Jeff Alworth uses the term “craft beer” just once in his Beervana beer in review post, and that only to describe a bar. Dave Infante totally leans into those two words in tandem at VinePair. A headline that declares it was “a very bad year” for “craft beer” accurately describes the story that follows.
It has been more than seven years since editor John Holl declared in All About Beer magazine that the magazine would use the term “craft beer” only when absolutely necessary.
“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?,” he wrote.
“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.”
I liked that idea then and I like it now. That doesn’t make what Infante wrote less relevant. For instance this, “For a time, craft beer had something approaching mainstream cachet, and that time has passed. I admit, this is a feeling more than a fact. But man, 2021 made me feel it. It was the year that craft beer became irrevocably cheugy.”
However, when he writes, “Culture is powerful stuff, and craft beer’s didn’t do it any favors this year, online or off” that would seem to lump together what might fairly be called a group failure with the cultures at Birds Fly South in South Carolina with Our Mutual Friend in Colorado or with Fair State in Minnesota. That bothers me because the crew at each of those breweries understands their responsibility to the communities that support them.
Granted, lumping can be necessary. There is no denying the truth in the subtitle of Pete Brown’s “Craft: An Argument,” that “Why the term ‘Craft Beer’ is completely undefinable, hopelessly misunderstood and absolutely essential.”
I’m not crazy enough to make predictions about how “craft beer” will be viewed in 80 years from now when somebody writes the history of pop culture in the 21st century. (See Chuck Klosterman’s “But What If We’re Wrong?”) But it may read differently than local histories about breweries such as Lady Justice, Creature Comforts or Montclair. There are times we should be talking about the trees individually rather than the forest.
Additional reading: Reckoning, Retribution, Reconciliation, Recovery, And Resilience Mark The Year In Craft Beer.
LISTS
– Compare and contrast. First an observation: Hop Culture’s list of 5 favorite under-the-radar beer states didn’t include a state west of the Eastern time zone. But I thought you might want to compare their 5 under-the-radar cities with an on-the-radar list from Michael Jackson 21 years before.
– I contributed to Gear Patrol’s list of best new releases. However, I would not be pointing to it had I not drunk several beers others chose and in each case thought, “Dang, good call.”
– Thumbs up to Porch Drinking for seeking out breweries such as Crane Brewing* for its “50 Beers From 50 States” list. It is not a “best” list. Instead, “Chances are that unless you live near these breweries or have visited the area the brewery is in, you’ve likely not heard of most of them.” Interesting choices.
* Pardon the plug, but if you want a recipe for Crane’s Beet Weiss, you can find it in “Brewing Local.”
COMMITMENT
a) Alan McLeod quietly announced he has created a Patreon microsite. Scroll to the bottom for details.
b) In their December newsletter, Boak & Bailey wrote, “Patreon has become a valuable outlet for personal writing and thinking aloud – somewhere we can take the odd risk with a friendly audience.”
c) Jeff Alworth offers details about the relaunch of Beervana Community.
Back in the 20th century, I (sometimes in partnership with Daria Labinsky) started and eventually wound down three print newsletters which people paid for. The winding down was a pain in the butt. That’s one reason that Hop Queries is free. I’m not prepared to take on the commitment. See a), b) and c) for people who are.
SELLING BEER
– A growing digital marketing divide.
– More about beer bars going forward. John Holl wrote about them and also talked about them with Chris Black, Michael Roper and Polly Watts.
– Mikkeller. Private equity. The beat goes on.
SEEMS FAMILIAR
Climate change. Healthy drinking. Equity. The year in what alcoholic beverage is being summarized here? Wine.
SENTENCE OF THE WEEK
“Brewers and farmers from Belgian Barrels Alliance (BBA) have partnered with Zeromint to offer nonfungible tokens (NFTs) aimed at preserving the UNESCO recognized Belgian beer culture and heritage.” Yes, beer, NFTs and UNESCO in the same sentence.
ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE
A special brew day.
I find all this endless carping about the word “craft” just tiring, now. I capitulated and adopted “Indie” a couple of years ago but still use Craft sometimes and no one seems to have any trouble figuring out what I’m writing about. When I drifted over from my original plan to write a wine site, it was because of exactly that sort of Tempest In Teapot debate, which the wine world is eat up with. Ands while we’re on the word “capitulation”, it IS capitulation to mega-producers like AB/InBev and MillerCoorsSAB and that crowd that anyone is even talking about “lines that divide us”. The original impetus for craft/indie beer being created in the first place was that a wave of younger drinkers came along who were sick to death of the bland, industrial, dumbed-down Pilsner that Adolphus Busch instituted on the cheap because “Americans don’t know beer, anyway”. If we REALLY are that tired of independent brewing that we’re willing to NOT draw that line, let’s just quit drinking anything but Bud Light and Coors Lite and Miller Lite and be done with it. that line is there for a REASON and it is not just solely so that we can all feel hip ‘n’ groovy and hang out in cool taprooms. It’s because the BEER IS BETTER. I like Jeff a lot and generally like most other beer writers but I’m holding firm on this. “Craft”, “Indie”, or find another name that describes real beer made by real people and not cranked out in industrial quantities and promote that word. Until that happens, this is just another one of those intellectual baubles that keep us all amused when we have nothing better to do.