I’ll have a craft beer, you might say, when your colleague proposes another round at the pub. Coming right up. But… what actually is a craft beer?

Well, once upon a time (the 1970s) it reliably meant “made in an independent brewery”. Later on it got hipsterified, and in the 2000s and 2010s a choice of craft beer became synonymous with “very expensive” and “comes in a wanky can”. Craft beer can also indicate double strength (DIPA, anyone?), triple strength (that’s a TIPA) or chocolate oat flavoured stout. Nowadays though, it refers to an astonishing number of beers meaning your kindly colleague could end up........

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