It was arguably already dead, but 2017 will undoubtedly go down as the year the terminology ‘craft beer’ was rendered meaningless in Australia.
Less than three years after launching the What Is Craft Beer? educational website for consumers, the Craft Beer Industry Association has jettisoned the descriptor entirely.
Its successor, Independent Brewers Australia, has a singular focus on industry advocacy and member support. Category marketing and consumer education is no longer considered part of its remit.
The ‘craft’ delineation was also dropped from the festival now known as Sydney Beer Week, a move designed to make the festival more inclusive, but interpreted in the usual quarters (sometimes known as the telephone booth gang) as meaning less ‘crafty’ events.
The reality is that ‘craft’ has long been in a vegetative state, in the absence of any definition such as that underpinning Brewers Association membership in the US.
The US definition is certainly an arbitrary one. It dictates that with Kirin owning 24.5 per cent of its shares, Brooklyn Brewery is bona fide craft. With AB InBev owning 32.2 per cent of its shares, Kona and Redhook owner Craft Brew Alliance is not (though this exclusion doesn’t stop it from having ‘craft’ in its name).
But although the US definition is highly debatable, it is a definition. Without any corresponding definition in Australia, those organisations most intent on using the words ‘craft beer’ are increasingly those with the most questionable credentials to do so.
Crafty operators
Urban Craft Brewing Co is a subsidiary of Rockpool Dining Group, which is owned by Quadrant Private Equity, as part of an $850 million investment portfolio that also comprises pet food, automotive and healthcare assets.
Recently, Urban Craft Brewing has expanded its distribution outside its own Bavarian Bier Cafes and their Rockpool brethren, into independent bottleshops and pubs.
“Last year 12,000 hectolitres of our finest were created, brewed, poured and drunk – a number we’re looking to double in 2017!”, its website says.
There is a horizon on this crafty foray for Quadrant, which has already exited 51 investments since 1996.
Quadrant nominates an expiry date sometime in 2024 for the particular fund that now includes Rockpool and Urban Craft Brewing, obviously calling into question its interest in the industry beyond that date.
Meanwhile, the brewers of Yenda have been enjoying “exploring the boundaries between mainstream and craft”, according to owner Australian Beer Company.
Those boundaries will be imperceptible for most drinkers in the wake of Yenda’s Australian PGA golf sponsorship, which occasioned tournament exclusive beer Yenda Eagle, a “mid-strength mainstream style of craft lager”.
Even Pauline Hanson is on the craft beer bandwagon, as is our beer swilling ex-PM Bob Hawke.
And retailer First Choice Liquor recently hosting a ‘Craft Beer Festival’ mostly comprised of its own made-up brands, such as Lorry Boys and 3 Pub Circus.
Craft no more
Such widespread misappropriation of ‘craft beer’ is why Newcastle venue Grain Store no longer uses the term, according to founder Corey Crooks.
“When we opened our doors at the Grain Store almost four years ago we also had the subheader of ‘Craft Beer Cafe’,” he said recently.
“With what I have seen happen over the last few years, we have been in the process of removing any brand relationship with the word ‘craft’, preferring to place more emphasis on what we proudly sell being independent.”
The only relevance ‘craft beer’ has in Australia is the somewhat arbitrary definition used by the analysts at IRI to delineate beers that are, broadly speaking, smaller in volume and more flavoursome, from the rest of the category.
With ‘craft’ now otherwise meaningless, you have to ask yourself whether those businesses that persist in using it will be keeping the best company for their brand.
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Small brewers seal independence
The big breweries fought the battle well and won, mostly because enough of the actual craft brewers didn’t realise what was going on or the importance of it. Master stroke was getting a big presence on the CBIA and associated fees bankrolling it, they’d be paralysed until enough craft brewers existed that they thought they could survive without the fees, by then it’s too late.
….”but it’s about the beer” they squeal in retort……..”and selling it at inflated fake craft prices”, they just never say the second line in public.
Brew Sloth – inflated prices?
The lower volume of any company smaller than CUB et al means you have fewer sellable units over which to distribute your costs and generate your profits.
If you expect any low-volumr product in any market to be the same retail price as the high-volume lines then you’re not being realistic.
I don’t want to speak for Brew Sloth, but I read what was written differently – I read that the ingredient or production process differences aren’t all passed onto the consumer meaning profits are “inflated” but was instead shared as “inflated prices”
Independent small producers (often considered “craft”) do have higher costs – cost of distribution, cost of ingredients, often cost of production, and the larger companies have savings due to their scale.
This seems to be in agreement with what you suggested!
A price being higher due to higher costs isn’t really inflated, it’s solidly backed up and justified by those higher costs, that’s craft beer.
The point, as I think Cort has alluded to, is the big brewers are able to inflate their price above the actual costs, because it’s fake craft, unbeknownst to most of the populace.
Beer needed a shake up! When people started saying “I’m over beer” you knew it was time for a major rethink. Many of us out here have been waiting for the revolution and it has started, slowly (mainstream,) but it is gaining momentum. Craft beer is dead fine, as long as good beer continues to be produced. The Craft movement sprang up after so many of us got fed up with boring. Boring has gone.
I’m in agreement with you James that clear definitions are helpful for everyone to communicate clearly. This is reflective of “greenwashing” whereby large companies with their primary aim of profit and minimising costs try to appeal to people looking for environmentally friendly (and inherently more expensive to produce, package, or distribute) products.
I am of the opinion that the these definitions should be 1) accurate and easily definable and 2) make it easier rather than harder for consumers to purchase what they are looking for and for retailers to group products together to make it easier for them to purchase and manage these categories and sub-categories.
The reality around definitions is that they are most often driven, instead, by those paying for the data. This is usually restricted, due to the cost, to larger businesses. So there is an inherent bias in all data reporting and segmentation against the smaller players.
A craft definition that includes the “size” or the “ownership” of the business is inherently easy. However, there is absolutely no reason that a large company cannot own and operate a brewery that makes truly well “crafted” beer, one that could win awards and compete in an open playing field. However, this is where the bias comes in – making a skewed playing field look fair.
There is also the issue around cost of verification of what craft truly means. Could it be like organic, where a certifying body actually collects evidence from the manufacturer and then assigns a grade or an assessment of having met the defined criteria? This is harder and more expensive. Who pays? There are many organic products that aren’t certified due to high costs that inflate retail prices or reduce producer margins. How do those get categorised?
What consumers are interested in how they define craft, per https://www.brewbound.com/news/nielsen-poll-examines-craft-purchasing-habits of US consumers, is “small & independent,” “small batch production,” and “handcrafted.” These words were most associated with the word “craft.” 30 percent of craft beer drinkers also associate the word “quality,” with “craft.”
I would prefer that craft be organised around the skill and care put into the production of the product, the quality of ingredients, rather than the size. Scale actually can result in better beer – monitoring production is expensive. Consistency is the result of rigid quality control. Maybe consistency isn’t “crafty” but most drinkers appreciate it and most brands thrive on it.
Artisanal is another term that approaches craft, and I think may more accurately reflect consumer perceptions of what craft is. Perhaps Corey is correct, but he may need to work harder to reach is prospective customers who aren’t so restrictive in their use of the term.
In the end, educating beer drinkers so they know that they are getting what they are paying for is important to the industry, as on a related note – exacting labelling laws that require facts to help purchasers exercise their own judgement about a brand is also relevant, and also lacking here in Australia. I think that could be a good place to start, as well.