Author Archives: paleololigo

I’m taking an online course on the Business of Craft Beer. Thus far, it’s been really interesting. One of our recurring homework assignments is to go out and taste different styles of craft beer.

Yes. I am required to try four or five different beers per week.

O torture of tortures! Twist my arm.

I sent my husband off to find some craft beers to have on hand for my homework. I think he did OK.

One of the fun things about the Business of Craft Beer course that I’m taking online is thinking about beer in different ways other than just drinking it.

This week’s module has focused on the primary ingredients of beer: Water, Malt, Hops, and Yeast. We had the option to take a field trip to a local homebrewing store and explore hops, yeast, and malt. For me, as an avid homebrewer, I decided to take advantage of all the ingredients I have in my beer fridge and think about them a little more critically than I usually do.

I focused on malt. I pulled out every package of malt in the refrigerator that was already opened and tasted it. I have oats, rye, wheat, and many, many styles of barley malts.

It was very interesting to learn how much the flavor of individual malts can influence the flavor of the finished beer. We tend to think about craft beers in terms of how hoppy they are, as IPAs are all the rage right now.

The truth of it is that the bulk of a beer’s flavor comes from its malt. This flavor is modified by the strain of yeast and types of hops used, but it’s all built on the basis of the malt. So choose your malt carefully!

I’m taking an on-line course on the business of craft beer. I’ve learned a lot in only the first week.

Among the great take-aways I got from last week’s first module for the course is that not everything that claims to be craft beer really is.

To produce a true ‘craft’ product, the brewery must be small and must use ‘traditional’ recipes. This makes sense. Before we called these drinks ‘craft,’ we referred to the breweries as micro-breweries. Some were even so small as to be called nano-breweries. What’s brewed by these craft breweries are beers that tend to be flavorful and rich, hoppy perhaps, or fruity, quite unlike the weaker lagers produced by the major breweries (macro-breweries or ‘Big Beer’).

When most people think of craft beer, they think of IPAs or seasonal ales. Something that one might purchase for a special occasion.

But there’s one more caveat to being a true craft brewery. A craft brewery is independent of Big Beer. That is a craft brewery is less than 25% owned by a brewery that is itself not a craft brewery.

Several brands that a treated like craft really are not, because they are largely owned and run under the umbrella of Big Beer. The truest of beer snobs won’t drink that stuff.

Go here and learn who the biggest craft breweries were in the United States in 2014. Notice that some of the most popular craft-ish brands aren’t there, but you might just see them in the footnotes as owned by Big Beer.

Once you’ve done that, go out and support independent, traditional, and small craft breweries.

Cheers!