Australia's independent craft brewers are under pressure to develop a special label or seal to clearly identify their beers to the public after an international author has spoken out.
Dr Ina Verstl, the editor of Brauwelt International and co-author of The Beer Monopoly, is in Australia to address the Australian Craft Brewers Industry Australia (ACBA) Conference in Adelaide tomorrow.
Dr Verstl said that by developing an 'indie' seal and emblazing it on their products, Australia’s independent brewers could differentiate their beers from those produced by 'Big Beer'.
Such an approach would reflect what is already happening in the US, where the US Brewers Association has developed its own indie seal.
“My recommendation to Australian independent brewers is that they devise an indie seal of their own and emblazon it on their products to make their identity known, while at the same time engaging the public in a conversation about Big Beer versus independents,” Dr Verstl said.
Verstl said a decision in May this year by the ACBA to redraft its rules so membership depended on ownership and size had signalled an end to the independents' cohabitation with corporate craft brewers. As part of the change, the ACBA also changed its name to Independent Brewers Association (IBA).
Under the changes, no brewing company that is more than 20 per cent owned by a large brewery or other business such as a private equity firm, or had significant brewery holdings in Australia or overseas is eligible for membership.
The new rules mean craft brewers such as Mountain Goat (Asahi) and Matilda Bay (CUB/AB-Inbev) can no longer be members. The same applies to Little Creature, Malt Shovel (The James Squire brand) and White Rabbit (Lion/Kirin).
The cap size on members is also set at 400,000 hectolitres (40 million litres) per year, which means that Coopers Brewery, although family owned, cannot become a member because of its larger size.
Dr Verstl said the decision by independents to abandon the term craft in favour of independent reflected that the term ‘craft’ had evolved to become a market category, next to domestic and imports, rather than a description of independent brewers.
Dr Verstl will present a paper 'What is Craft Beer – The Debate over Independence' to the ACBC Conference tomorrow.
