Why?
Because ultimately it is a phrase that has no legal definition backing it up and it is used to sell products.
Whilst I like the concept of craft beer, there are no legal requirements for it, so anything can be called craft. Plus to be honest you can argue Greene King IPA is as craft as say Marble’s Bitter or Brewdog Punk IPA or any number of beers, its all about perception.
So while this is going to a hot subject I think I'll bow out now.
Ah, but you put equals =. The mathematical symbol for similar is ≈
ReplyDeleteWise move. I'm bored to death by this "debate" among a couple of hundred beer geeks who are neither representative or typical of the average beer drinker. I'd go further than you: as craft is most often used to refer to keg, what's to stop John Smith or Tetley marketing the smooth version of their bitters as craft? Nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone needs convincing about the utter futility of the so-called debate on craft beer, just have a look at this thread on Tandleman's blog - nothing wrong with his post, but some of the comments below it are barking.
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ReplyDeleteIt does bring out the crazies so maybe craft equals crazy?
ReplyDeleteI see your point Cookie but for me the argument for craft is the same as that for organic so equals felt a bit better. Admittedly also I don't have the similar symbol on this keyboard either...
ReplyDeleteYou have, perhaps wisely, decided to stay out of this debate. You know what they say: fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
ReplyDeleteJust read that, really good points on the whole debate.
ReplyDeleteTweet from the soil association: Organic has a very specific legal definition (under EU regs) & covers all stages of production.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.soilassociation.org/certification
Not much like craft beer, which, as you pointed out, has no definition. Perhaps a more interesting question would be - Do we want/need 'craft beer' to be bogged down in committees making decisions on what it is?
Ah fair point, I was thinking about organic in terms of non-edible products. However some products which are labelled organic don't always have fully organic ingrediants depending on country.
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