It’s already a given that Colorado is “the center of the universe when it comes to craft beer,” says Denver Westword. After all, the state is home to the Great American Beer Festival, the Brewers Association, and 161 breweries. But now the alt-weekly wonders if Colorado may also become known as the home of so-called “crafty” beers.
The term entered the beer-nerd lexicon last week when the Brewers Association called out majors SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch InBev for trying to create sub-brands that mislead consumers into thinking that they are “craft.” Blue Moon Belgian Wheat Beer and ShockTop are among the products that are “not labeled as products of large breweries,” a fact which the Brewers Association finds disingenuous.
Since both brands were born and bred in the state, Denver Westword wonders if they haven’t seen the last of “crafty” beer trend. As the statement from the Brewers Association point out, the cause of the issue is that “the large, multinational brewers appear to be deliberately attempting to blur the lines between their crafty, craft-like beers and true craft beers from today’s small and independent brewers.”
As to why the organization has released their statement now, spokeperson Julia Herz tells Denver Westword that “it was in response to recent media coverage about megabreweries [that] have been experimenting with craft beer.”
[via Denver Westword]