TOPIC:

Forgive me if this has been posted already.

What is craft beer?

There is a train of thought that the term is misleading and that beer should be graded good or bad. What in your opinion is craft, what breweries are craft and why.

With regards to Irish beer, it's beer which is made in small batches by independent Irish-owned breweries.

In other countries things aren't so clear-cut.

While taste is personal and perceptive, quality isn't. If a brewery brews bad quality beer to the criteria listed is it still craft beer? Is Smithwicks PA craft? I know it's brewed by a macro but surely the quality of the brew as opposed to the taste is top notch? It is also brewed in small batches.

The word craft is not a legal defined word and can mean what you want it to mean. However most people when asked what they believe it to mean,they would suggest it to mean something produced in small batches and with alot of personnel input.

"CDow":zzmxla78 wrote: While taste is personal and perceptive, quality isn't.[/quote:zzmxla78]

I'm not sure why you think the quality of a beer is objective. Judgment's of quality are based on various things, but chief among them is perception of the character of a beer. There is no escaping subjectivity here. As TBN outlines above, we are lucky in Ireland that we don't need to rely on subjective criteria to throw the net over craft beers; which is not to say that we couldn't have a discussion about what "craft beer" might mean in a broader context.

When I refer to quality being objective I assume that hygiene in brewing is subject the same / similar rules to that of food production, therefore there must be a minimum standard. Obviously the quality can be affected by quailty of raw ingredient or the time spent lagering which will affect the taste.

I raise the question because I see similar discussions going on in the UK. There however the demarcation line seems to be between cask v keg.