You're standing in a big liquor store, trying to decide on a beer to bring to a barbecue for friends who you know have discerning taste. At the moment, you're at such a loss that you've decided to judge solely on the attractiveness of the labels. Then an employee comes up to you and says conspiratorially, "I have one bottle of Lunch left in the back. It's one per customer and there's just one last bottle sitting there. Do you want it?"
"Lunch?" you ask, confused. You already had lunch.
"It's a microbrew from Maine. They make tiny batches and sell out almost immediately."
A quick search finds that Lunch, indeed, is widely hailed and greatly appreciated by beer connoisseurs. So you buy it, you take it to your friends' house, and they hold the bottle up to the sun as though you've found the Holy Grail itself.
And you? Well, you've impressed your friends, but you have no idea why.
If this scenario sounds familiar, don't fret. Just as many people like to throw around wine terms that they aren't necessarily using correctly, people often interchange "craft," "micro," and "nano" brew incorrectly. As Murray Hunter, brewmaster at Gulf Island Brewery points out, the differences can be subtle or great:
[Murray Hunter Sound Clip]
The easiest to identify of the four types of breweries are the macro breweries. These are the enormous corporations, like Budweiser, Coors, and Anheuser-Busch, that can afford commercials on network television, during, say, the Super Bowl. These breweries produce upward of 100 million barrels of beer each year, and that's per brewery.
When you take a tour of a macro brewery, you'll want to wear comfortable shoes because you're going to do a lot of walking. The largest brewery in the world is the MillerCoors Brewery in Golden, Colorado, which has the capacity to house 22 million barrels of beer at once, while also housing packaging facilities, the executive headquarters, a museum, and a gift shop. The self guided tour is free and takes about half an hour, but visitors often spend hours enjoying the facility and tasting beer. After all, they don't just produce one kind of beer; in fact, they produce their own craft beers.
Are you scratching your head? Yes, it's true, macro breweries can invest in craft breweries. However, in order to maintain their independence, only 25% of the craft brewery may be controlled by a beverage alcohol industry member who isn't itself a craft brewer.
As much emphasis as people put on craft breweries being smaller, what really sets them apart is their approach to brewing. Craft brewers reach back in time to use historically traditional methods of brewing, while incorporating innovative new twists on flavors to make their own beers distinct from the rest.
You may be surprised to find that Sam Adams is considered a craft brewer, even though it's now a household name. But, in fact, Samuel Adams Lager was one of the first breweries in the craft beer movement back in the mid 1980s, when founder Jim Koch brewed the first batch in his kitchen. As the craft brewery frenzy grew, so did Samuel Adams. Some controversy exists around whether Samuel Adams can still be called a craft brewery, since it exceeds the original 2 million barrel cut off mark. But the company, itself, continues to identify as a craft brewery.
You probably hear "microbrewery" and "craft brewery" used interchangeably, and that's because microbreweries often use a craft brewery approach to creating their beers and can only produce 150,000 barrels per year (keeping it under the craft brewery maximum of 2 million). An additional stipulation for microbreweries is that they sell 75% or more of their beer off site. Since microbreweries are so small, they are often only distributed regionally, but being small allows them to be flexible and nimble in ways that larger brewers can't be.
So, microbreweries fit nicely into the category of craft breweries, but sometimes craft breweries are too big to be called microbreweries. This small distinction makes a big difference to the breweries themselves, but if you bring it up at a party, people may roll their eyes at you. But if anyone ever wonders out loud about the differences, you'll have your answer at the ready. Consider it your new party trick. But beware: once you come out with this beer fact, people may begin to consider you a connoisseur.
The definition of nanobreweries is flexible, with the standard guidelines set at breweries operating on a three-barrel or smaller system. However, some breweries are operating with systems of up to 10 barrels but still consider themselves nanobreweries because of their focus on very small scale production.
Oftentimes, nanobreweries grow out of successful home brewing systems. Since they take up relatively little space, nanobreweries might be housed in a garage and later expand into a warehouse space. And because they can be launched with relatively little investment, nanobreweries are often a low-risk entry point for home brewers who want to take things to the next level.
So the next time the beer expert stops you at your local liquor store, don't feel intimidated about asking for more details on the brewery it came from. Knowing the differences between the types of breweries lays the foundation for understanding what you're about to taste.