What are Craft Beer and what are their effects?

Craft beer is such if it is created from a small, independent and traditional brewery as determined by the Brewers Association. Other names of craft brewery are brewpubs, microbreweries, and regional breweries. A brewery is considered small if it produces no more than two million barrels per annum. If 25% of the brewery is owned or controlled by any non-craft alcoholic beverage industry member, then the brewery won’t be considered to be a producer of craft beers. The final criterion, being traditional, is determined with the brewery either having an all malt flagship beer, or with at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or beers that use adjuncts to improve taste. Normally, barley is used in brewing but brewers may use other adjuncts such as oatmeal, rye, fruits and spices. The most common adjuncts used though are corn and rice. They have little to do with the beer’s flavor and usually cost lesser than barley, thus creating a thin, inexpensive brew which tastes thin and almost flavorless.

This regional beers in essence is what home cooking is to eating in the restaurant (mass produced and commercial beer). Whether it is better is a very subjective issue to debate on.

Because microbreweries also use the same ingredients as your regular beer, it also has potential bad effects. Whether it’s a commercially produced beer or a locally made beer, it all depends on its alcohol content. Maximum alcohol content varies per state and per country. On average, craft beers usually contain 7%-9% alcohol content. What everyone could probably agree on is that anyone who intoxicates himself with too much alcohol would find his sight blurry. In addition, the dreaded hangover effect could also be a potential bad effect of drinking too much beer. Loss of muscle control is also one bad effect of drinking too much alcohol. Even after hours of clearing the alcohol from our body, certain functions of the muscles cannot be fully regained.