To think that 'craft' beer is slightly silly, if not downright pretentious ?

[vienna1981]

After all, traditional ales have been brewed in the UK for centuries and it's at least forty years since the Campaign for Real Ale was founded to rescue beer drinkers from the might of the big national brewers. All well and good until about twenty five years ago when small independent breweries began to increase in number. Then some bright spark decided to label these 'micro-breweries'. What ? Aren't these just smaller versions of what's been around for decades ? Why the special name ? However it was far more recently that the term 'craft beer' was coined and it really makes me wince. Somehow referring to one of the oldest alcoholic drinks on the planet as a craft product just doesn't suit. If CAMRA conjures up images of beardy-weirdy sages earnestly discussing the pros and cons of individual brews then 'craft' makes me think of lifestyle fashion slaves eagerly sampling the newest beer from the craft movement.

I can't get my head round it. I love proper British beer, can't stand lager and otherwise applaud the traditional ale scene. But if I was a small scale brewer and my business was labelled as 'craft' I would want the labeller to get over themselves as quickly as possible. I'm hoping it's just a fashionable term that will go away as quickly as it appeared.

I think you are being very silly.

I am very pleased with the rise in small independent breweries, both those making real ale and those making other interesting beers that do not fit the "real ale" specification.

I think that it is useful to have a word for it. This word is no more pretentious than any other.

You've got to have something to drink with your baked by a- person Artisan bread, wearing your secondhand-- Vintage dress

Ooh! That reminds me *Nataleejah^, I must have a rootle in the Polish delis here and the next town across. One of them may have a license. We have a large Polish community here in the boonies, so I could be lucky.

You might find the Badger range has one or two that will do. But you are right, Easter European beer is nice but the real stuff is ever so hard to track down. Which really is a pity, as some of it is really good.

Good luck finding something that will substitute well, if you can't find a good source of the real stuff.

So, do you actually prefer Chorleywood bread, then narp ?

No accounting for taste.

OurBlanche

No offence intended. I live in East London. Cupcake and bunting fatigue has set in

(I don't know what Chorleywood bread is, sorry)

Evidently this is a divisive issue. I didn't realise the term 'craft' might be an Americanism but when I consider the number of c*t (I can't bear to say it ) ales that Wetherspoons have brewed from American recipes, it probably makes sense.

I think it's perfectly possible for a brewer of any scale to go about their business without somebody attempting to pigeonhole them into the latest fashionable category.

BTW I haven't mentioned hipsters at all but it's possible that the c*t beer brigade wouldn't have been seen dead with such a drink just a few years ago and have jumped on the band wagon when it was the time to be seen. But in fairness, a similar fad has occurred around gin and some newer brands of tonic water.

Cupcake and Bunting Fatigue is highly contagious and well known for making sufferers snippy. We moved out of towns to avoid it.

Chorleywood bread is normal bread. The sliced fluffy stuff and most of the loaves in most shops and supermarkets. We are lucky enough to have an Artisan baker near here. They make real sourdough and slow loaves, dark heavy crusted bread that lasts for ages, makes great toast up to 2 weeks later. Sadly the baker in our little town aspires to be the next Greggs

When you label something as a fad, is it because you don't believe that somebody could genuinely like it?

OurBlanche

Well yes, I do like bread baked by bakers in a little shop, but I don't like queueing for it for 20 minutes with people who are attempting a Guiness Book of Records attempt for the most Micro-scooters in a shop.

I'm still snippy

My DH makes the bread in our house, luckily

I like drinking random ales produced in the back of someone's garden.

I don't care what it's labelled.

Nataleejah

Arn't both of those owned by carlsberg?

You seem to be confused in your use of terms op. Camra wasn't set up to break up the monopolies of large scale breweries. It was to preserve and champion traditional cask beer -which it describes as real - regardless of who brewed them. Thus Sharp's Doom Bar which is brewed in vast quantities by the multinational Molson Coors is considered a 'real ale' as is the mass market Greene King IPA which tastes of nothing but pissy vinegar by virtue of the fact they are cask conditioned.

Trills. Folk seem to like craft beer; it's become a niche in the brewing industry whatever I think about it. I don't have any difficulty with the product, it's the term 'craft' that bemused me. I wouldn't mind betting it's a convenient way of adding a few pence or the odd quid to the price tag.

I have a few books about British beer. One of them states that beer brewing requires just as much skill as making quality wine. I wouldn't argue with that at all but supposing there was a 'craft wine' movement ? The stuff would probably be nothing special and ludicrously expensive.

Agreed Compos. CAMRA was/is a consumer movement. I perhaps didn't phrase myself that we'll.

I remember when Doom Bar first appeared in my local, just a few years ago. It was very pleasant but I quickly went off it. The last time I had Green King IPA it had a revolting, cloying, oily taste. Yuck.

YABU

Until recently lager and heavy were the only options in Scottish pubs.

CAMRA and the growth in craft beers and micro breweries have greatly improved life.

Doom Bar is OK but I prefer Tribute, of the bigger Cornish ales.

So you accept that the category exists, but you just don't like the word?

Your analogy with a "craft wine movement" doesn't make sense.

There HAS BEEN a huge increase in beer made by small manufacturers, and it IS different to mass-produced beer. (and many people would agree that it's better, though that's really down to a matter of taste)

It's not that someone came up with the phrase and then invented a product to fit it.

DH is currently drinking a bottle of something I would term a craft beer... its from Chorlton Brewing Co and is called Woodruff Berliner...

It is an unfiltered, unpasteurised, unfined sour wheat ale....

One thing I have noticed with the rise of the brewing industry is the tendency to produce 'yellow' beers, that is, pale or blonde in colour and/or name. They're not to my taste and it irks me somewhat when my two locals are selling only beers like this, alongside the likes of Tetley Bitter and John Smiths. I guess they're popular with a significant number of folk. Ilkley Gold is one of the better ones.

Standing by for the craft wine crusade to begin....

I love craft beers and I am not even vaguely hip!

It is an Americanisation. Real ale has been called craft beer over there for a long time. I hate the americanisation of our language.

I like proper beer and brewing is a craft isn't it, like baking or weaving or coopering or whatever. We have had a few small independent breweries, microbreweries I suppose, here in our grim northern town for donkey's years. We have had beer festivals for at least 20 years that I know of. We are also very much a hipster free zone; just normal people who like good beer.

Personally I like the light, hoppy IPA type stuff, DH is more your malted, caramelly dark beer drinker. Nice that we get to choose though.