Craft Beer & Real Ale

There has been a lot of discussion recently over the specific definition of both 'craft beer' and 'real ale' and some people have really got their knickers in a twist over it! CAMRA seem to be relaxing their traditionally conservative stance indicated by the introduction of both continental keg and American bottled stands into the GBBF.
I was lured into the debate when an  e-mail from Tony Egerton at CAMRA asking for my take on the matter appeared in the DBC inbox. It immediately reminded me of a rather lengthy blog post by the Brewdog guys. Martin and James joined the fray and suggested a series of defining points for 'craft beer' relating to size, authenticity, ownership and integrity. You can check it out here:

 http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/defining-craft-beer.
So I gave it some thought while digging out the mash tun. I reckon forget size, after all Brewdog are turning into a giant themselves and could well find their 'craft' status revoked given their rate of growth by their own standards. It really should be about care, love and passion. Materials and processes should be chosen primarily for their desirable qualities and not because they are simply the cheapest option. i.e. A brewer is in charge not an accountant. 

The beer should be made by somebody dedicated to that profession and in my opinion someone who would do it as a hobby anyway. A brewer who is dedicated and understands the science of whats going on and why, not a production operative who is simply doing it for his wage packet and only cares about quality because its part of his KPIs. It's also about the company ethos as a whole in my mind. If they think of their product range as simply a brand portfolio then they aren't craft. If they put the beer in bottles that are anything other than brown for marketing purposes or whatever, they aren't craft. Basically the beer comes first!

Whether ale is real or not is another matter, its not just about ale in a cask anymore. Unfiltered keg beers exist; filtered and re-pitched cask beers exist (many big boys such as Banks's do this); Key-kegs (seen in the middle of the pic) now allow 'yeast in' beer to be served through a lager font and Cornelius kegs can be used to serve both variants through fonts or hand pulls!

In my mind if its got yeast in it then it's undergoing conditioning within the container it is being served from. Therefore forget handpull vs font and keg vs cask etc. Yeast in = Real ale. I suspect the debate is likely to continue but ultimately all anybody wants is a tasty beer.