I’ve been away on work for a week so am catching up on my reading, which is why I came across Jay Brooks’ post in my previous post. Jay’s had a fairly prolific week. I was going to note this one (which is very interesting and a pointer for where our beer market is going), and then I came across this one. Maybe it’s because I’m Australian that I bristled a little, but I really can’t work out why you’d get upset over the use of the word “boutique”. Jay is a great beer writer and covers the US craft scene really well with great insight, but I can’t help wondering whether worrying so much over the word to describe non-mainstream beer really matters or whether it starts to create a winey snobbishness in beer.
I regularly describe beer as “boutique”. Boutique describes the characteristic of a small, exclusive producer or business. While “craft” beer has a distinct definition in the States, I can’t see any problems with using a generic adjective as a catch all phrase to describe beer that isn’t generic lager. Sydney’s Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe even uses the description in its name and when I once queried brewer Dave Hollyoak about it he pretty much shrugged and said he’d rather focus on the beer than the name. I’d be interested to know what readers of this blog think.
Yes, “craft” is a specific and important term in the States and I think Australia should have a similar definition developed as the comparatively nascent domestic beer market develops. Properly used it helps differentiate between a massive brewery and a small one…but in Australia is Coopers still a craft brewery? Little Creatures makes great beer but is substantially owned by Kirin now (formerly Lion Nathan)…are they “craft” or not? In getting worked up and damning a TV talking head for using a generic descriptor for beer with flavour seems to me pretty stupid. Shouldn’t we be celebrating that beer is starting to get mainstream coverage and hope that it leads to people trying better beer and maybe even learning the lingo later? To get all snarly about the use of a word like “boutique” just creates the sort of linguistic divisions that give wine a bad name and act as a barrier to people coming to the party. It makes beer a private club that leaves people feeling stupid and excluded if they refer to it the wrong way…when we should be welcoming them with open arms and saying thanks for talking about it. Even more, it is incredibly hard to get mainstream media to cover beer at all, is slamming them and calling them “a nutter” when they put together a pretty good story on beer going to (a) encourage them try and find out what the universally agreed definition of small brewed beer is (there isn’t one) or (b) discourage her from reporting on beer again?
Let me know what you think….
G’Day Matt,
I was talking about this very subject with some punters in the restaurant the other day. I guess many feel that the ‘craft’ tag refers more to the PROCESS than the business model – the care and love brewed into the beer, the fact that the brewer is crafting a beer to DRINK, not to SELL. In some ways maybe it has taken over from the term BOUTIQUE which seemed (in Melbourne anyway) to make potential buyers think of the PRICE rather than either the process or the business model.
‘Craft’ just seems to capture all that is good about the non-mainstream, non mass-produced beers and theirbrewers and seems to sum up what they are all about. Either way, as long as there are groups of people sharing a passion, there will be differing opinions. It don’t change the taste of the beer!
Cheers
Prof. Pilsner
PS. apologes for dropping the link to your blog from mine – I thought it had stopped after I didn’t get any updates for two months! I’ve stuck it back up.
Thanks Prof. I agree – it doesn’t change the taste of the beer. In Australia we can’t afford to get hung up ona definition because the industry is so small. Getting hung up about the “right” word to use in general reportage to differentiate Bridge Road from Coopers from Little Creatures from Matilda Bay from even the tiny Stone and Wood, which is now 20% owned by Little Creatures and therefore partially by Kirin, would end up creating an unworkable situation.
Matt, IMO boutique or premium beers include beers which are as much about marketing (and usually with a premium price) as about the beer. Craft beers are those where the process and ingredients are paramount, regardless of volume and who owns the brewery..
Having said that, there are poor craft beers and good boutique beers!
Thanks Steve…I do bridle a bit at “premium” because it’s used to describe Pure Blonde and Crown…it refers more to price than quality. I agree “craft” should be used to denote process and ingredients as you suggest, but still not sure there’s a problem with the adjective “boutique”…
There isn’t anything wrong with “boutique” of course but I think many people associate this with “premium”.
This is why I favour “craft” myself.
It’s all semantics really. If they like the beer, it’s a “good” beer!
I do agree Steve…and most who have made the move to better beer would probably make a similar distiction. I took issue with the original post because it was slamming the use of boutique in mainstream media and not too many mainstream beer drinkers would distinguish between Crown and Cantillion, so worrying about terminology is pretty pointless and makes good beer seem like a club with a secret handshake.
I guess I should chime in here since I’ve been labeled “stupid” for caring what word is used to describe beer. Yes, in a sense, I suppose it can be considered stupid, except that I’m a writer, too, so understand that words are probably more important to me than for the average person. They’re my stock in trade so I notice them, their meanings and how they’re used like nurses notice medical mistakes watching ER or Grey’s Anatomy.
Initially, it wasn’t so much the word itself, but that she admitted she was using the word (which she also said she knew was not a common term in the U.S.) precisely because she was Australian, and therefore boutique was more familiar to her, in effect ignoring her audience.
As you point out, I should simply be glad beer is being talked about in the mainstream media – and I am – but (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) it’s confusing enough for people who don’t know what craft is to suddenly introduce them to yet another new term without much explanation as to what it means and how it differs from craft or microbrewery. You also mentioned that “not too many mainstream beer drinkers would distinguish between Crown and Cantillion, so worrying about terminology is pretty pointless and makes good beer seem like a club with a secret handshake.” I can’t help but think just the opposite is true. By further confusing people who can’t tell the difference between different beers, I think you’re making it more difficult for them, not less.
And as for my “winey snobbishness,” isn’t “boutique” a word more often used to describe small wineries in the U.S.? I brought it up at all, because I think it’s the wrong word to describe craft beer because it sounds like a wine term that has all those snobbish connotations you accuse me of just for mentioning it. If the point is to make craft beer seem NOT “like a club with a secret handshake” then boutique is definitely not the word to accomplish that goal. My saying so doesn’t change that.
Also, you quote Fred Eckhart’s column and Fritz Maytag’s views. That was at least ten years ago, possibly longer. These days, Maytag is far more involved in making wine (York Creek is his label) and his nephew runs the brewery. The definition of craft in the US. that was created recently by the Brewers Association was long and heated a few years ago and most people (myself included) don’t agree with all of it. But micro had a very specific meaning as to barrels produced per year and had to be replaced. The CNBC announcer could have used any number of other generic terms like better beer, good beer, small breweries, etc. without using boutique.
Ultimately, though, I think the biggest mistake is to believe that words don’t matter. They do. Political campaigns hang on one wrong word. Entire academic fields exist to study their effects: communication theory, linguistics, framing techniques, marketing, public relations and propaganda all manipulate people and their actions by the choice of words. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword.
J
P.S. – I hope I don’t sound to churlish in all this, I love this sort of debate and relish the exchange of opinions and ideas.
Thanks for chiming in Jay! Certainly wasn’t intending to label you stupid in any way.
Words do matter, and I think an accepted definition to describe beer made a particular way is important for brewers to adhere to so as they don’t misrepresent their product by describing it as “craft” when it comes from the same sized factory as something mainstream so that consumers can differentiate the two. But to get worked up about a mainstream journalist – someone who obviously hasn’t given beer much thought previously – using it is another matter. It can be hard to expect a journalist or anyone outside of their area of expertise to grasp the nuances of words that outside of a particular field mean much the same thing, or their use in different regions. Your assumption that in Australia we refer to “soccer” as “football” bears this out…just as her doing even limited research may have shown her that “craft” means something in the States, even a cursory investigation would have shown you that our national team is the Socceroos. It’s easy to do and, ultimately, not important in the context of her story.
Yes, ideally beer brewed to the definition should be called craft (and I’m pretty sure that she would be surprised to learn that there is a definition of what craft beer is rather than just a generic descriptor) and, yes, she should have known to call craft beer by that name, but is lambasting her and calling her “a nutter” going to make her more or less likely to report positively on good beer in the future? “Craft” matters to people to whom beer matters and it makes sense. I think to people outside that club it does create a barrier to entry if they’re shot down for the use of the wrong word. Call it beer preschool – you give 3 years olds books with words and pictures, even though they can’t read. WIth beer, get people drinking craft beer first…and then teach them what it means.
Looking forward to catching up in Denver.
Yeah, I definitely blew it on the soccer analogy. I’ve been corrected so many times by European friends that I’d come to believe only we ugly Americans called it soccer. In my defense, I was writing extemporaneously like I do most of my blog posts, so I rarely research anything in that context. That’s what paying gigs are for. That’s what I expect CNBC to do. They were producing a professional broadcast. I was writing off the top of my head (or out of my arse, depending on your perspective). Different animals.
As for giving mainstream journalists a hard time, I do respectfully disagree. I’ve been closely watching this for years now. Very few media outlets do beer any justice and more often than not, the response from the industry is to simply be happy they’re covering us at all. I understand that, but I simply can’t abide it. If you look though my archives you’ll see I have a history of lambasting (good word, BTW) bad journalism. To me, it’s sad that usually I am the only one getting “worked up.” Nothing will ever change if we don’t do something. Did I go too far? Probably, but that’s years of frustration piled upon itself. It probably wasn’t entirely her fault, as an anchor she’s likely got producers for each story. And whoever the producer was, should have done a better job at briefing her and preparing her for the interview.
Again, it wasn’t just the word but her rationale for using it in the face of knowing better. If you listen all the way through it, her colleague also picks it up and uses boutique, too.
In the end, I am a mainstream journalist so I do expect more of my colleagues. I’ve written for newspapers for years and earlier this year started writing a bi-weekly syndicated column for a newsgroup that owns sixty papers, one of the biggest in the country. I know editors and producers could do a better job. Some are simply overworked and underpaid, even fearful for their livelihood. But in my experience there’s also a healthy percentage of the media who just doesn’t care about getting things right, especially with beer. I’ve had other journalists tell me to my face that anyone could write about beer, so large was their ignorance about it. So many believe it’s just Bud, Miller, Coors, Corona and Heineken and that’s it. To me that’s the power of advertising and marketing. But it’s embarrassing and so I do tend to get “worked up” pretty easily. But that’s just my personality.
See you in Denver. First pint’s on me.