Is using Hop Extract "Craft Brewing"?

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Kegging beer on CO2 gas isn't crafty enough. I only drink naturally carbonated beers.
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you best be boiling your water to decarbonate it, and only use soured wort or sauermalz to adjust your mash.

Oh and krausening too. There's your abritrary line in the sand.

You can be on the non-Craft side with Budweiser and Russian River.
 
I have to call my dad and tell him he hasn't built anything of note in his 40 years as a cabinet maker because he doesn't mill his own lumber. He'll be heartbroken.
Figures that a guy who doesn't know the difference between a sawmill worker and a cabinet maker also wouldn't know the differnece between a farmer and a brewer. :cross:
 
I think the beer the op is talking about is an awesome beer! I don't know about being able to taste the extract but I can taste the hoppy delecouisness!
 
I agree with the majority opinion here to a point.
Is hop oil non craft? Malt extract? Fruit extract?

What if a brewery made a beer with only malt extract, hop oil, high fructose corn syrup, and commercial yeast.... And then pasteurized it. Would you guys be into that? Doesn't matter how it tastes I'm just after the perception. What if they had a chemical factory produce that beer in powder form and they just rehydrated, carbonated, and packaged it?
I'll skip the malt extract, hop extract, etc thank you very much.
Not trolling here, just expressing my personal opinion.
 
The hops get milled, and have a solvent (usually liquid co2) run through them to remove the oils and then the solvent is removed leaving behind the extract.
 
I used to think of it as cheating when it first came out. Now I think it's a old man way of thinking about it. Technology changes products and procedures so I dont think its really cheating in that sense. Ive never used the stuff but i think it tastes pretty good in the beers ive had that It's brewed with.
 
I used to think of it as cheating when it first came out. Now I think it's a old man way of thinking about it.
Yeah, sometimes I'm old school. It all comes down to where you personally draw the line. Extracting bitterness and flavor from hops, fermentable sugars from grain. These are a couple of the challenges that make homebrewing a fun hobby for me. Sure you can have these processes done for you in a factory and make great beer, but is that the point of the hobby? No for me. I could buy great beer if that was all that was important to me.

Someday it'll be pre-hopped, pre-boiled, pre-pitched kits bought in the refrigeration section. Bring it home and put it in your pre-built fermentation chamber. After a few weeks, take it over to the place that cans beer. Pick it up a couple of weeks later and stick it in your fridge.

I guess you could call that brewing. ;)
 
IMO, if peanut butter powder has a place in craft brewing, then hop extract has a place there, too.

...Someday it'll be pre-hopped, pre-boiled, pre-pitched kits bought in the refrigeration section. Bring it home and put it in your pre-built fermentation chamber. After a few weeks, take it over to the place that cans beer. Pick it up a couple of weeks later and stick it in your fridge.

I guess you could call that brewing. ;)

I'd call that innovative!

(oops, better call my lawyer...)
 
If the brewer in question uses an electric grain mill are they not as "authentic" as someone who hitches up the old plow horse to the stone wheel to mill the grain? Last I checked shortcuts are allowed. Unless you are going to suggest that using gas instead of building and maintaining a fire is grounds for not being "craft" enough.

If you can taste the difference, then don't drink it. Its beer man, not life or death. Its meant to be enjoyed. Who honestly gives a rats ball sack if it meets some definition of a word that was invented anyway?
 
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