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When does it stop being craft?

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  • #16
    From Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing

    paraphrasing....'when a homebrewer (current or former) makes the ultimate decision of what the beer will taste like it's craft beer'

    I think he is drawing a line in that the second the bean counters make a decision regarding recipe formulation or process such as to only carry 5 specialty malts and cut your hop budget and say you must choose 1 house yeast strain etc, it's no longer craft. In this respect the size of a brewery has nothing to do with it.
    Eric O'Connor

    Co-founder/Brewmaster
    Thorn Street Brewery
    North Park, San Diego, CA

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    • #17
      Originally posted by eoconnor101 View Post
      I think he is drawing a line in that the second the bean counters make a decision regarding recipe formulation or process such as to only carry 5 specialty malts and cut your hop budget and say you must choose 1 house yeast strain etc, it's no longer craft. In this respect the size of a brewery has nothing to do with it.
      As a bean counter, I take offense to that notion. No brewer in the world completely ignores cost, at any scale. Home- and Pro-brewers pick NA pils over the finest floor-malted Bohemian pils all the time, or over domestic micro-malted pils, because it's cheaper and almost as good in most situations. Does that mean it's not craft anymore? Does craft require you to run your business into the ground? I don't think so. . .

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      • #18
        "Purity tests" ultimately lead to a circular firing squad.

        I don't know what's going to pop the craft bubble first: American consumers' tendency to move on to the "next big thing," raw material shortages for so many breweries, or the industry destroying itself like an auto-immune disease.
        Kevin Shertz
        Chester River Brewing Company
        Chestertown, MD

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        • #19
          Originally posted by ChesterBrew View Post
          ...I don't know what's going to pop the craft bubble first: American consumers' tendency to move on to the "next big thing," raw material shortages for so many breweries, or the industry destroying itself like an auto-immune disease.
          The industry may not destroy itself, but it is definitely starting to get comically 'self important'.
          Just make good beer. In the big picture, that's really the only category or descriptive that's important.

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          • #20
            Originally posted by LuskusDelph View Post
            The industry may not destroy itself, but it is definitely starting to get comically 'self important'.
            Yes, that's a more precise description of what I was intending to say. I worked at a software company during the dot-com days; now seeing many, many parallels to that point in time.


            Originally posted by LuskusDelph View Post
            Just make good beer. In the big picture, that's really the only category or descriptive that's important.
            Agree... Make good beer and be able to get it to market, whether it be through distribution or your own tap room.
            Kevin Shertz
            Chester River Brewing Company
            Chestertown, MD

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            • #21
              Will you die for it?

              To me the biggest difference between large industrial brewers and myself isn't so much the scale as it is the personalization. I make the beer I sell, for its own sake. It's not a "product" or a "line" or a "brand". It's me. I am actually willing to die keeping my business and beer alive. Somehow I doubt that a marketing/executive suit in an office far removed from the "production facility" has the same investment. To them it's just another corporate job. They can move on to another "brand" without a second thought. This is what differentiates craft from industrial and why craft will triumph.

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              • #22
                And another thing: Art

                Is the beer brewed because it conforms to some perception of median consumer taste as garnered from a series of focus groups and taste panels, or is it brewed because the brewer had a vision of flavor and identity and then composed the beer from a palette of ingredients regardless of his perception of how popular the result might be?

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                • #23
                  You're drawing artificial distinctions, false dichotomies.

                  Craft Beer is a Product.

                  It is also an art, also a science, also what we do and therefore part of who we are. Just like anybody making a good product, be it a car, a dinner, a website, or anything. But if you can't sell it, very soon you won't be brewing it anywhere but in your basement. We all have a vision of what we want to brew. The successful among us will brew things that other people actually want to drink.

                  It's all fine and good to say "Man, the customers just don't get it." But to quote Purple Rain:
                  The Kid: That's life, man.

                  Billy: Life, my ass, motherf____r! This is a business, and you too far gone to see that yet! I told you before, you're not packin' them in like you used to. No one digs your music but yourself.

                  It's the balance between idealism and practicality. As an owner you are the the boots in the brewhouse and also the suit in the office. You have to make the tough decisions. Sometimes you have to face the fact, disappointing as it may be, that you're the only person that digs your music. But sometimes you stick with it and other people will start humming along. You will have to kill a favorite beer off, and you will have to promote beers you are less than happy with. And to find that out you look hard at your sales, your costs, your staff and customer's feedback, and so on, and your vision morphs to become one that more and more people can see. It's an iterative process, not a uni-directional statement of "This my Craft Beer. You will buy it and you will like it. I have a Vision."

                  Comical self-righteousness doesn't get anyone a new fermenter or more kegs. (Ok, well maybe Stone...) Quality product, good sales, and sound management does. At the end of the day we're just adding flowers to boiling sugar water. Those who understand that will continue the privilege of being able to do so. And yes, that's kinda depressing. But personally, I find it to be freeing.

                  Now, it's time to go make some kickass flowery sugar-water.
                  Russell Everett
                  Co-Founder / Head Brewer
                  Bainbridge Island Brewing
                  Bainbridge Island, WA

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Bainbridge View Post
                    The successful among us will brew things that other people actually want to drink.

                    It's the balance between idealism and practicality. As an owner you are the the boots in the brewhouse and also the suit in the office. You have to make the tough decisions. Sometimes you have to face the fact, disappointing as it may be, that you're the only person that digs your music.
                    Very well said Russell.

                    Brewers make liquid bread. If a baker only made bread that people enjoyed a mere half a slice of a few times a year, do you think he/she would be in business for long? Perhaps if they shipped their unique bread halfway around the world to go stale on shelves? Ha!

                    Pax.

                    Liam
                    Liam McKenna
                    www.yellowbellybrewery.com

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                    • #25
                      i think unfortunately we have this built in response in our minds that if a small/craft brewery becomes popular grows and makes money then we start to say they are not one of us any more.
                      At the end of the day we are all in it to make great beer, make a living and hopefully grow.
                      It is not a crime to make money and be successful

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