Beer Me! Links for a Monday

Brewdog, a Scottish brewery that’s fairly popular, just released a beer they’re calling “No Label.” The profits are going to go to a few British LBGTQI+ organizations. This is all well and good, in theory, but a number of trans people I know and know of have pointed out massive problems with the beer and campaign. Julia Astrid Davis, a brewer and transgender woman breaks down clearly and quickly the various ways in which this action, though it may seem good on the surface, is actually incredibly problematic.

Will Robertson and Julia Burke have another response, both to Brewdog and Davis over on Skepchick. I’m unsure of this one, myself, but it’s another set of interesting perspectives. Overall, though, I find myself agreeing strongly with Davis.

A popular beer, Beck’s, was once made in Germany and is now made in St. Louis, Missouri. It’s made from the same recipe and to the same specifications, so can it still be called “German” and, importantly, command import prices? Apparently not.

This April in San Diego, Evan Parent filed suit against MillerCoors for positioning Blue Moon as a “craft” beer. A couple of weeks ago, a federal judge dismissed the case. Why? Because “craft” isn’t an objective fact that can be demonstrated true or false.

But “craft” is marketable; that’s part of Parent’s complaint. So as beer aficionados attempt to define it, even as they pay a premium for the word, it becomes interesting that 1) Pennsylvania-based Tröegs went from “Tröegs Craft Brewery” to “Tröegs Independent Brewing” and 2) Liz at Naptown Pint is finding a near-complete lack of discussion over the name change and it’s divergence from the word “craft.” Is the word dying?

Finally, does it matter if the word’s dying when those of us most interested in craft/local/micro/insert-word-of-choice-here beer won’t actually talk about the downsides of beer and our relationship to it? Isn’t it time to start talking? Jacob at Hipster Brewfus is willing to kick it off, which is quite brave.