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 RateBeer Weekly Magazine > Craft Beer IntroductionWhat Is Craft Beer?
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO CRAFT BREWING FOR BEGINNERS
April 15, 2004
 eer is a food product made in its purest form from yeast, barley,
hops and water. And as with other foods, the processes for
producing beer significantly affect the quality of the final product. Just as
you can get a ground up steak as a hamburger from McDonald’s (akin to a macrobrew),
you can also have it prepared in a fine restaurant by a master chef (this is
craft beer).
Masters At Work Craft beer is primarily characterized by a brewer’s attention to recipes and ingredients that maximize the flavor, appearance and aroma of your beer. The craft brewer almost always personally oversees the selection of ingredients and the entire brewing process and constantly monitors flavor and quality. And unlike mass market beers, craft beer isn’t “contract brewed” in multiple facilities. The brewer is the one who both writes and follows the recipe. This isn't just a quality measure -- it also ensures that you, the consumer, end up with a beer that's more like a signed print in the art world and not just a poster.
Craft beer at its finest is a highly creative endeavor that involves great training and skill. Craft brewers range from talented former home brewers to many who’ve have had training at internationally recognized brewing institutes and/or have apprenticed at world class breweries. Their creativity and skill can be evidenced in the range of styles and ingredients they employ. The mass produced industrial beer products are typically all light lagers, while a craft brewer might specialize in a single uncommon style like the Belgian brewery, Fantome, does with the saison, or produce many different styles at a world class level as does Victory Brewing from Downingtown, Pennsylvania. A craft brewer also has a broad range of high quality ingredients available to him or her and typically avoids fillers, thickeners and artificial flavorings. A craft brewer might use coriander, grains of paradise, honey, lavender, blueberries, orange peel, ginger, wood smoked malts or bourbon barrel aging to impart a broad variety of aromas and flavors. Imagination is a significant ingredient in craft brewing. Appreciating Craft Beer The marketing and sales of craft beers are often very different than the slick TV ads and ubiquitous presence of your typical macro. Craft beers are rarely marketed with anything more than local advertising campaigns. The beers, not always with the grandest labels, speak for themselves. Craft beer while sometimes available in 12 oz bottles, is often packaged in 22 ounce bottles called “bombers” or in champagne-cork finished “magnums” or “double magnums”. Most shy away from twelve packs and 24-unit cases. After all, it’s about quality not quantity. In order to appreciate craft beer, one should use appropriate glassware so that the appearance, aromas and flavors can be appreciated. A brandy snifter or other bowl shaped glass is often used for tasting. The cupped area above the liquid or foam layer in the glass contains the beer’s aroma. I personally don’t care for the American pint glass. It’s open angled top coupled with most servers’ tendency to fill to the rim usually means you can’t appreciate any aroma until you’re well into your beer. Craft Beer Doesn’t Spell Doom For Budweiser Will craft beer ever replace mass produced beers? Of course not! Julia Child was known to eat fast food on occasion and there are some craft beer enthusiasts that aren’t any different. Some enjoy a cheap lager while they’re out cutting the lawn or keep one around for cooking. Mass market beers and craft beers are not the same thing and people enjoy them differently. It’s like comparing a Twinkie to Alice Water’s Comice Pear Crisp. They have two different markets and two different purposes. The existence of fine dining opportunities where one can have an amazing food experience (at a premium price) does not threaten the existence of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Craft beer makers deliver full-flavored beers often packaged as single containers and never in 24-packs. These are full strength beers that are deeply satisfying, so you don't need to reach for another anyway. The most lauded craft beers are not "session beers", or beers meant to be drunk one after the other. Furthermore, with some six-packs costing over $40, the price of craft beer also encourages moderation. Final Questions Are all craft beers good beers? Of course not. But there are many master craft brewers around the world that make few mistakes. We encourage you to find the best craft beers in your area Are mass produced beers all bad tasting? Not at all! Mass produced does not always mean bad tasting. In fact, the largest brewers are unsurpassed in their ability to deliver a consistent product around the clock, around the world. Let's put it his way, macros wouldn't be dominating the beer world if they were all bad. What's a microbrewery or brewpub? Is this craft beer? We define craft beer by the intention and skill of the brewer. A microbrewery is defined by the limited number of barrels it produces per year. A brewpub is a pub or restaurant that brews their beer on premise. These small breweries may or may not make craft beer -- that is, they are not necessarily run by skilled brewers looking to make beers of distinction.
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Will craft beer ever replace mass produced beers? Of course not!
