Craft Beers

What is a craft beer? There are actually a lot of definitions, and there is even a legal definition, apparently. A craft beer is basically a beer that does not use rice or corn as a major ingredient. The craft beer movement started in the 1970s to get away from the beer created by the mega breweries (such as Budweiser, Miller, Coors, etc.). The problem with craft beers these days is that they are trying to do exactly what they originally were trying to get away from. They are trying to take over the market and become leaders in the industry. They started as regional breweries that provided original high quality products to the people of that region. I recently read a blog post from "Top Fermented" about this subject that I really liked. He stated that these breweries are throwing around the word "consistency" lately. This is the same word that the mega breweries throw around. Each Budweiser is supposed to taste exactly the same. It's not necessarily about making good beer as much as it is about making consistently tasting beer. What about consistently good beer?

The blogger even states that making a product that tastes exactly the same year after year shouldn't really be possible. Think about it. You're using organic materials that change from year to year, not to mention that yeast is a living organism, which reacts differently from batch to batch. Even if you use the same materials each time, there will most likely be a slight taste difference. Will it be similar? Of course. The same? No. And it shouldn't be expected to be. This is one of the principles behind home-brewing. One of the exciting parts of creating your own beer is that even if you make the same batch again, it will probably display different characteristics each time. The craft beer industry started with this idea in mind, but these companies have basically become smaller versions of the mega breweries. They are more interested in creating a flagship beer with a few supporting styles and marketing them across the country and even world-wide. Don't get me wrong; you start a business to make money. No one ever goes into starting a business with the intent to lose money. And people typically don't like change, so they don't want their favorite beers to change. However, I feel like this makes it harder for smaller, truly local breweries to provide their craft beers to the community.

I like the idea of craft beers. The whole idea of using corn or rice is to control the flavor of the product. Using malted barley and wheat, without using rice or corn, allows for the unique complexities of the beer to come out. I even think it's okay for the beer to be different from batch to batch. Isn't this the same for the wine industry? The same style of wine from different years is not expected to be exactly the same. That's why we put emphasis on labeling the years of the wine. Why can't we do this for beer?

The author of "Top Fermented" is starting a small brewery in NC. His mission is to create good beer that has variability, as all good beer does. I really like this and am excited about his brewery. If more breweries took this chance with their beers, the beer industry would be completely different. They would be getting back to actually creating "craft beers."

Check out his post at http://www.topfermented.com/2011/06/01/real-beer-has-variability-or-mystery-brewings-mission-statement/.

Until Next Time,
RHSC