Craft brewers, artisans, fake brewers – you can’t tell them apart without a scorecard

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 05.12.14

As Craft Beer Starts Gushing, Its Essence Gets Watered Down. When NPR speaks, people listen — and so my friends who live blissfully in a world where the question “What is craft beer?” is not debated every day email me the story. It is a reminder that in the real world “craft verus crafty” gets attention and a headline that contends “its essense gets watered down” becomes fact rather than a subject for discussion.

In the story — if you somehow managed to miss it — Dan Del Grande at Bison Organic Beer says he doesn’t think the Brewers Association should have changed its definition of “craft brewery” to include those that use adjuncts and and those that “make more than about 200,000 barrels of beer per year should not be recognized as craft.” (I added the boldface.) If you can’t get enough of the discussion about trade associations, who is on whose side, and the meaning of “craft” then head right on to the next link after this one.

Total aside, you have to smile when a beer geek conversation breaks out rather early on in the comments, beginning with brandon east writing, “Dude, what are you doing? Look to your right and get that four-pack of Bourbon County Brand Stout!”

[Via The Salt]

Brewers, Distillers Wrestling with Meaning of ‘Craft.’ A report from a panel discussion at the Craft Beverage Expo in San Jose last week, the panel including brewers, distillers and a winemaker. I’m not sure which of these words can get you in more trouble: traditional or practical.

So this from winemaker Alie Shaper and you can read the rest yourself: She said winemakers don’t use the “c word” but often refer to themselves as “artisanal” or “family-owned.” “An artisanal winery has a lead winemaker who is there to put personality in their production,” she said. “Maybe that is the real definition of craft. Some people want to stay smaller and some want to get bigger.”

[Via Brewbound]

Belgium’s craft brewers sound the alarm. The discussion here is about real brewers and “fake brewers” in Belgium, although rather obviously this impacts the idea of brewing as craft. A translation of an open letter from a group of Belgian brewers includes this rather shocking nugget:

“These days, thanks to a growing interest in beer at home and abroad, a new ‘brewery’ opens up in this country roughly every 15 days. We estimate that around 75% of these businesses are breweries in name only, and that no beer is actually produced by the businesses themselves.”

It’s complicated and worth your time to read the whole thing. Commenting on it at I might have a glass of beer, Rob Sterowski wrote, “It’ll be interesting to see whether beer geeks in the rest of the world pay any attention to the opinions of the brewers they claim to revere so much.”

Sorry, no link, but the second issue issue of Belgian Beer & Food, a new publication, includes an article by Joe Stange (“When is a Brewery Not a Brewery? And Does it Matter?”) that provides more context.

[Via Belgian Beer & Food]

What’s Oregon’s healthiest beer? Deschutes, Hopworks and other breweries seek an unusual title. And you thought “craft” was tough to define. [Via Portland Business Journal]

Ale brewing in the USA and Canada in 1907. With a pretty bold conclusion from Ron Pattinson: “The cross-fertilsation of ideas from British Ale brewing and Continental Lager brewing seems to be the defining feature of North American brewing.” [Via Shut Up About Barclay Perkins]

Session #88 announced: Traditional beer mixes

The SessionBoak & Bailey have stepped up to host The Session #88 (somehow we were lacking a volunteer), scheduled for June 6, personally noteworthy date for two reasons. First, it will be the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and we were backpacking in England for the 50th, enjoying seeing veterans in old uniforms visit seaside towns. Second, because Amazon says I might have Boak & Bailey’s Brew Britannia: The Strange Rebirth of British Beer in hand by then.

The topic is traditional beer mixes.

How can you not find a question like “are there rules for the optimal Granny?” inspiring?

Friday beer: Why deny the obvious child?

Shock Top Pretzel Wheat tap handle

Last weekend at the St. Louis Microfest — which has been around since 1988, raising money for Lift for Life Gym and not at all self conscious about keeping the word micro in its name — a local brewery, Anheuser-Busch, showed up with one of the more intriguing beers poured.

Shock Top Twisted Pretzel Wheat smells and tastes just like pretzels. You wouldn’t pair it with a pretzel because that would be redundant. You might buy one during the fifth inning on a muggy evening at the ballpark instead of hunting down a pretzel and a beer. Except that’s not really an option, at least right now, because A-B is offering it only at beer festivals this summer.

It’s one of those “how do they do this?” beers. If Short’s Brewing brought it to the Great American Beer Festival people would line up for it just like the do Key Lime Pie and PB&J.

Like other Shock Top beers, for instance Honeycrisp Apple Wheat or Lemon Shandy, Twisted Pretzel Wheat is not subtle. But beyond the obvious pretzel aroma and flavor it tastes like beer. Professional brewers at the festival I talked with about it were impressed, homebrewers not so much. Make of that what you will.

Craft beer as a luxury item

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 05.05.14

Taking my talents to the Right Bank. Roger Baylor is moving the blog he writes at Louisville Beer back to his own Blogspot blog. As he explains, “I don’t plan on behaving or writing any differently, although there is a strong suspicion that on my own home court, it will be easier to write just one true sentence.” He suggests this might be liberating, and given that he already says some of the darndest things about beer that is enticing.

Consequently, it’s time to go to the mattresses, find the next wave, and return to making the case for what I believe: Economic localization in beer, exploring more deeply what words like “craft” really should mean when it comes to beer, the instructive history of beer, and better beer education (as opposed to the current demand to be entertained).

[Via The Potable Curmudgeon]

The BMW of beer: Brewery crafts luxury approach. Brewery Ommegang CEO Simon Thorpe talks candidly about the business side of beer, specifically positioning Ommegang as a luxury beer. The brewery spends 40 percent more than average for packaging, for instance. But it’s not like they are trying to polish a turd (for the record, not a phrase he uses).

There must be truth and craftsmanship and honesty in the way that something is made. That’s critical to the way that people view luxury. You can’t market something into being authentic.

Yes, we all know authentic is an over-used marketing term, but that doesn’t make what he says any less true.

[Via CNBC]

Jared Rouben gives Chicago a first taste of Moody Tongue brewery. I’m sure you are going to seeing Moody Tongue beers described as innovative, so this is good to read.

We’re not doing experimental stuff here. Having the new things no one’s done doesn’t make the best beers. The best beers bring your ingredients together and find balance.

[Via Red Eye Chicago]

Will a barrel shortage hurt small distilleries and breweries? For some, it already has. The competition is on for both white oak used to make new barrels and for used barrels. Bourbon makers need new barrels, thus the oak. Whisky makers are competing with brewers for used barrels. [Via Insider Louisville]

‘Let Germany brew your beer’? Sorry, Bob, but we got this. This is the first column that Sam Calagione will be writing for Medium. In this one he takes exception to the Chrysler commercial that first appeared during the Super Bowl, the one in which Bob Dylan said, “So let Germany brew your beer. Let Switzerland make your watch. Let Asia assemble your phone. We will build your car.” I look forward to future installments, but I hope he won’t continue to dis Peter, Paul & Mary. [Via Medium]

Maker/drinker — Taylor Seidler, creative director at Beer Advocate magazine. The “inside baseball” link of the week. [Via Good Beer Hunting]

Bottles from 19th century German beer garden found at Bowery hotel site. A lot of history here. [Via DNAinfo New York]