SAN JOSE, Calif. – A group of small winemakers, distillers and brewers participated in a panel discussion at the Craft Beverage Expo in San Jose last week, to discuss their humble beginnings, their business aspirations and the craft beverage “ecosystem.”
According to a report on Brewbound.com, much of the conversation focused on how small craft beverage producers define themselves. Brooklyn Brewery Co-founder Steve Hindy laid out the framework for the discussion, explaining that the organization’s biggest challenge for defining “craft” is understanding who they were “working for.”
Similarly, the country’s small distilling companies are just now beginning to wrestle with definition issues, explained Tom Potter, Hindy’s original business partner and current president of The New York Distilling Company.
“What is craft?” he asked. “On the distiller’s side, we just had our first national organizational meeting. It was a great session and we went over point-by-point what the Brewers Association used as their definition.”
His group is trying to move toward a more inclusive sense of describing the term craft and wants to avoid making any “fine definitions.” Their definition, for now, includes “Small guys, using traditional methods.” But, as Potter clarifies: “When you start to define what a traditional method is, it becomes difficult. The brewing world has some very puzzling examples of that.”
Much of the discussion revolved around the connotation of “craft” from various viewpoints in the beverage industry.
“Maybe the idea of craft is not so much based on the quantity, but what is understood about that person, personality or message,” suggested winemaker and Brooklyn Oenology founder Alie Shaper.
The term “craft” is rarely used in the wine industry, she said. Instead, winemakers often refer to themselves as “artisanal,” or “family-owned.”
“An artisanal winery has a lead winemaker who is there to put personality in their production,” she said. “Maybe that is the real definition of craft. Some people want to stay smaller and some want to get bigger. You shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to produce 20,000 cases versus 5,000 cases.”
Some in the industry believe that the Brewers Association expanded its definition of “small” (from two million to six million barrels) in order to accommodate the growth of larger craft breweries like Boston Beer. At the same time, many contend that just because a company is successful, it shouldn’t be “kicked out of the club it helped to create.”
NPR reports that in February, the Brewers Association eliminated a long-standing requirement that a craft brewery must make at least half of its product, as well as its flagship brew, from only barley malt — not sugar from rice or corn, which large breweries commonly rely on to make thinly flavored lagers. This means that Yuengling & Sons, the largest American-owned brewery, can join the association as a “craft” brewery.
However, the change isn’t going over well with some craft brewers, such as Dan Del Grande, owner of Bison Organic Beer in Berkeley, Calif. “I think the Brewers Association has watered down the meaning of craft beer, and of good beer,” he told NPR.
Del Grande continues that he believes breweries that make more than about 200,000 barrels of beer per year should not be recognized as a craft brewer, and they definitely should not receive lobbying and marketing support from the Brewers Association. "Frankly, those guys don't need the help," he said.
Meanwhile, Julie Herz, spokesperson for the association, says the higher cap was meant to keep the founders of the craft-brewing world in the craft community. "Our board of directors decided not to penalize the most rapidly growing of our craft brewers for coming of age, for success," Herz told The Salt. "The definition of craft has evolved as the industry evolves."