5 Things to Know About Craft Breweries
Lifestyle expos
A craft brewery is more or less a beer brewery which is small in stature and tends to release small batches of specialized beer. Budweiser and Molson Canadian, for example, are the furthest thing from craft breweries. Long story short, the craft brewery is to Budweiser what the straight razor is to Gillette; while one may be easier to find and initially easier to appreciate to its fullest potential, the quality and craftsmanship that go into either product simply cannot be compared. Here are the five factors that most set craft breweries apart from their mass-produced counterparts. 1. At Craft Breweries, Beer Is the Only Concern Forget March Madness commercials and forget women in bikinis. Craft breweries toss marketing and cheap tricks aside in favor of focusing on one thing - the beer. While everyone's taste will certainly vary, there's no question as to whether or not your average craft beer has a larger and more complex flavor profile in comparison to some of the bigger brands. 2. Every Brewery Is Different Some will tell you that Coors Light tastes similar to Bud Light, or that Grolsch tastes similar to Heineken. However, nobody will tell you that one craft beer tastes similar to another. Craft beers are not made with sales in mind, but are instead tweaked to the tastes of the brewers themselves. Craft beers are made by craft drinkers, for craft drinkers. 3. Craft Breweries Like to Micromanage Unlike the brewing process found in some of the larger breweries wherein the cheapest possible ingredients are dumped into the pot to produce an equally cheap product (I'm at you, North American brands), craft beers are made of high-quality, hand-picked. While this may raise the price of the final product, craft drinkers will tell you it'sworth every penny. 4. Craft Breweries Aren't out to Get You Drunk Sure, there's alcohol in craft beer. However, this type of beer is not made simply as a drunkenness delivery system. Much like the difference between a cheap cigarette and a good cigar, one is meant to introduce a drug into your system while the other is meant to be enjoyed by other means, leaving said drug as nothing more than an added bonus. 5. Craft Brewers Don't Follow the Rules Lastly, when you buy a big-brand American beer, you're playing it safe. Even if you've never had the beer before, you can pretty much guess what it's going to taste like. With craft beer; however, every new batch is an adventure. There are no rules when it comes to flavor, nor are there any bland varieties. When you pick up a new craft beer, you never know what you're going to get.
