On Craft

There's an interesting article on the BBC web site about "craft beer" but I would urge you to take a look at the comments if you want to see a truly "religious" conversation taking place, it's funny and sad at the same time, so much delusion based on incredulity and ignorance.

There are some classic canards being tossed around, I thought it would be fun to pick a few of the more acerbic ones apart..

- No such thing as "craft beer", we've had real ale in the UK for centuries, craft beer is just a new name for real-ale.

It's impossible to completely generalise, but, anyone who has actually made beer will understand why "traditional" bitters, i.e. real-ales (if we're talking about the UK) are different from more modern "craft" incarnations. It's all about the ingredients and how the beers are made. Firstly there are completely different hops involved, the "craft" movement came from the USA and hence the predominant varieties of hops used are American ones. Hops like Citra, Simcoe, Centennial and Cascade rather than more traditional English varieties like Fuggles, Goldings and Challenger. Often different adjuncts will be used, for example flaked oats in pale ales, pilsner malts in ale recipes or perhaps even fruit during the fermentation. Next the beers are made using different (non-traditional) techniques, like dry-hopping and barrel ageing. Of course some brewers will mix and match old and new ingredients and techniques but generally "craft" describes a style of beer that is much more hop-flavour forward, generally higher in alcohol and almost certainly using more exotic varieties of things like yeasts, hops and malts. (hence why they're usually more expensive) - it's all about variety and the taste experience, not necessarily better (that's the subjective part), but certainly different.

- It's nothing but expensive american type beer pushing proper British beer off the shelves. Mainly bought by people with skinny jeans and beards who used to drink cider with ice in it.

I guess when you don't have a real argument you attack the people involved for what they look like? Generalisations like this aren't based on facts, some of the best craft beer you can get is from the UK and Europe. When the best brewers, with unique heritages and a vast well of experience to draw on get their hands on new, exciting ingredients and are released from the shackles of the bean-counters of industrial breweries, guess what! They tend to produce some fantastic products, that's "craft", i.e. it's also about the scale of production, which tends to be small and local in character.

- Craft beer :) it’s home brew for God’s sake

What's wrong with home brew? It's probably fair to say that craft beer is often only one step removed from home-brew; most of the people involved in the scene started by brewing for fun. Often that enthusiasm, passion and spirit of experimentation is what distinguishes craft beer from "big-corporation beer", for many that's a plus rather than a minus.

- A re invention of a product and a flash in the pan

Sometimes in commerce it's a really good strategy to "re-invent" a product, evolution is often a much cheaper, quicker and more profitable way of expanding or disrupting an existing market. Is "craft" a flash in the pan? The quick answer is, so what if it is? But, a look at the data would suggest not.

At the top end (i.e. the top 20 or so companies) in the UK are growing in excess of 100% per year, this growth far outstrips that of the industrial conglomerates that have dominated brewing over the last few decades. Some of this growth is the law of small numbers, but if you examine the statistics around (traditional) pub closures vs. craft beer bar openings you will see a similar picture, people are queuing up to buy the stuff. There are now more breweries in the UK than there has been since the 1930's (up 60% in the last five years alone), these are all commercial indicators that this wave is real and will last for some time to come.

In the final analysis whenever a market is disrupted and things change there are some that are for it, some against it and some it passes by completely. It's about the forces of supply and demand, some see choice as a desirable commodity others see it as a threat, in the end, the consumer will decide.