Craft Beer V Real Ale

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YorkshireBrew

YorkshireBrew

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I have noticed the term 'Craft Beer' being banded around a lot recently, at special promotions in pubs and even Craft Beer establishments opening not far from where I live.

So what is the difference between Craft Beer and Real Ale? Is it a different description coined by savvy sales people and advertisers or is there a difference?

I'd be curious to find out.
 
I think the CAMRA definition is bottle or cask conditioned. The modern use of "craft" is more like a style than a method ie. something hop heavy from a small independent brewery, usually served from a keg. Craft beer should be made by hand wherever possible. I think that's the definition anyway.

Dave
 
I'd thought it was because you drank craft beer whilst doing crafts ......I.E, i like a craft beer while i'm doing my airfix modelling ! etc etc :grin:
 
Craft beers have to have some sort of new age gibberish printed on the side of the bottle, something along the lines of
'enigmatic, genre busting unicorn fuel for the masses'
 
Thanks for the info... it makes a little more sense now. I love the 'Unicorn Fuel', implies that real ale is in fact 'real', craft beer could just be legend or a figment of your imagination... Entirely possible when you've just tucked into a crate of newly cleared ale!
 
MyQul said:
"Unicorn fuel" is so going to be the name of my next beer :lol:
Click to expand...

Knocked up a quick label for you MyQul :grin:

Unicorn Fuel.jpg
 
The term craft beer really gets on my wick, beer is beer and some is good and some is bad. Craft suggests small scale and by hand (as someone else posted) but the bigger craft breweries must use the same industrial processes as the normal big breweries given he volumes they need to produce.

It's a great marketing term at the minute tho and has made beer cool. I probably wouldn't hate the term so much if brewdog, who clearly think they invented it, didn't use it so heavily...as much as I like their beer their marketing does my head in.
 
DoctorMick said:
It's a great marketing term at the minute tho and has made beer cool. I probably wouldn't hate the term so much if brewdog, who clearly think they invented it, didn't use it so heavily...as much as I like their beer their marketing does my head in.
Click to expand...

I love the concept of BrewDog in that its bringing different beers to the masses and their pub in Birmingham where I've been a couple of times which is a really comfortable and quirky place. But I have to say its seriously overpriced!
 
CAMRA coined the 'real ale' phrase and were highly specific about what constituted real ale. It had to be naturally carbonated basically. The craft beer name has real resulted form American brewing techniques coming over here, stealing our kegs. Craft beer really refers to any beer that is not mass produced I think, and allows a much more broad definition than real ale. And the main area of conflict has been the use of kegs and force carbonating both kegs and bottles. Back in the 70s kegs were a big factor in quality beer disappearing so CAMRA came into being and opposed them, and they have had a major struggle to accept that kegs might be anything other than bad and dangerous. And that bottle beer can be artificially carbonated and still ok. They have this year voted to accept the use of key kegs, a particular type of keg.
 
There's good beer and bad beer. Good beer has been here a lot longer than 'craft' and 'real' beer... Respect to those concerned about protecting good beer. Or, to put it another way, bring down commercial pi** water factories. I would cheer the anti-capitalists, but, lately, capitalism appears to have got stuck up its own ****. :rofl:
 
To be fair to CAMRA, good beer almost disappeared in the 70s. In my opinion they did a great thing, but we have seen a huge boost to the choice and quality of beer in the last 15 years or so. It probably started 20 years ago, I remembering the Marble opening up in Manchester around then and feeling grateful that I lived round the corner from a bar that was stocked by its own micro brewery where the beer was made by people who knew what they were doing and how to put flavour into beer. We had a long period before that where most of the beer I drank in pubs was samey and uninspiring.
 
YorkshireBrew said:
I love the concept of BrewDog in that its bringing different beers to the masses and their pub in Birmingham where I've been a couple of times which is a really comfortable and quirky place. But I have to say its seriously overpriced!
Click to expand...

Me too, love their bars and beers but I find their marketing both self righteous and condescending at the same time.
 
clibit said:
Craft beer really refers to any beer that is not mass produced I think
Click to expand...

That's most people's impression but Sierra Nevada, the beer most often held up as the first craft beer, sells so much it must be classed as mass produced...I think the misrepresentation of the word craft is another one of the reasons I hate the term craft beer.
 

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