OnTap Magazine

element gets filtered on the journey from mountain to spring; the way that the seasons effects the quality and flavour of the water. There is a quick flicker where we both remember the point about styles and how beers come about; water too falls into the technical classification of ingredients which influences the end product. Although, it perhaps gets simplified to describe a style, as if the water from a well is consistent from Summer to Winter, impervious to the terroir of natural weather patterns. I have heard him use the term “Craeft”; an old English word that is at the heart of craft beer, when you see those experienced brewers who he says are “like spiders at the centre of the web, feeling their way around a brew day and being able to interpret deviations in their norm and adapt to meet the end goal.” “One of the places I visited was Harvey’s [Brewery] in Sussex. The head brewer is Miles Jenner and his dad was the head brewer, so he essentially started drinking the beer in the 50s.” The point of course being, that Miles Jenner has an understanding not only of the beer, but the tradition behind it. This inevitably influences the way that a style develops over time. It also leads me to ask the question, a question that I have asked many people in my own quest of discovering craft beer: What is craft? Theanswerofcourseisnotuncomplicated, “Craft is a bad descriptive term,” Jeff muses. Perhaps it is more a way to market it. “Certainly, in the US it has come to mean any beer that is not produced for mass consumption. Or, your brewery isn’t reliant on massive distribution of one of the standard beers.” He is quick to point out that it is not meant to say that mass produced beers are bad or that brewers are not supposed to be commercially viable, simply that he would describe the term craft brewery as a brewery that has an artisanal approach to producing a wider range of beers. I quite like his use of the word artisanal, personally, I like it a little more than craft as a term we give craft breweries. “Not independent?” I ask, probably expecting the answer. Not independent, because that is also not all that clearly defined. “What is independent?” he asks rhetorically. We delve into trying to understand define it and settle our discussion on the principle that something might be craft beer when it is beer produced by a brewer that “calls the shots.” It is of course, just one opinion in a sea of opinions. And there is something novel in it. When I first delved deep into beer, living in the United Kingdom until around 2015, the term craft beer was perhaps developing, but more prominent was the term “micro-brewery” or “brewpub.” The very idea that the term has changed, suggest that the beers produced might have changed too. Looking at the hops being produced in the United Kingdom currently, in the face of modern farming and challenges coming from climate change, indicates that the very nature of some beer styles will change and the beer style guidelines will also have to adapt over time. This is due to the availability of certain ingredients changing, while also culturally craft beer drinkers are demanding hop aromas more reminiscent of the “new world” varieties from the USA. In this instant it is both culture and availability of ingredients fuelling this change. What will we call the new beers coming out of this shift? What will The Beer Bible’s future editions look like? That remains to be seen, but what a thrill to play witness to it. Craft in the brewery industry 24 | Spring 2023 | ontapmag.co.za