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25-04-2018, 15:08
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/04/a-glossary-of-terms/)
Amongst all the chat about the Campaign for Real Ale’s AGM at the weekend we noticed a few old questions resurfacing: why, exactly, does CAMRA campaign for Real Ale and not Cask Ale? And, of course, “Why is everyone using that bloody awful, meaningless word ‘craft’?”With that in mind, this isn’t an attempt to justify or promote any one term over another but rather a chronological list of terms and that we’ve noticed in circulation, how they have been and continue to be used, and (to the best of our reckoning) where they came from.
If there is a point we’re trying to make it’s probably that most of these terms are newer than they seem, and that their meanings are less fixed in law or tradition than you might assume.
If there are terms you think ought to be added, let us know in the comments below.
And if you want more detailed accounts of some of this click the links throughout which will take you to old posts of ours, and get hold of a copy of our 2014 book*Brew Britannia (https://boakandbailey.com/our-books/book-brew-britannia/) which covers the birth of CAMRA and rise of craft beer in some detail.
* * *Beer from the Wood, 1880s.*A near-synonym for cask ale, probably derived from ‘Wines from the Wood’ (1850s) which distinguished wine dispensed on tap from bulk wooden casks from the bottled product. The Society for the Preservation of Beer From the Wood (SPBW) was founded in 1963 and were probably drawn to the phrase because of it’s stout yeoman of the bar archaic quality. It was used freely in the 1960s, e.g. in Batsford guides (https://boakandbailey.com/2015/10/east-anglian-pubs-1965/), often but not always referring to what we now call cask ale, even though by this time most casks were not actually made of wood. These days, it refers specifically to cask-conditioned beer served from wooden casks — a growing trend.
Keg Beer, 1955. Keg beer as we know it — stored and served from pressurised containers — was pioneered by Watney’s in the 1930s but this particular phrase was first used by Flowers in the mid-1950s. The terminology was muddled for most of the decade that followed with kegs sometimes called casks (https://boakandbailey.com/2013/08/fordham-flower-keg-vs-cask/) and so on. Which leads us to…
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/flowers_keg_1950s.jpgFlower’s Keg — not the first keg beer, but the first to use the word in this way, in 1955. It then became (to their annoyance) a generic term.Cask Beer, 1968.*The British Government’s inquiry into monopolies in the beer industry*at the end of the 1960s required the firming up of some previously vague terminology. “We use the description ‘draught’ beer to include any beer which is supplied to the retailer in bulk containers and drawn to order in the pub for each customer”, the final report said (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228698/0216.pdf). “Although the word ‘draught’ is sometimes used to distinguish*traditional draught*from keg beer, for the purposes of this report we call the former*‘cask’ beer.”
Bière Artisanale, French, c.1970.*We’re a bit shaky on this one because it’s harder to access sources, and we understand them less well even when we can dig them up, but there are definitely instances of this exact phrase in print from around 1970 onward. (And see*Craft-brewing, below.)*Artisanale and direct translations in other languages are*used widely on the Continent in a way that*roughly corresponds to the late 20th century sense of*craft beer in English, i.e. distinctive, special, interesting, and probably from smaller independent producers.*The union of Belgian Lambic producers, HORAL (https://www.horal.be/en/welcome), for example, founded in 1997, is*De*Hoge Raad voor Ambachtelijke Lambiekbieren, and translates its name in English as the High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/trad_real_ales.jpg
Real Ale, 1973.*In 1971, the founders of the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale (CAMRA) chose the word ‘ale’ rather than beer because it seemed more down-to-earth than ‘beer’. Then at the 1973 CAMRA annual general a decision was made to change the organisation’s name so it would be easier to say (especially after a few drinks) and activist Peter Lynlie suggested the Campaign for Real Ale, to permit the retention of the existing acronym. And so*Real Ale, almost by accident, became a synonym for*Cask Beer.
Craft-brewing, 1977.*Used by British writer Michael Jackson in his*World Guide to Beer*to refer to rare examples of non-industrial “speciality brews” in France, along with*craft-brewers in the section on the American brewing industry during prohibition. It was probably a direct translation of bière artisanale.
Bottle-conditioned Beer, 1984.*In 1980, CAMRA was describing bottled Guinness as*naturally conditioned. By 1983 it was*conditioned in the bottle. Then in the 1984*Good Beer Guide*it was finally described using the phrase we know today.
Craft Beer, 1986. There are almost certainly earlier uses of this exact phrase but 1986 is when it started to appear in print in US publications such as this newspaper article (http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-11-21/business/8603110766_1_beer-and-ale-craft-beers-brewing-studies) and Vince Cottone’s*Good Beer Guide: Brewers and Pubs of the Pacific Northwest. The earliest instance in a British publication we’ve been able to find is from CAMRA’s*What’s Brewing for August 1993, in an article by an American writer, but Roger Protz and other soon took it up. Initially used as a deliberately vague catch-all to distinguish supposedly interesting/distinctive/independent beers (including, but not exclusively referring to,*Real Ale) from loathed bland/industrial/macro products.
Boutique Beer, 1988.*Used by Michael Jackson in the 1988 edition of his*World Guide to Beer (https://boakandbailey.com/2013/07/when-boutique-was-the-beer-buzzword/) and occasionally up until the present day. In Jackson’s usage exactly synonymous with*Craft Beer, above.
Designer Beer, 1991 (https://boakandbailey.com/2012/11/designer-beer-session-beer-and-chimay/). Overlapping with*Craft Beer but with more focus on style and branding than the beer itself. Sapporo, in its weird pint-glass-shaped can, was considered designer, but doesn’t seem to have qualified as craft.
Craft Keg, 2010.*This is a hard one to pin down but this 2012 article by Adrian Tierney-Jones for*All About Beer (http://allaboutbeer.com/craft-keg-in-the-united-kingdom/)*places a marker point for the term having truly arrived. Before this, from around 2010, most people were carefully referring to “craft keg beer” — that is, Keg Beer, that was also Craft Beer, but looking at old Tweets (https://twitter.com/HardKnottDave/status/2068106809704448) you’ll see people like Dave ‘Hardknott’ Bailey using it quite freely. There wasn’t really an urgent need for a way to distinguish good keg from bad (yes, we know — just a shortcut) until the 1990s*because until then all keg was bad (http://allaboutbeer.com/the-campaign-for-unreal-ale-an-oral-history/); and that need didn’t become urgent until after BrewDog began to make waves.
A Glossary of Terms (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/04/a-glossary-of-terms/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/04/a-glossary-of-terms/)
Amongst all the chat about the Campaign for Real Ale’s AGM at the weekend we noticed a few old questions resurfacing: why, exactly, does CAMRA campaign for Real Ale and not Cask Ale? And, of course, “Why is everyone using that bloody awful, meaningless word ‘craft’?”With that in mind, this isn’t an attempt to justify or promote any one term over another but rather a chronological list of terms and that we’ve noticed in circulation, how they have been and continue to be used, and (to the best of our reckoning) where they came from.
If there is a point we’re trying to make it’s probably that most of these terms are newer than they seem, and that their meanings are less fixed in law or tradition than you might assume.
If there are terms you think ought to be added, let us know in the comments below.
And if you want more detailed accounts of some of this click the links throughout which will take you to old posts of ours, and get hold of a copy of our 2014 book*Brew Britannia (https://boakandbailey.com/our-books/book-brew-britannia/) which covers the birth of CAMRA and rise of craft beer in some detail.
* * *Beer from the Wood, 1880s.*A near-synonym for cask ale, probably derived from ‘Wines from the Wood’ (1850s) which distinguished wine dispensed on tap from bulk wooden casks from the bottled product. The Society for the Preservation of Beer From the Wood (SPBW) was founded in 1963 and were probably drawn to the phrase because of it’s stout yeoman of the bar archaic quality. It was used freely in the 1960s, e.g. in Batsford guides (https://boakandbailey.com/2015/10/east-anglian-pubs-1965/), often but not always referring to what we now call cask ale, even though by this time most casks were not actually made of wood. These days, it refers specifically to cask-conditioned beer served from wooden casks — a growing trend.
Keg Beer, 1955. Keg beer as we know it — stored and served from pressurised containers — was pioneered by Watney’s in the 1930s but this particular phrase was first used by Flowers in the mid-1950s. The terminology was muddled for most of the decade that followed with kegs sometimes called casks (https://boakandbailey.com/2013/08/fordham-flower-keg-vs-cask/) and so on. Which leads us to…
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/flowers_keg_1950s.jpgFlower’s Keg — not the first keg beer, but the first to use the word in this way, in 1955. It then became (to their annoyance) a generic term.Cask Beer, 1968.*The British Government’s inquiry into monopolies in the beer industry*at the end of the 1960s required the firming up of some previously vague terminology. “We use the description ‘draught’ beer to include any beer which is supplied to the retailer in bulk containers and drawn to order in the pub for each customer”, the final report said (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228698/0216.pdf). “Although the word ‘draught’ is sometimes used to distinguish*traditional draught*from keg beer, for the purposes of this report we call the former*‘cask’ beer.”
Bière Artisanale, French, c.1970.*We’re a bit shaky on this one because it’s harder to access sources, and we understand them less well even when we can dig them up, but there are definitely instances of this exact phrase in print from around 1970 onward. (And see*Craft-brewing, below.)*Artisanale and direct translations in other languages are*used widely on the Continent in a way that*roughly corresponds to the late 20th century sense of*craft beer in English, i.e. distinctive, special, interesting, and probably from smaller independent producers.*The union of Belgian Lambic producers, HORAL (https://www.horal.be/en/welcome), for example, founded in 1997, is*De*Hoge Raad voor Ambachtelijke Lambiekbieren, and translates its name in English as the High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/trad_real_ales.jpg
Real Ale, 1973.*In 1971, the founders of the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale (CAMRA) chose the word ‘ale’ rather than beer because it seemed more down-to-earth than ‘beer’. Then at the 1973 CAMRA annual general a decision was made to change the organisation’s name so it would be easier to say (especially after a few drinks) and activist Peter Lynlie suggested the Campaign for Real Ale, to permit the retention of the existing acronym. And so*Real Ale, almost by accident, became a synonym for*Cask Beer.
Craft-brewing, 1977.*Used by British writer Michael Jackson in his*World Guide to Beer*to refer to rare examples of non-industrial “speciality brews” in France, along with*craft-brewers in the section on the American brewing industry during prohibition. It was probably a direct translation of bière artisanale.
Bottle-conditioned Beer, 1984.*In 1980, CAMRA was describing bottled Guinness as*naturally conditioned. By 1983 it was*conditioned in the bottle. Then in the 1984*Good Beer Guide*it was finally described using the phrase we know today.
Craft Beer, 1986. There are almost certainly earlier uses of this exact phrase but 1986 is when it started to appear in print in US publications such as this newspaper article (http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-11-21/business/8603110766_1_beer-and-ale-craft-beers-brewing-studies) and Vince Cottone’s*Good Beer Guide: Brewers and Pubs of the Pacific Northwest. The earliest instance in a British publication we’ve been able to find is from CAMRA’s*What’s Brewing for August 1993, in an article by an American writer, but Roger Protz and other soon took it up. Initially used as a deliberately vague catch-all to distinguish supposedly interesting/distinctive/independent beers (including, but not exclusively referring to,*Real Ale) from loathed bland/industrial/macro products.
Boutique Beer, 1988.*Used by Michael Jackson in the 1988 edition of his*World Guide to Beer (https://boakandbailey.com/2013/07/when-boutique-was-the-beer-buzzword/) and occasionally up until the present day. In Jackson’s usage exactly synonymous with*Craft Beer, above.
Designer Beer, 1991 (https://boakandbailey.com/2012/11/designer-beer-session-beer-and-chimay/). Overlapping with*Craft Beer but with more focus on style and branding than the beer itself. Sapporo, in its weird pint-glass-shaped can, was considered designer, but doesn’t seem to have qualified as craft.
Craft Keg, 2010.*This is a hard one to pin down but this 2012 article by Adrian Tierney-Jones for*All About Beer (http://allaboutbeer.com/craft-keg-in-the-united-kingdom/)*places a marker point for the term having truly arrived. Before this, from around 2010, most people were carefully referring to “craft keg beer” — that is, Keg Beer, that was also Craft Beer, but looking at old Tweets (https://twitter.com/HardKnottDave/status/2068106809704448) you’ll see people like Dave ‘Hardknott’ Bailey using it quite freely. There wasn’t really an urgent need for a way to distinguish good keg from bad (yes, we know — just a shortcut) until the 1990s*because until then all keg was bad (http://allaboutbeer.com/the-campaign-for-unreal-ale-an-oral-history/); and that need didn’t become urgent until after BrewDog began to make waves.
A Glossary of Terms (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/04/a-glossary-of-terms/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/04/a-glossary-of-terms/)