What is Craft Beer

[Al 10000]

I've given up in trying to define what "Craft Beer"actually is but would just say that Doom Bore or Sam Smith's OBB certainly are not and some Adnam's products like Ghost Ship and their USA Wetherspoon's brews are.

I think your definition of a craft beer is a beer that you like,if you dont like a beer like the superb Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Bitter then it is not a craft beer.

[Aqualung]

I think your definition of a craft beer is a beer that you like,if you dont like a beer like the superb Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Bitter then it is not a craft beer.

Maybe they are trying to give it "craft" credentials by only selling it on keg in several of their London outlets.

[Mobyduck]

Maybe they are trying to give it "craft" credentials by only selling it on keg in several of their London outlets.

Its crap whatever they call it or however they serve it.

[sheffield hatter]

Its crap whatever they call it or however they serve it.

Sam Smiths is a brewery well known for the quality of its ingredients and the integrity of its brewing processes, so I assume when you say "it's crap" you mean simply that you don't like it?

[Aqualung]

Sam Smiths is a brewery well known for the quality of its ingredients and the integrity of its brewing processes, so I assume when you say "it's crap" you mean simply that you don't like it?

I thought this brewery was notorious for being very secretive about what they do. Therefore, how could anyone know what their ingredients are let alone the quality of them?

[london calling]

Its crap whatever they call it or however they serve it.

I will second that motion.

[Mobyduck]

I will second that motion.

Motion could be the operative word.

[Aqualung]

I will second that motion.

I'm detecting a North / South divide here!!

[london calling]

Presumably this refers to high gravity brewing where the finished beer is diluted, so that for example a beer is brewed at an OG of 1080 and the finished beer is watered down to the equivalent strength of one brewed at 1040. Courage used to do this at the Bristol brewery in the 1980s where some of a high gravity brew was diluted to make Directors and the rest diluted a bit more to make Best Bitter, they also did it earlier in London where Imperial Russian Stout was watered to make Velvet Stout. I don't know who does it these days but Brewdog must suspect its use somewhere.

As I think Tandleman pointed out, how does this work with freeze distillation as used by........ err Brewdog.

Fullers still use this system .Its called part-gyle.They only brew one beer which is drawn off at different times and different abv,s then they mix them to produce Golden Pride-Esb-Pride and Chiswick bitter. They think it gives better consistency than brewing 4 separate beers.The seasonals are usually separate beers.So not craft according to Brewdog.

[sheffield hatter]

I've given up in trying to define what "Craft Beer"actually is but would just say that Doom Bore or Sam Smith's OBB certainly are not and some Adnam's products like Ghost Ship and their USA Wetherspoon's brews are.

I think your definition of a craft beer is a beer that you like,if you dont like a beer like the superb Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Bitter then it is not a craft beer.

I'm detecting a North / South divide here!!

I don't think it's a North/South thing. Al 10000 responded to your (I hope tongue in cheek) definition of craft with a mild criticism. I merely joined in because Moby called Sam Smiths "crap", which I don't think is justified. If he wants to call it "not craft", that's fine by me, but since when diid "not craft" = "crap"?

Of course, as with Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, you can use a term to mean just what you choose it to mean — neither more nor less. It's just not very helpful to anyone else, as Al was trying to point out, if it's craft when you like the beer and not craft when you don't. Or did you have a more helpful way of distinguishing the two Adnams beers?

I think the problem over this "what is craft?" thing is that those who brew challenging beers and those that like drinking them are looking down their noses a little at those of us with less advanced taste buds. I don't want to find myself defending Doom Bar as well as Sam Smiths, but there are plenty of people who like drinking non-challenging beers - beer is supposed to be a pleasant and refreshing drink, isn't it? There are some days when I arrive in a pub to find eight or ten hand pumps serving beers I've never heard of from breweries that started up last week, and I'm glad to have the chance of saying, "a pint of Black Sheep Bitter, please."

I thought it had been defined as "any beer that tastes of grapefruit"

Now that's a definition that's hard to argue with.