The Truth About “Craft”

We are becoming inundated with bars, restaurants and distributors pushing their craft drinks on us. Telling us that a craft beer is better. Craft spirits are better. Are they right? Are craft drinks better?

The answer is a resounding sometimes. In most cases, the word “craft” is being used as a marketing ploy to indicate quality. So, yes, you are being duped into believing that a “craft beer”, for example, is better. In reality, that is not always the case.

By using phrases like “hand-crafted”, “small batch”, “micro-brew”, “micro-distillery” and “local” the marketers in this sector feed our desire for exclusivity. “Craft” has fallen into the same category as these descriptors.

What does it really mean?

In regards to beer, the American Brewers Association defines a craft brewery for the purpose of supporting data on the growing industry. The restrictions, which are not enforced should you use the phrase, pertain to production, ownership and recipes. They use the business parameters and the title of a “craft brewery” for data only. There is no law that says Bud Light cannot call itself a craft beer.

Goose Island Beer Company, which is a self proclaimed craft brewery out of Chicago, is in cahoots with Anheuser-Busch. How much involvement the beer giant has is a mystery, but some stats indicate they are very much in the mix. In fact, Goose Island states on their website that they can produce 500 cases and 50 kegs of beer per hour in their 143,000-square-foot brewery. Is that what a craft brewery looks like? Is that the volume we consider when we want quality? For most us, the answer is “no”.

Granted their beer is good, but should it be considered a craft brewery?

Craft spirits are even more mysterious. Buffalo Trace, a long-time producer of Kentucky bourbon, produces over 30 labels from the same distillery. In addition to their mass produced, cost efficient label, they also distill the most sought after bottle on the planet, Pappy Van Winkle. The middle section of these two extremes have labels like Blanton’s Small Batch Bourbon, Eagle Rare and, yes, the well brand Benchmark. All of these are made at the same facility under different labels and marketing plans. Yet, some are considered craft spirits.

By definition, “craft” is identified as something made by using your hands. Other sources cite it as something made carefully in small-scale production. Based on the products we label with the word, it does not mean anything. It is an adjective that is used to make the people at the bar feel good about what we are drinking. It means the bar can charge another buck a bottle. It is, in no way, reflective of the quality of the liquid in the bottle.

I can feel the beer enthusiasts blood pressure rising, so allow me to hit the other side of the coin for a minute.

The average American lives within ten miles of a brewery these days. That means it is a great time to be a beer drinker. State and federal laws seem to favor this type of business. So there are a lot of breweries in our country that live up to our vision of a craft brewery. They are small, make great beer and work hard to do so.

The problem arose when these type of beers became overly popular and the big players in the beer game jumped on board with the current trend. Then, it became a contest of who has the deepest pockets.

When you have a producer or distributor, such as Anheuser-Busch, it is difficult to compete for a fair market share. You will not get shelf space. You will not get the push from the bartenders. You will not get the push from the sales force. Unless, all the small players work together. Which is, kind of, what happened.

Instead of pushing the little guys out, the big guys started buying the little guys or controlling their distribution. Hence, Goose Island now has the ability to make more beer than a “craft brewery,” by classification, should be allowed to produce. Yet, they are still advertised as “craft beer.”

Jim Beam makes a popular small-batch bourbon called Knob Creek. The recipe is different than their namesake bourbon, but nothing about Knob Creek is small-batch. They can make hundreds of thousands of cases per year if they are so inclined.

The point is that our perception of a craft beverage is skewed by big business and marketing dollars. It does not mean that these products are bad. It means that we are living in an adjective driven world. One where image trumps reality and cost does not reflect value.

Given that this is a trend much like the huge micro-brew craze of the late 1990’s, I suspect it will die down and we will get back to simply calling it beer and bourbon. Naturally, some will be better than others and we will pay higher prices for those drinks. I hope that we can abandon the adjectives that deceive our motivation to purchase.

We will have to face the truth that a fantastic beard and faux horn-rimmed glasses do not make a person any more interesting. Much like using the word “craft” does not make your beverage any better than the next. Cheers!

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 6:17 AM with the headline "The Truth About “Craft”."