craft beer

[malumbu]

OK so I don't know what craft beer is. And I have discussed this and read up on the subject.

If I go to Belgium I can have wonderful Trappist beer, K?lsch in Cologne, Weisse beer in Munchen, blonde beer in the Alsace. And Czech Pilsner. All very enjoyable. And I love my English ales too. Not all of them, but many of them. English brewers helped set-up many of the continental breweries, so it is not a simple bottom-up, bottom down, fermenation divide.

What I have detested for 30 years is the derrivative mass market rubbish that the majority of us drink. But hey that is what capitalism is about. Selling a product. And so onto my original post, if they can persuade the masses that there is a high quality product/brand, which they can charge more for, so much the better for the share holders.

So back to craft ale. I think people are referring to a strong American style IPA that is sold by the bottle or as a fizzy keg. Certainly not what I define as ale, but probably OK on the odd occasion. I was drinking Meantime donkey's years ago before 'craft ale' was invented. And some of the small regional brewers may say 'yep I'll have produce some of that product and have a share in the profits'.

But from the discussion you are also using craft ale to describe the real live cask ale that some of the small brewers produce. And certainly if it comes out of the barrel it will be as such.

Well at no one isn't championing pear raspberry Swedish zyder.

PS Sainsbury's are doing reduced bottled beer at the moment including the lovely St Peters.

[El Pibe]

Yuo're right, I think their is a conflation with craft ale (which was the movement started in the US in the 70s) and real ale (or at leaast micro breweries of any ilk), but that's in part due to the influence of the experimental approach to many of the traditional brewers (see analogy above).

Even St Peter's (lovely stuff) who go to great pains to dissosciate themselves from craftiness, admit they like to mess about with smoked hops, whiskey and sucjlike from time to time.

"What I have detested for 30 years is the derrivative mass market rubbish that the majority of us drink. But hey that is what capitalism is about." The McDonalds effect or Sturgeon's Law!!!

[????]

Proper (real) Ale is a live product - craft ale is not by and large. I like them on average but on average they don't have the complexity of a proper ale and so to my oh so sophisticated palate are ultimately not as good, though they largely crap on most shitty lagers

[Jah Lush]

What Quids said. By and large I agree with that word for word.

[Jeremy]

So you've moved from "Keg is shit" to "I like them on average but ... they don't have the complexity of a proper ale"!

[Jah Lush]

I didn't say that. And keg is shit. I stand by that.

[El Pibe]

http://www.thelondonmagazine.co.uk/people-places/london-life/londons-microbreweries.html

I might add kernel do some fine drops!!

[DaveR]

So I thought I'd seriously explore the real ale/craft beer situation by going back to the Rake last Friday, and, as it turned out, drinking far too much. It was all great. Hopstar Lancashire, Brooklyn IPA, some Belgian stuff, and chili plum porter. And various others, and some pork pies. And loads of blokes with beards (ironic and non-ironic) getting on famously, and even some women who didn't look as if they were desperate to escape. Perfect, although I was a little tired and pensive for much of Saturday.

[Jah Lush]

The Emperor's new booze. Quite an amusing piece on craft beer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10638933/Am-I-the-only-man-in-Britain-who-hates-craft-beer.html

[Jeremy]

Completely ill informed article... I guarantee you that the beers he's talking about are real ales.

[Jah Lush]

That might be so but you can't possibly know that.

[El Pibe]

Plus you can't move for the omnipresent doom bar these days, I reckon he was just making it up.

[Jeremy]

"Many of these new ales are CAMRA-approved"... therefore he is mainly talking about real ale, surely? He just comes across as a guy who knows what he likes and likes what he knows. Which is fine, until you try to pass it off as journalism...

[Jah Lush]

I'm quite the guy who wrote it really doesn't know what he's talking about. No one has gone into a bar in 30+ years and ordered "a pint of best."

I found it quite amusing nonetheless.

[numbers]

What is 'barley wine style' beer and why is it suddenly a 'thing'? Anyone?

I bought one by Hardknott but haven't tried it yet. Ashamed to say it was the packaging that lured me in.

[????]

Old barley wine was very strong and pretty rank

[numbers]

ah I have just noticed that this beer is 14.4% ABV (4.8 UK units in a 330ml bottle).

it will probably be very strong and pretty rank (as you say). Last time I fall for packaging, it was quite pricey too.

[maxxi]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Old barley wine was very strong and pretty rank

Not if you drank it with blackcurrant (I was in my teens) - it just erased parts of your evening and gave you a vomitous hangover that put you off ribena for life.

[Jeremy]

I think "Barley Wine" is like "IPA", in that the modern "craft beer" versions don't really resemble the original drink at all.

[copleston_charlie]

Anyone been to the Brick Brewery in Peckham yet? Open on Friday and nights and Saturday from lunchtime. They're own bottled beers, and usually a decent selection of house and guest beers on tap. Had a wonderful porter on last Friday. Right under Peckham Rye station, worth a visit. It's a small local brewer, not sure if this qualifies under the catch-all title of 'craft' though.

[Jeremy]

copleston_charlie Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> not sure if this qualifies under the catch-all title of 'craft' though.

It's as good a description as anyway, some of their beers are clearly influenced by that whole scene.

The brewery itself was more of a "destination" back in the summer though - sun shining, pop-up food in the front yard, etc. Not sure I fancy it so much in the winter.

[copleston_charlie]

They've moved some of the benches inside now. Quite a pleasant vibe sitting round inside next to fermenting beer, drinking beer. Agreed, you wouldn't want to spend all evening in there, but it's nice enough for a drink or two of something new I reckon.

[Jah Lush]

This is great news for beer enthusiasts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30105445

[El Pibe]

too late for hundreds, even thousands of pubs, but really great news.

A nice slap down of the power of cash rich lobbying too.

[Jeremy]

Great news... hopefully will lead to less closures, and better range of beer in pubs!