We get this question most weekends on the Beer Mile: what actually makes a beer "craft"? It's not the can art, and it's not simply that it tastes hoppy. The honest answer is that "craft beer" doesn't have a fixed legal meaning in the UK — but it does have a real, useful definition that most of the industry agrees on, and it's one worth knowing before you spend your money. Here's what craft beer really means, what doesn't count however trendy the label, and where to go in London to taste the genuine article.
The short answer
Most people in the trade use "craft beer" to mean beer from a small, independent brewery, made with traditional ingredients and proper brewing methods rather than cheap shortcuts, with flavour and character as the point rather than mass-market sameness. Size, independence and ingredients are the three legs it usually stands on. Take any one away and the label starts to wobble.
Where the definition comes from
The idea was popularised in the United States, where the Brewers Association defines a craft brewer as small, independent and traditional: producing under a set annual volume threshold, with less than 25% owned or controlled by a drinks conglomerate that isn't itself a craft brewer, and brewing beer whose flavour derives from traditional or innovative ingredients rather than adjuncts used purely to lighten body or cut cost. The UK doesn't have an official equivalent, but the same three ideas — small, independent, flavour-first — are what British drinkers generally mean when they use the term.
Independence: the bit that trips people up
This is where "craft beer" gets genuinely contested. Over the past decade or so, several well-loved UK breweries that built their reputation as scrappy independents have sold part or all of their business to large multinational brewers. Camden Town Brewery, for instance, is owned by AB InBev, and Beavertown sold a majority stake to Heineken. The beer itself hasn't necessarily got worse — but strictly speaking, once a brand is majority-owned by a global brewing giant, it no longer meets the independence test, and purists will tell you it's no longer "craft" in the original sense, whatever the branding says. The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) exists partly to track and champion genuinely independent UK breweries, and its "assured independent craft brewer" mark is one of the few concrete signals shoppers can look for.
Size: how small is small?
There's no single agreed UK production cap, and it's a moving target as breweries grow. But the spirit of it is consistent: a craft brewery is small relative to the national giants. Most of the breweries on the Bermondsey Beer Mile and across London's independent scene brew a tiny fraction of what a major national lager brand produces in a day. That smallness is what allows short, experimental batches, seasonal one-offs and house styles you won't find anywhere else — the opposite of a beer engineered to taste identical in every pub in the country.
Traditional ingredients and honest methods
The third leg is about what's actually in the glass. Craft beer is generally brewed from malted barley (or wheat, oats and other traditional grains), hops, water and yeast, with any additional ingredients — fruit, spices, coffee, whatever — added for genuine flavour rather than to bulk out the batch cheaply. Mass-market lager sometimes uses adjuncts like rice or corn syrup to lighten body and reduce cost at scale. That's not automatically a bad beer, but it's a different philosophy to a small brewery pushing to see what a particular hop or yeast strain can do.
So what isn't craft beer?
- Beer from a brand majority-owned by a global drinks conglomerate — even if it started life as an independent and still tastes similar.
- Beer designed purely for consistency and cost at huge scale, with flavour secondary to shelf stability and margin.
- "Craft-style" packaging on a beer with no genuinely small, independent brewery behind it — can art and buzzwords like "small batch" aren't proof of anything on their own.
None of this means big-brand beer is bad, or that you shouldn't drink it if you enjoy it. It just isn't what most people mean by "craft" — and it's worth knowing the difference if independence and provenance matter to you.
A short history of London's craft beer scene
London's beer story is a decent illustration of the whole debate. The city was once dominated by huge Victorian breweries, most of which had closed or merged into national giants by the late 20th century. CAMRA's real ale campaign in the 1970s kept traditional cask brewing alive when it was under real threat. Then, from the early 2010s, a wave of small independent breweries — The Kernel, Brew By Numbers, Fourpure and dozens more — took over railway arches in South East London, particularly around Bermondsey, and effectively founded the modern London craft scene. That's the same run of arches our guided Beer Mile tour walks today, and it's exactly the independent, small-batch, flavour-first brewing this whole debate is about. For the fuller story, see our piece on the Bermondsey Beer Mile and its best breweries area by area.
Does "craft" mean better?
Not automatically. Quality exists at every scale, and there's perfectly good beer brewed by huge companies and perfectly ordinary beer brewed by tiny ones. What craft breweries reliably offer is more variety, more experimentation and a direct relationship between the person brewing and the beer in your glass — which tends to produce bolder, more distinctive results than beer designed to taste the same in every market. If you want to actually taste the difference rather than just read about it, that's exactly what a taproom crawl is for.
How to spot genuine craft beer when you're out
- Look for the brewery, not just the branding. A quick search tells you who owns it.
- Check for a SIBA "assured independent craft brewer" mark on cans, bottles or pump clips.
- Ask the bar staff. Good taprooms and craft-focused pubs know exactly where their beer comes from and are happy to talk about it.
- Visit the source. There's no substitute for drinking a beer in the taproom it was brewed in — you'll usually see the kit through a window or archway.
Taste genuine independent craft in Bermondsey
The easiest way to understand what "craft" actually tastes like is to go and taste six of them side by side. Our guided Bermondsey Beer Tasting Tour (£49pp, 2–3.5 hours, tastings included) takes you through four independent taprooms along the railway arches, with a local guide explaining what makes each brewery tick, from the malt they use to why they're independently owned. We've been running the tour since 2014, meeting at Southwark Brewing Co, 46 Druid St, and we host private groups from 6 up to 60+ — a great option for a work social or milestone birthday built entirely around the real story of craft beer.
Styles worth trying to see the range
- IPA — the flagship of the modern craft movement; see our IPA explainer for the styles.
- Session beers — proof that "craft" doesn't have to mean strong or intense.
- Barrel-aged and mixed-fermentation beers — the kind of experimentation a small brewery can afford to try that a national brand generally can't.
- House lagers — many independents brew excellent lagers too; see our lager vs ale explainer for the yeast and process differences.
If you're curious about the brewing process itself, our how is beer made guide walks through mashing, boiling, fermenting and packaging — the bit that's identical whether a brewery is craft or not, and where the real differences in ingredients and care start to show.
Make a full day of it
Pair a Beer Mile afternoon with our free self-guided heritage walk through Southwark's brewing history, or finish with our Saturday cheese, meat & beer tour to see how independent producers pair with proper food. Between the three, it's one of the most complete introductions to what independent, small-scale brewing actually looks and tastes like.
Gift the discovery
If you know someone who'd enjoy working out the difference glass in hand, our gift vouchers are delivered instantly by email and never expire, so they can pick their own date to come and taste genuine independent craft beer for themselves.