As a long time beer geek with only a few years of being a whisky nerd, my definition of craft is the impact of the human element. It's not even the brewery or distillery, but the individual beer or whisky. If someone during the product realization process has an active decision in what going into the product, and not just following the previously established standard process, then it's craft.
How about using annual production volume (I would assume in gallons) to differentiate craft? Regardless of still size or barrel count, just annual gallons distilled.
The Elements series is their finishs series. If I am not mistaken both these expressions are made of the same *non peated* barley The peated one is finished in ex-peated casks.
Graduation ceremony idea is interesting because it would also give everyone a chance to speak about their favorite experiences while they hold the bottles
I think the best way to define it is by the number of employees the destilery has or the number of liters produced per year. A destilery with few employees and with few bottles per year will always be artisanal.
The problem with this definition, while i like it...is....It can all be automated and only one person running everything from a control room. The number of liters produced could be a good measure.
In order for a distillery to be considered craft it must maintain the following: 1. Magnificence 2. Shenanigans 3. A healthy portion of Bastards 4. At least 2 RU-vid channels
In beer it's the number of barrels produced by a whole company. That way a sub brand like Goose Island, which is owned by AB cannot not be included. Though every year the goalposts get moved up to allow the Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) to stay within the Craft designation. I think that number jumped considerably this past year or so with Boston Beer merging with Dogfish Head (another pretty large Craft brewery)
I came to the comments to find exactly this. Glad to know I’m not alone. I could not focus on anything other than how fantastic his hair looks. The natural curl, color, how long and beautiful 😍
@@sashalin8888 💯🤩 Now granted I don’t do much with my hair and yet I tend to get some compliments but Rex’s hair blows mine out of the water!! Good god man tell us your secrets! I must know your hair routine 😅🙏🏻
I believe that the Kentucky Bourbon trail has a cutoff of 10,000 barrels in their inventory to be on the craft tour, and anything larger has to be on the regular tour. That's just one group's requirments.
I feel it needs to be production based (liters produced or barrels in rack). I think Method and Madness, for example, would need to fall into craft even though they are inside Jameson
Any distillery that despite the success of their core offerings, continues to experiment and create unique and interesting blends/ageing/finishes. Jameson's caskmates would be an example of what I mean. By no means would I consider Jameson craft, but the philosophy and attitude they have towards that particular line is craft worthy.
When I heard "black tie event" I saw everyone at crowded barrel wearing... black ties. But they were also just wearing the same stuff they do everyday... just black ties to make it fancy. Option of a top hat and monocle for whomever is the host or bartender that day. 🖖😎🥃
I think distribution cases per year is the best way to quantify, simply because our perception of craft vs. corporate as a consumer is based largely on how often we encounter their bottlings in the wild. By nature, that metric would include gallons/barrels per year, just to fulfill demand, excluding brands like Method & Madness. As someone who doesn’t work closely with a distillery, I’ve got NO clue exactly what that number would need to be. However, I would think Balcones is nearing their exit from craft whiskey, simply based on how much I see their products EVERYWHERE in multiple states on the east coast (which is a great thing and makes me very happy, btw).
Question for everyone if you pour you're favorite whiskey or what have you in a glass . If you leave it sit a few minutes does the alcohol evaporate some ? And does the flavor of the whiskey get better after letting it sit a few minutes before enjoying it ??
I think the credit label should consider the originators' recipe/intent. A brewery example is Leinenkugel or Goose island. Both were bought out, but the new owners let them remain as is and just invested money and increased output/distribution.
I’m cannabis, craft is defined by size of production (must be smaller than 10000 kg per year), hand trimmed, hang dried… so, translated to whiskey you’d want to take into account still size/production volume, production methods, ingredients, etc.
The province of British Columbia, Canada, has an explicit definition of craft distillery in its liquor distribution policies (since BC has state-controlled distribution): Under 100,000L of bottled product a year, with 50,000L being the threshold where distributor markup (basically a tax) starts to apply. There are other restrictions such as using only ingredients sourced from within the province, so no buying corn from Alberta or the US, and a blanket prohibition on using neutral grain spirits. Shelter Point is a notable example of a BC craft distillery.
IMO it's availability of distribution if you're available in half the staes you're getting past craft...this goes along with Daniel's barrel count idea 10,000 barrels aging not craft and maybe that number should be lower....Love you guys and Happy Halloween 🎃🎃🥃🥃❤️❤️
I would say that craft depends on volume of production for a mash bill. I wouldn't want to exclude a large distillery from having a "craft" release. I would exclude single barrel releases...
In my mind, craft is more about putting product over profit (with some nuance because everybody's gotta make money, ultimately). If a craft producer is bought out and you can tell they're beginning to cut corners to squeeze more profit from it by lowering proof or stuffing bad barrels into blends or whatever, they've turned the corner from being a craft producer to a corporate asset. The craft side loses control of the product and profit takes over. On the beer side of things, there are breweries that have grown far past the "micro" designation, but they're still respectably craft products that try to maintain the taste of the original as best they can while they scale to larger production. Balcones probably fits more in that sort of designation at this point.
The beer industry has had a long running debate about what makes a brewery craft. The Brewers Association has tried to add definitions and they fall along the lines of what you both said. Here are a couple of them: - Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales). - Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer. Some non-technical definitions they also include: - Craft brewers are small brewers. - The hallmark of craft beer and craft brewers is innovation. Craft brewers interpret historic styles with unique twists and develop new styles that have no precedent. - Craft beer is generally made with traditional ingredients like malted barley; interesting and sometimes non-traditional ingredients are often added for distinctiveness. - Craft brewers tend to be very involved in their communities through philanthropy, product donations, volunteerism and sponsorship of events. - Craft brewers have distinctive, individualistic approaches to connecting with their customers. - Craft brewers maintain integrity by what they brew and their general independence, free from a substantial interest by a non-craft brewer. A great example of a brewery that fits the non-technical but is often excluded from the conversation is Goose Island. They are owned by Anheuser-Busch, a big conglomerate, but they are also producing interesting, and wonderful small batch beers that many would confuse for craft if the name was removed. In the end, craft has a connotation that doesn't always fit. Sometimes small or independent is a better term. And eventually it all comes down to drink what you like to drink how you like to drink it.
Craft for me is down to the dynamics of the flavor. When a distillery gears their flavors to appeal to the lowest common denominator, directionally they are no longer producing what I consider a craft product…they are producing a consumer product. It’s the shift in mindset and creation from “do what WE want” to “do what THEY want.”
I tried some M&H at an event here in Tokyo a week ago and I thought their whiskey was fine, like you guys did. On the other side, their Levantine aged gin was wild! I have to try it again because the oregano influence was so strong, it was half way between a Mediterranean experience and your grandma's closet.
i couldnt find a solid number for how big balcones is on their website. i just know when i travel in the states ill probably be able to find them on the shelf. all i could find is a forbes article from 2019 saying they can produce 90k 9 liter cases annually. which is right around the 1,000,000 bottle sales i was gonna say id consider the max for craft. once you cross into 7 figures for bottles seems like a nice line. not near the size of the corporate monsters but not a small crafty place like yall. and over 100 barrels isnt a small batch. thanks for the answer tho.
A philosopher once talked about how there's no inherent essence of meaning contained in a word, and ultimately said that meaning is how a word is used within a language community ("meaning is use"). To argue this point he asks the reader to try and define what "game" means. But we soon realise no definition will satisfy the whole of what it means, just like we seem to have a hard time defining what "craft" means. Still, we do understand what "game" or "craft" is even though we can't adequately define what it is. To explain this he came up with the concept, "family resemblance", which basically says that, just like all members of a family share some traits of each other but not every trait, and so they "resemble" each other, senses of a word "resemble" each other but never are they the same. So to sum up, his claim is basically that, trying to define a word is not really a fertile attempt and we already understand words in a pretty nebulous way. In terms of clarity and legality this is a nightmare of course, but I just found it funny how you guys were doing philosophy of language...
I actually don’t feel like “craft” has much to do with the business aspects, I feel like it more heavily reflects a brand that is willing to experiment and color outside of the box when it comes to actually production. Craft= creativity and quirkiness
For me, craft is: 1. Independently founded, either by an individual or a group of no more than 15 people. Nothing that was created as a division or spinoff of another established entity in the same/closely related space. 2. Is Independently owned , Employee owned, or has retained its own brand identity following a merger with another similar company such that it functions, within reason, almost exactly the same as it did beforehand. 3. Creates a cafefully curated core line of products while also experimenting to the extent that it is both capable and financially responsible to do so. 4. The products must have an individual identity that sets them apart, whether it be the personal influences of the founders/owners, local/regional influences, or historical inspiration.
I think “craft” status is not defined by ownership, revenue or volume in its own right. I think it is defined by the production process: Has the production process been determined, or altered, by a volume goal rather than the characteristics of the product itself? If so, it is no longer craft.
Maybe, "Craft", could be distribution size? How far out does your product go, through normal distribution channels. Maybe if the product is being sold at x number of States, it is no longer Craft. But would e-commerce change that? Could a Distillery still call itself Craft, if they sell their product through online Distributers, like Curiada, or Total Wine, which has Nation wide distribution?
It seems there is a simple conclusion we can take away from the confusing perception of "flavor swap"; Israeli grapes tend to taste peaty, and Israeli peat tends to taste winey. You're welcome!
I would say something is “craft” when the intention for its production isn’t for mass production. For example, Bud light beer is a beer made to be mass produced. Mass production drives the ingredients used and so on. McCormick whiskey, something that’s really meant for mass production. The intent is to have a high quantity of it. Boulevard brewery used to be small and the intent of the beers they make wasn’t for mass production but they have grown so large it is mass produced because they have the capacity for it. They are still considered “craft” by liquor stores, distributors, etc etc. I would say the same for something like Balcones, the driving force behind their whiskey wasn’t mass production but they have grown to a size that is capable of it. Could they make a whiskey that’s meant for mass production and not have it considered craft? Yes. To me it’s all about the intent and role of the product.
The term "craft" is fairly ambiguous to me. "Small batch", however, is less so, and used much looser. I'd want to see a volume/barrel count limit on what qualifies for a "small batch" stamp.
Israel had a lot of forest fires in 2017 2018 and even more recently every other year or so. The smoke from said fires did also affect some of the local wines. Is it possible that the smoke that is not peat comes from the forest fire smoke?
I’m from Israel and I can promise you that the fires had no affect on the wines here. Israel actually have lot of really good wineries, so if you happened to find an Israeli wine you should definitely tried it😊
There are amazing wines here- I am also from Israel, and my sister works in the wine industry here and unfortunatly the wild fires can and do have an affect on certain vineyard plots, in no specific direction good or bad. That is the case all over the world, not specifically Israel. That being said, the question was whether it could affect whiskey aging in the barrel.
My take on craft....You still can determine the things you do. Even if it's the same thing to make money makes you craft. Someone else buys a chunk of your business and you MUST produce the most popular things takes away the Craft label. So if you control it, it's craft. if someone else controls it, it's no longer craft.
scale plays a big role in craft designation... founder involvement adds to it as well... it is a conundrum for a definitive cut off.. and once quantified, it will be messed with... sorry, in the end it just falls to a marketing word...
TLDR: Craft is doing something outside the norm -- showing "your craft" I always considered craft as being someone doing something that is not the "norm" -- like in the beer world...not making a Budweisser copy and just following the standard... Whiskey wise, I would take that as not doing the standard mashbill and just making the standard whiskey that fits the category...ie. standard Scotch, Canadian, Isla, rye, bourbon....
I consider craft (cannabis) to be the company choosing high quality over lower product. When a dispensary or distillery decide to make or sell a lower quality product as a business model, that is no longer "craft." A craft business would rather take a loss than release low quality product
"Craft," to me, refers to a making philosophy. If you have a human being who is involved in every step to produce an aesthetic achievement, that's craft. If a bunch of machinery is generating what the market supposedly demands, that's not craft.
I'd say once u loose artistic freedom of your product and become more focused on the same flavor profiles and continuesly make the same line of products such as a company jack Daniel's.
Maybe craft is about distribution. Craft could be if you only sell out of your distillery or maybe some local distribution but once you get statewide or nation wide distribution, you are no longer "craft".
Small number of employees doing hands on distilling. And per a previous comment I made, If the head distiller, (if they are male, (Marsha, Heather, Marlene form Milam and Greene are excempted,)) have beards.
Who cares what craft means when these are the two definitions. 1. an activity involving skill in making things by hand. 2. skill used in deceiving others. I think the second one is the one most commonly used by distillers.
@@Whistling_Goat I meant that once the distillery has a signature bottling that they continue to produce then the distillery is no longer a craft. All of their other bottling's are experiments.
To me, craft is handmade. Or at least, non-automated. I think once you ramp up production to a certain level, where everything becomes normalized and automated, it's no longer craft. It's no longer an art of creating, but an industrial production process. So maybe once you pass a certain number of barrels produced in the lifetime of that product, or exceed a number of barrels per batch...
For me "craft" is about pushing limits and trying new things. Everyone has to establish a core, but once that core is an established thing. If you then are not spending a significant part of your production on new and innovative things, I wouldn't really consider you craft anymore.
Craft is a buzzword without meaning. I think it started in beer when microbreweries got to big to be called micro...so they became craft. Its hard to define because it's inherently meaningless, a small operation that's to big to be called small.
