Dictionary - The Beer Thrillers

What is Craft Beer?

BKline — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 23:16:15 +0000

What is craft beer?

What is Craft Beer?

It sounds like an easy answer… but its answer can actually be quite elusive. Ask five different people and you might get five different answers. “Good beer.” “Quality beer.” “Independently owned beer.” “Small brewery beer.” “Good ingredients, hard work, small quantity, good tasting beer.” Are all of these answers right?

Definition… Definition… Definition…

Let’s start with the Brewer’s Association definition of craft beer:

Craft beer is generally made with traditional ingredients like malted barley; interesting and sometimes non-traditional ingredients are often added for distinctiveness. Craft brewers tend to be very involved in their communities through philanthropy, product donations, volunteerism and sponsorship of events.
Brewer’s Association – Definition of Craft Beer and Craft Brewer

Is that all there is to it though? I think we can all agree there’s a bit more depth to the definition of craft beer than this. With this definition breweries like Anheuser-Busch or Coors or Heineken would fall under the purview of ‘craft beer’. (Shudders).

Digging a little deeper, Brewer’s Association gives the following:

Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales). Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to rules of alternating proprietorships. …

Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.
Brewer’s Association – Definition of Craft Beer and Craft Brewer

This helps us narrow it down a bit more. Now we have a quantity amount (no more than six million barrels of beer) and an ownership detail – less than twenty – five percent of the brewery is owned or controlled by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.

These numbers will certainly pop up in different ways for different reasons (the amount produced, ownership, etc.).

Interestingly enough, in my search for deeper meaning and knowledge and truth on the subject (a normal day of soul searching and internet searching for myself), I’ve encountered several articles, one of such was from Dictionary.com itself, entitled “What Does Craft Beer Really Mean?” They give some background information on the term “craft beer”:

Beer is an alcoholic beverage made by brewing and fermentation from malted barley, oats, or other grains, and flavored with hops (or historically in some cases, herbs) for added taste. Generally speaking, a craft is “an art or trade that requires a special, usually manual skill.” The term has evolved into an adjective to describe a food or beverage made with such abilities. It’s an old term, first recorded before the year 900 and stemming from the Old English cræft (“strength, skill”) and related to the German Kraft.

The compounded term craft beer was coined by Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Vince Cottone in the mid-1980s. Around this time, microbreweries were proliferating around the United States, and the success of their products was beginning to challenge large alcohol conglomerates like Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors for refrigerator space in consumer grocery stores.

In 1987, in a guide book to breweries of the Pacific Northwest, Cottone explained his reasoning for selecting the word craft to describe such career zymurgists, writing, “I use the term Craft Brewery to describe a small brewery using traditional methods and ingredients to produce a handcrafted, uncompromised beer that is marketed locally.”

The phrase caught on quickly, popping up in industry trade magazines and at conferences, eventually making its way into the title of the annual Craft Brewers Conference in 1996, a yearly gathering of American artisan brewers. By the end of that decade, the Institute of Brewing Studies— which eventually was absorbed into today’s dominant brewing industry trade group, the Brewers Association—formalized a definition of craft beer.
Dictionary.com – What Does Craft Beer Really Mean?

They go on to list the four criteria that the Brewer’s Association requires for a craft brewer, which are:

have a federal brewer’s notice – a license to brew beer
only sell beer made with less than 10% adjuncts (such as fruit, chocolate, coffee, or other non-traditional beer ingredients)
do not use artificial ingredients
no ownership of 30% or more by a large macro brewery

Now this article was written in 2020 and references that this is a 90’s era criteria. Noticeably, the 30% has been moved to 25% as shown above.

The 10% adjuncts and the ‘no artificial ingredients’ have also become… well… a bit flexible over the years. Ask several breweries how they make their sours and you might find some interesting information that may or may not go against the above criteria.

Wikipedia has a very large an in – depth article on Craft Beer and Craft Breweries on their massive encyclopedic site. Their opening paragraph on the Craft Beer page reads:

Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis on enthusiasm, new flavours, and varied brewing techniques.^[2]^[3]^[4]

The microbrewery movement began in both the United States and United Kingdom in the 1970s,^[5]^[6] although traditional artisanal brewing existed in Europe for centuries and subsequently spread to other countries. As the movement grew, and some breweries expanded their production and distribution, the more encompassing concept of craft brewing emerged. A brewpub is a pub that brews its own beer for sale on the premises.^[7]
Wikipedia – Craft Beer

They have the article broken down into sections on countries / regions, as well as style of breweries, and even go so far as to discuss non – alcoholic beers.

So is it really that simple?

So is the definition really that simple on what makes beer “craft beer” rather than beer? Sort of. Yes. Maybe. Kind of. Yes and no.

Clearly the best source of what qualifies as craft beer and a craft brewery is the Brewer’s Association. That is going to the top of the academia field and asking “etymology” is or “existentialism”. While you will get a relatively concrete definition; there will be some flexibility.

There is also some room for debate, and many still do. You will also notice how the field goal posts get moved over time.

Posted back in April 2022, the most recent “Top 50 Craft Breweries by Volume” from the Brewer’s Association shows the top fifty largest producing craft breweries as of 2021. The top ten are:

D.G. Yuengling and Sons Inc.
Boston Beer Co.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Duvel Moortgat USA
Gambrinus
Bell’s Brewery Inc.
CANarchy
Artisanal Brewing Ventures
Stone Brewing Company
SweetWater Brewing Co

As of 2020 it was reported that Yuengling produces 2.6 million barrels of beer per year (annually). (Also for reference, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company comes in at number 24, and produces around 118,000 barrels a year (as per a Beverage Master article from October 13th, 2022 — Troegs: Not Your Ordinary Brewery.).

What Is Your Definition of Craft Brewing?

A wide variety of craft beers and styles

This is where the fun is. We all have our own ‘personal’ opinions on what craft beer is. It probably roughly follows along with the Brewers Association’s guide and criteria, but yours or mine might differ a little. Some don’t consider Yuengling and Sam Adams craft beer (anymore). You might have different requirements than the Brewers Association; maybe yours is more stringent, or perhaps yours is looser.

I’d love to hear what your personal definition of “craft beer” and “craft brewery” are; let me know in the comments section here on the blog. It will be very interesting to see everyone’s personal views and takes on what craft beer and craft brewing is to them.

For More Information

Some of the articles we researched and linked here in this article can be found here:

Looking For More Great and Informative Articles From The Beer Thrillers?

Then check these fine articles out:

Thanks For Reading

Thank you all for reading! Kind of wanted to pop this article out the other day when the idea hit me, but spent more and more time researching and reading and stuff, and tried to fit it around Scarlet (my one month old) Emma’s naps and fussing. So here it comes today, just a day or so later than I intended.

Josh Doncevic and I were recently on Central PA Pour, you can check them out there at their Facebook page. They were a fun bunch of guys to hang out with and chat and drink some beers with. So when that podcast comes up I will make sure to link it here on the blog for you all to be able to hear and see it (because it was also recorded).

We’ve also started up an affiliateship with Pretzels.com, so be sure to check out the article on that: The Beer Thrillers and Pretzels.com for more information. Or you can check out the video here: The Beer Thrillers and Pretzels.com YouTube Video.

The year is winding down but that doesn’t mean The Beer Thrillers are. We’ve done recent trips and done a fair bit of recent articles, so be sure to follow us on Instagram to see what we’re up to, and as well as on Facebook. Also be sure to like, subscribe and follow the blog here. Lots of great content here; beer reviews, book reviews, end of the year lists, news and updates, brewery happenings, and all kinds of things. Also always be sure to select to have notifications on so you’ll find out right away, same thing with the e-mail list, sign up to find out right away!

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Cheers All!

-B. Kline

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Book Review: The Words You Should Know to Sound Smart – 1200 Essential Words Every Sophisticated Person Should Be Able to Use (Robert W. Bly)

BKline — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 01:30:00 +0000

The Words You Should Know To Sound Smart by Robert W. Bly

I Be Smart One Day

We all want to sound smart don’t we? Use the best words (the bigliest words? the hugest words?). We all want to sound sophisticated, intelligent, coiffed, suave, debonair, etc….. but how often do we actually come off that way? Perhaps a book like this could help us and make us seem that way; if not actually be smarter – seem smarter. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Well… this definitely won’t do that. Spoiler alert. Sorry.

Different Purposes

There is definitely a weird ‘what is the purpose’ of this book vibe to it. Is it meant to help educate in the sense of actually giving you a better vocabulary? Is it meant to be ‘funny’ or ‘tongue in cheek’? Is it even meant to be worth the merit of the paper its printed on? Who knows…..

When I picked it up, I was shopping at Barnes and Nobles with my twelve year old daughter who pointed out that it was bargain-binned for 4$, and she says I have a good vocabulary – why not increase it. So, it was completely a ‘whim’ buy and pseudo-peer-pressure buy from my daughter.

The back blurb reads:

“So you want to debate philosophical precepts with the intelligentsia? Wax poetic with the literati? Lock academic horns with the clerisy?
You can do all that – and be the life of the every highbrow cocktail party – with this most compendious of voluminous volumes. Master this discerning list of 1,200 deliciously obscure terms and you’ll be tossing around bon mots with the best of the portentous artistes and aesthetes – not to mention impressing the perfervid hoi polloi – in no time!”
Back cover blurb

Whew…. well, there’s a word salad that is tongue in cheek and an attempt to make the book actually sound worthwhile when its completely not.

Now, here’s the GoodReads blurb (and yes, all spelling and grammar errors are on the site, I just copied and pasted):

This book is a tongue-in-cheek guide to words that any well-educated, witty person should be able to drop into cocktail conversation. The reader is encouraged to toss off words such as ?disestablishmentarianism, ? ?descant, ? and ?autodidactic? ?words that will make the user sound learned, intellectual, and wise. For those who want to improve the quality and sophistication of their speech and writing, this is the book to keep on the nightstan
GoodReads Blurb

So which is it? An attempt to make you legitimately have a better comprehension and vocabulary? Or a tongue in cheek satire / poke at the rich and hoity-toity? We may never know….

Review

So… is it any good? Firstly, I flat out nearly gave up on it numerous times. Not so much about the word selection – yes I think I have a halfway decent vocabulary, and knew most of the words (80% at least) and their meanings, but, the example sentences are atrocious and the absolute worst.

I think there is a lot of “attempt” at humor with these sentences. Every single one aimed at the 1%’ers of the world, and the way they can use the words. But, every single sentence reads the same, and its just so obnoxious, pretentious, and flat out boring, that it becomes repetitive and nauseating reading it.

Couple this with the fact that they use words that are in this book to explain other words. That’s just poor form, especially if you read the book alphabetically (since its grouped by letter, starting at A and working your way to Z), don’t be using “noveu rich” and other terms over and over and over in various sentences when you’re still in the C’s and D’s.

On top of this, some of the sentences are used are poorly constructed and just horrible sentence structure. Using the negation of the word to figure out the meaning of the word and giving an example, is just abysmally stupid.

An example of a word, that I had to pick out for this review, because it irked me so much when originally reading it:

“Euphony (YOU-fone-ee) noun
The habit of changing the pronunciation of words or the wording of phrases so they are pleasing to the ear and roll off the tongue with greater ease.
In finishing school, Alsace learned the art of EUPHONY, and she has parlayed that into a hobby of earning roles in television commercials.“
Page 51

What does this even mean? How do you read that sentence and immediately go — “Ahhh, I see, EUPHONY means the pronunciation of words and making it pleasing to the ear…” I can get where the sentence works as it reads, and it is used correctly in that sentence, but as an explanation and way to use it… it just doesn’t work and rings so horrible.

And this might not even be one of the most egregious examples.

Sigh.

I was willing to give the book a pass until I read the author blurb at the end, and thats when it sank from a 2 or 2.5 star review, immediately down to a 1 or even possibly a .5 star review.

And all it needed was one sentence about the author:

“Robert W. Bly is a professional writer and self made millionaire.”
Author Bio – Back Inside Jacket

Either that is also tongue in cheek, or its just dreck and makes me hate this all the even more. Either way, it fails, and just makes the whole enterprise even more hollow and pointless.

My GoodReads Rating: *
Global GoodReads Rating: 3.81 (as of October 17th, 2021)
My LibraryThing Rating: .5

Some other Book Reviews:

-B. Kline

Beer Review: Mutant Temple (Strange Roots Experimental Ales)

BKline — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 23:46:28 +0000

I’ve had several beers over the years from Strange Roots Experimental Ales (aka Drai Laag), and I’ve never had a single bad beer from them. Mostly known for their sours, saisons, and the like, this one is actually an IPA.

When I go hiking, I like to enjoy a good ‘hike’ beer, especially at the top or vista point of a beautiful hiking trail. In this case, it was Pinnacle Point in Kempton, Pennsylvania. (Just outside of Hamburg Pennsylvania.) (This beer was also covered in my travelogue about Pinnacle Overlook, Pinnacle Peak, and Pulpit Rock and the hike there, you can check that out here: Pinnacle Overlook, 1787 Brewing Company, and Schaylor Brewing.)

This is another case of beautiful can art. Also, since this was a trail beer, I didn’t have a glass, and drank it straight from the can; like a heathen, a barbarian, an outdoors man, a rogue hiker, a man’s man. …or well, just a person who didn’t feel like carrying around a glass, and hiking for four hours and eight miles carrying a glass that could break, especially while his hiking buddy is a four legged beast that best resembles a wolf on her best days….. (don’t worry Leela, I still love you).

So, this review will be forgoing the “appearance” section, though, I have seen pictures of it on Untappd, and it looks in the pictures I’ve seen, like a light straw colored IPA / saison looking beer, but I won’t go into details, since I did not see it with my own eyes.

Mutant Temple on the hike leading up to Pinnacle Overlook

For any people familiar with Pinnacle Overlook and the hike there; right before you get to the gorgeous vista of the Pinnacle Overlook, there is a giant cairn. Cairn works… but not really. Most people associate cairns with tombstones and what people would do to bury people in places they couldn’t dig the earth up or make a grave for, so they would dig as much as they could, and then cover them in rocks to keep prey from getting to the remains. But the true definition of cairn is: “a heap of stones set up as a landmark, a monument, a tombstone, etc.” (Dictionary.com Definition: Cairn.) (For more about graves…. you can read my beer review on Shallow Grave by Heretic Brewing …. yay for cheap plugs! I feel like Mick Foley!) Anyway, its right before you get to the overlook, its a giant stone and rock heaped pile. The very first time I went and hiked the trail, I almost thought – this was it. This giant pile, this cairn, this heap of rocks and stones, was it, and this was the “view” and the Pinnacle everyone was talking about. (Pinnacle being the height of something.) Thank goodness I walked past it and saw this gorgeous overlook….

Pinnacle Overlook in Kempton, Pennsylvania

Needless to say, this view is a lot better…. A LOT…. better than just a pile of stinking rocks (or non-stinking rocks). To get to this point, it was about a 3.5 mile hike. (Going back down, since I took a different route, and stopped at Pulpit Rocks, it was another 4.5-5 miles, making it 8-8.5 miles all told of just the mountain, plus getting to and from the car.) So, I camped out here a bit with my dog, Leela, which by now anyone reading the blog regularly has heard of quite a bit or seen in the background of pictures (she’s an 11 year old border collie that is commonly mistaken for an Australian Shepherd, named after Leela from Futurama). I didn’t bring food with, since I was going to visit 1787 Brewing Company in Hamburg afterwards, but I did enjoy my beer on the ledge with my faithful furball companion, and then did the treacherous, very rocky hike back down – which is the Appalachian Trail path.

All in all, if you are ever near Kempton or Hamburg area of Pennsylvania, and love beautiful views, where you can see and feel the turkey buzzards, hawks, and other large birds soaring right past your head, this is definitely a great hike and a beautiful view. From Hershey its roughly a 45-50 minute drive.

Mutant Temple by Strange Roots Experimental Ales

Beer: Mutant Temple
Brewery: Strange Roots Experimental Ales
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 5.3%
IBU: 5
Untappd Description: IPA dry hopped with Citra.

Since I’m not doing an appearance segment for this beer review, let me just say, I thought this cairn was the perfect picture opportunity for this beer. It looked alien, strange, mutant like, and would be a Hollywood esque temple location; like something filmed for a Star Wars planet or something. Also, the can art for Mutant Temple is phenomenal to, here it is:

Mutant Temple can art by Strange Roots Experimental Ales

Here also, I want to bring up Strange Roots Experimental Ales. According to Untappd, they are a micro brewery out of Gibsonia Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh). They have 394 unique beers with over 102K ratings, and a global average rating of 3.86. The Untappd description reads: “Strange Roots exists at the intersection of farmhouse brewing tradition and creative, locally-driven experimentation. We’re passionate about celebrating our environment through the use of local ingredients, varying fermentation methods and micro flora, and strive to create unique artisan ales inspired by our surroundings here in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains.”

Ok, now lets get back to the beer review.

(Skipping the appearance… sorry folks…. moving right along to aroma…) Coming out of the can you get a very citra hoppy aroma. Not surprising since this is a Citra dry hopped IPA. Citra has probably become the most used hop in America in the past two years, primarily for New England IPAs, and primarily because of that. Its a very juicy hop, and gives off a ton of lime, citrus, grapefruit, some peach, some mango, and tropical fruit notes. Both aromatically and in taste. Due to the proliferation of New England IPAs in the past two years, its market has exploded, usually used in conjunction with mosaic. (Cue up the Hallmark Christmas movies meme of Mosaic & Citra.) This is a strong IPA, but not as potent as most New England IPAs, and its definitely not a New England IPA, but it has a very strong citrus, lime, aroma; some notes of grapefruit and peach and mango.

Tasting this, (out of the can, not from a glass, just for perspective’s sake), this is definitely not a New England IPA; but a classic American / West Coast IPA. But its not full blown hop bitter West Coast IPA. Its nothing like Perpetual IPA, or Hop Slam, or something extremely high IBU or hop heavy. This is smoother, but not New England smooth, its not pure juice, but its still a juicer IPA than most West Coast styled ones. Theres a great deal of hop flavor , and some hop bitterness, but I think its smoothed because its dry hopped, especially with it being dry hopped with such a fruity hop like Citra. You get some earthy hop notes, a bit of pine, a wee bit of grassy-ness, to it, but overall the citra elements kick it into ultra drive on this, and you get a lot of the fruitier, more notable hop tastes from the citra; like lime, citrus, grapefruit, bit of peach, bit of mango, some tropical fruits, and the like, and this rounds it out and makes it a lot more tastier, seems to give it a lot more to the beer. I wouldn’t call it an extremely fruity or floral or juicy IPA or beer, but its got a lot of fruit forward flavors, its still definitely an IPA, there’s still the bite and the hop – ness to it, still some bitterness to it; still a “beer’s beer”. There is a nice body to it, and its got a good mouthfeel, it doesn’t feel too light or weak or watery. It’s also only 5.3% ABV, so thats really not bad, almost in the low regions by most beer standards nowadays. Most IPAs clock in the 6-7.5% range; and DIPAs then going from 7-9%. (Of course, then there’s also TIPAs and QIPAs even nowadays too.) I like the low ABV on this, especially for hiking, and despite picking it up at Breski’s as part of a mix-a-six, I could definitely dig this in a four pack and crush it. Would make for a great mowing beer, or working around the house, or shower beer, something where a nice beer would fit, but you don’t need or want to get hammered or pounded or anything. The Untappd description also lists it at only 5 IBU, but it does (still) have a hop bite and some bitterness. There’s no off flavors or after taste, nothing you’ll be burping up hours later, nothing off, or cloying, just a nice drinking beer. Great for hiking up a hill / mountain with your pooch!

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.93 (as of 12.26.20)

Untappd actually has a checkin spot for Pinnacle Overlook, you can see it here: Pinnacle Overlook on Untappd. I love how for even far to reach hiking places and spots where not even WiFi exists, or I even get internet, there’s still Untappd check-in spots. Thank. Goodness.

Thank you all for reading. 2020 is winding down, and we’re getting near to the end of the year. January 4th will be soon here too, and hopefully Governor Wolfe will be updating the mandates, and letting us get back to drinking and eating indoors at breweries, pubs, restaurants, and bars. In the meantime, get out there and help support local breweries. Support your favorite places, and tip your favorite staff, they all need it! (I know as someone furloughed / laid off / unemployed because of this recent shut down, its a tough time and a tough season, especially with it being the holidays too.) So help out wherever and however you can.

As always, make sure you are taking all the precautions everyone. Stay safe out there, mask up, wash your hands, don’t lick doorknobs, etc.

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Some recent beer reviews:

Mutant Temple by Strange Roots Experimental Ales