Montpelier’s is one of a chain of seven, vaguely trendy bars in Edinburgh that wears its heart on its sleeve. We Love Craft Beers declares a large billboard that lists 20 of them, including such fine examples as Peroni, Guinness and Coors Light.
Admittedly there are plenty of genuine craft beers listed, but it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. Signor Peroni, sensing the chill winds of the mainstream beer market, wants to reposition his beer as something crafty.
Positioning matters to Peroni, which in 2013 decided it was too posh for Skegness. Its decision not to sell to a local hotel, prompted someone to suggest that residents should follow one of the seaside resort’s many donkeys along the beach with an empty bottle if they wished to know what they were missing.
The beer blogger Pete Brown sees a close parallel with the music industry where the major record labels cashed in on ‘indie music’ and left it a debased, meaningless term. Although ‘craft beer’ appears to be heading the same way, I don’t think we’re quite as dim as some of the big brewers seem to believe. The implication that Guinness and its ilk are lovingly hand-crafted in a couthy, wee brewery is a joke.
When it comes to spirits. however, the idea of ‘craft’ has become pretty well meaningless. In November the Diageo director David Gates told an investor conference in New York that: "Johnnie Walker is the largest craft whisky brand in the world". Given that it’s already the biggest-selling whisky on the planet, he only added the ‘c’ word to confer warm, fuzzy feelings of craftsmanship and homespun tradition.
Basically ‘craft’ can mean whatever you want it to mean. But as a concept it matters to the big distillers who are well aware of our dwindling faith in big institutions like FIFA and certain big brands like VW and RBS. What Diageo and others are very keen to discredit is the notion that the word suggests something small-scale.
Sorry if this is getting a bit heavy the morning after Hogmanay. My only excuse is that it’s being written the week before Christmas. But for now, all the very best for the year ahead.
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