Best Craft Bourbons! Best Rum In The Country! Top Craft Beers of 2021!
Headlines like these excited me and drew me in to try to find new tipples for years. Who doesn’t want to try and drink “the best,” after all? As I moved from casual drinker, to serious enthusiast, to founder of The Crafty Cask, I started to pay closer attention and ask questions:
Why have I already heard of most of these brands? Why do many of these articles feature the same brands and/or bottles…don’t these publications have a unique point of view? So, the best vodka also comes from the same brand that makes the best whiskey? Do I find that to be commonly true myself? No, not really.
Aren’t most of these breweries the same ones that were on last year’s “best of” article? Are any of these brands independently owned? Are all of the brands listed in this article actually owned by only 3-4 companies?! Why is that? There are thousands of craft makers across the country with new ones popping up every year!
As you can imagine, I began to get pretty disillusioned. I felt, core to my soul, the point of these articles should be to introduce enthusiasts to unique or new products they might not discover on their own. No offense Four Rose, but people aren’t having any trouble discovering your brand.
The majority of the brands showcased in the many articles promising to introduce you to new, unique, and often craft alcohol continue to showcase brands that have been around for years. Or worse, are owned by multi-million dollar conglomerates or corporations.
Now, to be clear, I’m not saying big brands and corporately-owned brands don’t make delicious booze. Some of them certainly do! And when you want to find them, all of those existing articles will certainly help you do so…but when you’re looking for something unique? Something from a smaller brand your enthusiast friends have likely never heard of and can really get excited about? Or when you want to travel through the taste of a place and support small businesses? Those articles, for the most part, are not so helpful.
OUR Favorites
So, we’re embarking on a new journey here at The Crafty Cask. We’re going to start publishing articles that pull together our team’s top picks for independently owned, craft alcohol. We’re not claiming they’re the “best”, because truly only your nose & tongue can decide what is “best” for you AND you’d have to taste everything to do that! But we are sharing them because they’re what we’ve been drinking lately and can’t get enough of. Or because we think they really stand out and are unique compared to what else is on the market. Or because we truly do think they are the best we’ve had for our palates—and if your palate is similar to one of our team members, then you might think it’s the best too!
So, settle on in, get to know us and our palates a bit so you can decide, for example, which of our favorite bourbons to sip neat and you might want to order online and try for yourself. Trying lots of craft booze so we can help you curate an awesome home bar is a tough job…but someone’s gotta do it. And lucky for you, I’m up for the challenge along with our highly trained professional tasting team of Evan, Jena, Jen, and Stefan.
If you love drinking craft and supporting small businesses with every sip you take as much as we do, stick around! You can sign up for our mailing list, follow us on social media, make our cocktails, or shop our favorites. Screw those other contrived lists paid for by big booze, because we’re excited to start bringing you our favorites in our ongoing effort to help you drink craft and drink deliciously. #TipplerNation
