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There has been a big rise in popularity of craft beer in recent years. But what exactly is it? Where does it come from? Are there differences between styles? Read on to find out ...
At first glance, the world of craft beer can be confusing. Artisan brewing is a heady mix of innovative brewing techniques, premium and offbeat ingredients, creativity and passion that rips up the flavour and style rule book with inventive glee.
Many people view craft beer as the younger, hip cousin of real ale. But while both reject the blandness of mass-produced beers, real ale focuses solely on traditional brewing methods, with most served from a cask via a hand pump in the pub.
In contrast, craft beer embraces experimentation and innovation in search of new tastes and styles. The result is modern craft beers with distinct personalities that upend the status quo. These are not ‘traditional ales’.
What exactly is craft beer?
To the casual observer, craft beer presents a smorgasbord of jargon – from hipster hops and bottle-conditioned beers to unfiltered IPAs and Brett yeasts. It's understandable that newcomers might feel overwhelmed at the complexity of craft brewing.
But at its heart craft beer is based on a straightforward idea.
It's a reaction against the boring, identikit, samey beer stacked high on supermarket shelves. It rejects bland tastes and dull flavours. Instead, craft beer is pure brewing modernised, where experiments in flavours by small, independent brewers walk hand-in-hand with the love, care and attention focused on small batches of beer. In short, craft beer is redefining the brewing landscape.
Where did craft beer originate?
While the UK and Europe have witnessed small, independent breweries flourish over the past decade, you can trace the roots of the craft beer movement back to 1970s America.
It was a decade of radical change. Against a backdrop of women's rights, gay rights and environmental movements, the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War, small breweries on the West Coast were fermenting a rebellion of their own against staid, traditional beer from Europe.
The 70s saw the birth of the microbrewery in the US, rethinking European beer recipes with innovative flavours and techniques to create bold, punchy brews. The era pushed in a renaissance in brewing innovation and experimentation, which quickly spread back across the Atlantic to Europe.
What makes a craft beer a craft beer?
While things in the US are far more straightforward – a craft brewer is generally a brewery that produces fewer than six million barrels of beer per year – there's no such simplification in the UK.
It might be less pigeonholed, but there are some craft beer traits that set it apart from run-of-the-mill mass-produced beers, which include:
Small breweries – craft breweries in the UK generally produce fewer than 5m litres of beer – equivalent to 30,000 barrels – and don't have access to the same scale of production and distribution of large brewers.
Independence – craft brewers are fiercely independent. Often started by a few mates with a passion for brewing, small craft breweries are usually at least 75% independently owned.
Authenticity – craft brewing uses traditional, time-honoured brewing methods. It avoids some of the murky practices of modern, mass-produced beer, including using additives such as corn or rice. There are no shortcuts here.
Innovation – there’s an emphasis on taste and new spins on old recipes, with extensive flavour notes.
Community – craft breweries tend to spring up in all sorts of places but have their roots firmly planted in the local community, and everyone is usually welcome to pop in for an impromptu tour and natter.
Provenance – craft beer is about transparency. A refreshing change from mass-produced beer assembly lines in automated factories, craft brewers are open about techniques and take delight in detailing the hops added to imbue flavour and the taste notes you can expect.
Creativity – the craft doesn't stop with what's inside the can or bottle. Artistic, edgy, arresting designs transform tins of beer into cylindrical art forms, adding genuine character and energy to each brew.
Are there hops in craft beer?
Dry hopping, double hopping and hop-forward – craft beer can seem a mite obsessed with the joy of hops. And compared to more traditional ales, some craft breweries add a lot of hops to their beer.
Hops do wonders for the brewing process, stabilising and adding flavour. While a variety of hops can be used in a single brew, the trend is for single-hop beer, each hop responsible for different flavours. And there is a huge variation – from New Zealand Nelson Sauvin to British East Kent Holdings.
Craft beer flavours and types
Craft beer isn't limited to a narrow range of one type of beer. Craft brewers happily bring a range of styles into the fold including:
Kettle Sours – trendy, tart beers made with lactobacillus.
IPA – made in a range of colours, from ambers to coppery golds. It could be a light, clear beer or hazy and richly textured. But it should always have a perfect balance of malt and hops.
Stouts and porters – deep brews in a huge range of variations, from milk and imperial stouts to chocolate and dry.
Hybrids – rules are meant to be broken, meaning craft beer can result in adventurous combinations such as black IPAs.
Pale Ale – actually a range of colours, from ambers to coppery golds. A balanced beer between malt and hops.
Extraordinary taste is also a signature of craft beer. Free-thinking experimentation results in a vast range of notes to suit different tastes, while limited runs and collaborations can result in fleeting but memorable flavours.
Where to start exploring craft beer?
Understanding what craft beer is and its unique, genre-defining place in brewing history is one thing. Tasting it is another thing altogether. So, where should you start your own craft beer discovery?
About the author
Steve Rumble
When Steve first started writing for Laithwaites, dry rosé wasn’t a thing in the UK, the only Malbec we stocked was French and hardly any Brits could pronounce Rioja. Things have changed but Steve still loves telling the great stories behind our wines. He holds the WSET Level 4 Diploma and loves a good Provence pink or an oaky Chardonnay. Steve has sports writing experience and is our go-to writer for all things Laithwaites and England Cricket.
