Argument

Original identity

http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/defining-craft-beer

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/brewdog-couldnt-be-more-wrong-in-wanting-an-official-definition-of-craft-beer/


http://totalales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/blue-fucking-moon.html

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My personal thought is that while I understand the motivation behind creating a definition of craft beer, and have no problem with it in principle, I don't really have a clue who defining craft will help. If I'm honest, it actually comes across as strangely anti-competitive to be trying to stop big brewers from using the phrase - beat them with quality, not with marketing parlance, if you will. Right now (and in the immediate future), I don't think the word 'craft' offers particular leverage for a brand (in this country at any rate), and I've yet to see anything in the British on or off-sales market to convince me otherwise

Looking at this purely as a consumer - all I care about is drinking beer that I like. Suppose a massive brewer makes a good beer, and an accredited craft brewer makes a good beer - that definition of 'craft' isn't really much use. Consumer opinion is going to be formed by personal tasting of the beer, the marketing, peer opinion, or any awards, reviews etc. they've seen. The brewery, brewer or beer being labelled as 'craft' just becomes one of several factors that an individual will consider in their choice. If it's a section in a supermarket (for example), at best it just means the customer is standing in front of a single shelving unit containing all the beers meeting that category - which they already are, right now

On top of that, I've had my fair share of awful beer that's irrefutably 'craft' by anyone's definition, but it hasn't helped me to have that word, or even the ingredients and location of the brewery stamped on the bottle - I've still ended up with a shocking beer. The definition above is no brand of quality or worthwhile endorsement, it just means it's made to conform to a series of small-brewer tick boxes, and it still doesn't really help me pick a better bottle of beer. It doesn't tell me the tanks haven't been cleaned properly; that the hops have been kept open in a hot room for the last week; or that the malt's poorly modified (or that the brewer even knows what the hell that means)

I know I'm probably in the minority on this blog, but think about it - the type of people that read and post on here do not, in any way represent the public as a whole. This is a niche talking to a niche about naming a niche product. How many people here even think about the word 'craft' when picking their beers? We read nerdy beer blogs and use apps to rate what we drink. We speak to absurdly knowledgeable friends, and we go to beer tastings, bar openings and product launches. This is the bleeding edge, and even here, nobody shits kittens about a brewer outsourcing production because of capacity issues - as long as the end product meets their personal standards of taste. The definition above is so niche that you'd have to educate the hell out of most drinkers to get them to even know it exists, never mind what half of it means. 

My main point is this. Whatever the definition you pursue ends up being, it should focus on the quality of product in layman's terms - skills of the brewer, provenance and freshness of ingredients. You should think long and hard about the processes to include in the definition - leave enough room to allow experimentation, given it's a pretty fundamental part of craft in relation to any product. If this is about marketing craft beer (which I think it's safe to say it clearly is), then your definition needs to be pitched at the people that don't know what craft beer is - they almost certainly don't care about high gravity brewing, adjuncts etc. 

This is a big, complicated subject, and it's a bold one to raise, but that's my take on what's been written so far. You should talk to average beer drinkers: the ones who you WANT to drink craft, not the ones who already do. Not Greg from Stone, and certainly not us
MrJP19.10.2013