The Difficulty Defining "Craft Brewery"

In case you missed this comment from my "I am a craft brewer" post, have a look. It highlights the trouble the Brewers Association has in trying to nail down which breweries qualify as "craft." A lovely and passionate defense of independent regional breweries:

"I was a craft brewer." That's the movie I want to make. Because, I was at one time, according to the BA and the video. But alas, I work for August Schell now, and we are not craft brewers (just ask the BA). Never mind the fact that we will celebrate our 150th year in 2010 as the second-oldest family owned brewery in the US. We survived prohibition, a Native American uprising that burned New Ulm to the ground, and the vanishing of regional breweries in the 70's and 80's. Forget the fact that we sold a tree on our grounds in the 80's to pay the bills. Discount that we brewed a German Pilsner and Weizen in 1986.

Because, the fact is, the bulk of our production uses corn as an adjunct. And even if you discount that beer, we would still produce a larger volume of non-adjunct beers than most of the top craft breweries. But hey, what does that matter?

No, I am not a craft brewer, and I'll happily be that for another 150 years.

Cheers!

David Berg
August Schell Brewing

I have written about this issue when A-B released American Ale (both here and here) and when the BA dumped Widmer/Redhook. This is definitely going to be an issue--and soon.