can’t wait to drink some bud light platinum though. 9% and only 150 calories. Just what I am looking for.