Among many other things in his recent interview with Brooklyn Magazine, Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, eloquently speaks his mind about the ongoing battle of craft vs crafty in the beer community.
“My outlook on it is somewhat philosophical. Am I annoyed? Yes. It’s very annoying to see people who are not you walking around dressed as you and claiming to be you, essentially, and using the advantages they have to try to get people to think, “beer is beer, it’s all the same,” etc. What I say to people is, take the big breweries, and anyone, anyone in the room I’m in, sometimes hundreds of people, can you name the brewmaster? Anyone got a name? No, there is no name. There’s no name. There’s nothing but money. And money moves, and this liquid moves around the world, and there’s nothing but money. If you want to understand what it’s about, it’s about money. And we are about something else.”
Keith Villa. Real name. Real brewer. Really created Blue Moon at the Coors brewpub in Denver. Just sayin’.