What is it in beer that makes it craft? I hear this question often whenever I talk beers with friends or even consumers I meet at bars. Sometimes for the layman, craft and draught beer are even seen as the same.
Unlike whiskeys and malts where brands have done a lot of work on building the category and driving differentiation, beers by and large in India have talked lifestyle as opposed to product. Nothing wrong in it; just doesn’t apply to craft.
Chocolates, gin, tea, leather goods are all categories where craft is seen as a positive; and worth paying a higher value for. Why do discerning consumers travel to Milan and pay a massive premium for hand crafted leather shoes when they can hop across to a mall and buy any popular brand? Why is a hand-made leather trunk by Louis Vuitton so sought after or a doctor’s bag from Nappa Dori; both objects which you will rarely use! The obvious answer is the brand name. But that brand name has been built on the back of quality. Raw materials. Process. Traditional techniques. The same applies to craft beer.
The best raw material. Which means premium malt, grain, hops, yeast & any other natural ingredients such as berries, fruit, peels, pods go into the making of the beer. No artificial sweeteners, additives or syrups. Craft beers are authentic.
Craft beers spend more time in the vats. They are allowed to mature more, which gives them more body and aroma. It makes them smoother and more drinkable. Water is important, hence the purest cleanest sources. Not the local tanker for them. And then the quantity. Less is more. No massive commercial steel tanks making millions of barrels of beer. Smaller batch sizes, more consistency and greater quality.
Craft beers have multiple styles. Their brewers are experimental. Willing to try bold new things. Coffee, oysters, guava. Why not? Brew it in single malt casks. Sure. 12% alcohol content. Of course. Bitterness more than your grandmother’s secret cough mixture. Oh yeah!
And then there are the names. Fat Bastard. Bone Shaker. Santa’s Butt. Bootlegger. Naked Pig. Moonlight Death and Taxes. Of course, they are the slightly less crazy ones. Just add Brewing Company after any name and the chances are it’s a craft beer.
Finally, what makes them so differentiated from mass market commercial beers besides the fact that they are far more flavourful, aromatic, hoppy & tastier? It’s the people. Passionate, experimental, risk takers and dreamers. Not corporatised corner office driven drones willing to cut corners on quality and output to save a few rupees. Craft brewers LOVE their beer and they LOVE their customers. No short-cuts for them. Just a drive to make the best tasting brews, whatever it takes.
So next time you want to get a beer don’t reach for the largest distributed mass market 3.5 alcohol % watered down “macro brew” and grab a craft beer. Because that my friend, is truly good beer. #drinkcraftnotcrap
Cheers!
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