{"id":219,"date":"2014-12-18T23:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T22:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brunnenbraeu.eu\/?p=219"},"modified":"2019-04-28T16:45:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T14:45:27","slug":"jeff-alworthnever-say-craft-brewery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.brunnenbraeu.eu\/?p=219","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Alworth:
Never Say \u201cCraft Brewery\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning, Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers announced<\/a><\/span><\/span> that they would be selling 30% of their brewery, Founders, to the Spanish brewer Mahou<\/a><\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 The reason<\/a><\/span><\/span>:<\/p>\n

With Mahou San Miguel at the table, Founders Brewing Co. gets a partner with access to consumers on five continents and a chance to pay off investors who have helped finance the brewery\u2019s rapid expansion…<\/p>\n

Founders is No. 26 and climbing on the Brewers Association list of the nation\u2019s largest craft brewers. It is also in the middle of a $40 million expansion that, when completed, will allow to make 900,000 barrels of beer annually.<\/p>\n

The news came out on the same day I saw a nice article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about another large Midwest expansion<\/a><\/span><\/span>:<\/p>\n

When it hits full production, Surly\u2019s new complex will fill more than 100,000 barrels annually \u2014 half of Summit Brewing\u2019s capacity in St. Paul, but triple the capacity of the original Surly complex in Brooklyn Center and way more than any other brewery in town…. The final price tag of more than $30 million soared from initial estimates of $20 million.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff
A large, independent, industrial production brewery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The situations of the two breweries are not identical, and surely Brewers Association is going to have to think long and hard about whether to boot Founders from its membership roll.\u00a0 But in one key way, I think we can agree that these breweries (and a few dozen more across the US) stretch whatever definition we might assign to „craft beer“ beyond usefulness.\u00a0 They are big breweries designed to produce beer efficiently and consistently–„industrial“ plants by anyone’s definition.\u00a0 One passage I particularly appreciated in the Surly piece was a quote by brewmaster Todd Haug: „‚Everything about the brewing process is going to be more precise and consistent,‘ he bragged, staring at computer screens that monitor every facet of his new tanks.“\u00a0 This is not the talk of a man hauling his own grain and whirlpooling his 3-barrel kettle with a canoe paddle.\u00a0 (And there’s nothing wrong with that!\u00a0 Surly can make far better beer with their new system.)<\/p>\n

It all gives me a chance to reprise a post from two years ago, when I argued for new and better definitions of American breweries<\/a><\/span><\/span> that makes them consistent with breweries elsewhere:<\/p>\n