Table of Contents
For The Assistant Brewers
FOREWORD
If you date the inception of the American craft brewing renaissance back to the opening of the first start-up, small-scale, still-operating artisanal brewery, then we are all celebrating this movement along with Sierra Nevada as they celebrate this monumental thirtieth anniversary this year. A lot of credit for the early awareness and enthusiasm for beers beyond the standard light lager style that dominated our national beer landscape back then must go to the homebrewers, beer enthusiasts, and open-minded regional brewers who recognized the potential for small-scale commercial brewing before it got off the ground. Fritz Maytags visionary efforts in taking over the ailing Anchor Brewery and directing it toward this movement toward better beer were certainly instrumental in setting us all on the right path. Fritz was a mentor and inspiration for many of those early craft brewers like Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada and Jack McAuliffe of New Albion Brewing. Fritzs altruism and openness in sharing his passion and knowledge with these fledging brewers set the tone for the welcoming, mutually-supportive community that has grown into an international movement toward better beer.
The giant brewing conglomerates that dominated the marketplace for many decades were nearly successful in stripping all of the color and diversity out of the American beer landscape by marketing and distributing very similar versions of a very approachable, and very innocuous omnipresent beer style: the light lager. They differentiated the beers they produced not by focusing on the distinction of the liquid itself but by the ways and means of marketing and selling their respective liquids. The all-mighty liquid that is beer was nearly turned into a commodity. All it took was money. Money to buy giant advertising campaigns. Money to buy national sales armies. Money to gobble up smaller regional breweries.
The craft brewing movement has never been about money. Since the first day Ken Grossman visited Fritz Maytag at Anchor Brewery, it has always been about a shared enthusiasm and passion for and knowledge of the wide world of beer beyond the light lager juggernaut. This knowledge and passion moved out in small concentric circles from the founders of this movement as home brewers, early craft brewers, and beer lovers shared information, access to equipment, access to ingredients, and access to the growing ranks of disenfranchised consumers who expected something more out of their beer. Today craft beer still accounts for less than 5 percent of the beer sold in America, but it is the only segment of the beer industry that is growing. Imports are down. Industrial light lager is flat. Craft beer sales are at an all-time high and are gaining momentum and traction into the mainstream. We still have a long way to go. The largest American-owned breweries, Yuengling and Boston Beer, each control 1 percent of the domestic beer market. Two giant international brewing conglomerates share over 80 percent control of the domestic beer market. Something is wrong with this picture. Like our ancestors who dumped tea into Boston Harbor, American beer enthusiasts are revolting against foreign control and voting with their wallets to support the hundreds of small, independent craft breweries making beautiful, full-flavored beersbeers differentiated by the quality and distinction of the liquid inside the bottle, not the marketing and aggressive sales tactics that take place outside the bottle. We havent achieved this minor but expanding success with money. We have done it together with passion and knowledge.
Great American Craft Beer, by Andy Crouch, represents another great leap forward for our movement. Andys knowledge of and passion for craft beer is infectious and articulate. If we are going to continue to convert more drinkers each day to the world of better beer, the information we need to share about the beautiful, diverse beers needs to be approachable, methodical, and enticing. This book offers a great overview of the movement and a unique format of segmented, related styles in a way that allows the reader to understand the connections between certain beers while learning about the individual (and very individualistic) breweries that produce them. As I read the book, it was immediately apparent that Andys approach to analyzing, appreciating, and describing these amazing beers truly comes from the experience of trying them himself and formulating an impression based on his knowledge and his palate. His evocative language describing the nuances of beers using descriptors like graham cracker notes or cotton candy hops reminds the reader that he is coming to this book first as a beer lover and second as a beer expert.
This book will give beer loversnovices and experts alikean increased level of confidence and knowledge to experience beer as Andy does, even if each readers opinions or favorite beers differ. Thats what is so great about craft beer; its subjective. We each come to it with our own set of reference points and perceptions. And we each find the beers that ring true to us individually. Every one of us has a unique taste biography our own internal narrative of evolving palate preferences. Therefore, beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder. But having a common language and shared context gives us all a basic platform from which we can move out in our own preferred directions. And incorporating food-and-beer pairing into this journey amplifies the breadth of experiences we can enjoy and build upon. So Great American Craft Beer the book is born some thirty odd years after the movement began. What does our future as beer lovers and beer makers hold? What will the next thirty years look like? What are the next trends, ingredients, and styles that are going to enchant and captivate us? The great thing is that none us knows for sure. Andys book will share information that will answer your questions about the wonderful Beer Moment we are now in and the path that we took to get here. But where do we go from here? We shall see what we shall see. It kind of feels exhilarating not knowing where our individual palates or the beer world are going next, doesnt it? As beer lovers we are fortunate to have more choices of more beers from more breweries than ever before in the history of our country.
As craft brewers, we take our beer very seriously. At Dogfish Head, our goal is to make world class beer that is outside of every class in the world. Other growing craft breweries may focus on nailing Old World styles and in that way making them their own. Regardless of our individual approaches, we collectively take our passion for and enjoyment of our beer very seriously. But we dont take ourselves too seriously. Because beer is fun. Our community is one of the most joyous and most inviting places around. The example the founders of our community set in sharing their knowledge and passion is alive and well and gaining momentum. When I look behind the beer fest booths at the smiles on the faces of craft brewers and their coworkers, I know they feel the same way about this as we do at Dogfish Head. Whether their brewery focuses on traditional wheat beers or Champgne-bottle-conditioned strong ales doesnt matter; as Andy successfully describes within these pages, the more styles and non-styles of great beer, the merrier. We do a lot of things differently. We contain multitudes. But what bonds us together is our shared obsession with making American craft beer synonymous with quality enjoyment. Compared to many of the other best things in lifea new car, a vacation, a world-class bottle of winecraft brewed beer is an affordable luxury. More and more people are discovering this every single day.
