Craft Beers have been traditionally brewed in lower quantities than mass-produced beers, by smaller independent breweries. They are also brewed with the intention of making them more interesting and complex, with more personality and taste.  Craft Beers tend to be more full-bodied, but are not necessarily  dark, heavy beers.  They range from crystal-colored beers to darker, malty beers.
 
Craft Beers are much like wines.  As different as one wine is from another, so is one craft beer from another. They also are designed to be drunk a bit more slowly, and to be considered and discussed more as one drinks them. When you drink a Craft Beer, you will likely stop and think about the beer, and then typically will have a definite opinion about the beer, whether positive or negative.   This is the opposite of a standard bar beer, which you may drink and not really notice.

 

The Wine Loft has many beers but tries to specialize in Hi-Gravity craft beers.  These Craft Beers  are called "Hi-Grav" due to their weight.  They weigh more because they have more alcohol content.   A standard mass-produced beer has 4.2 % ABV - Alcohol By Volume .  Hi-Grav beers begin around 6.5 % ABV and could go 20% or higher, but most top out around 11-12 %.  Wine is normally about 12 %, so a Hi-Grav beer may be about the same %ABV as wine.   The higher alcohol content is part of its brewing process and part of its complexity.  It is all part of the experience of craft beers that may make them more interesting and more to be discussed than a standard mass-produced beer.

 

If a Hi-Grav beer has about 7% ABV, then one 12 ounce bottle will have about the same amount of alcohol as a 6 ounce glass of wine, and so the cost of that beer and wine should be close to the same.

 

Hi-Grav beers will cost more than a standard  beer.  This is primarily due to their more costly ingredients and the higher amounts amounts of the ingredients.

 

Beer contains water, alcohol, malts, hops, and yeasts. Many of today's craft beers are intentionally brewed with large amounts of hops.  This gives the beer a very refreshing and complex, but yet bitter, “hoppy” taste.   The Wine Loft has one beer  - "Ruination IPA" with 100+ IBU (International Bitterness Units).   

 

Many people prefer a maltier beer instead of a hoppier beer.  Malt beer is made typically with barley.  Malt beers are darker, sweeter, richer, more chocolate-flavored and possibly a bit coffee or mocha flavored.  John Barleycorn is at this end - more malty, a bit sweet/maple at the end.

 

JR Rocker's Bell Ringer is one of our beers that is a balanced blend, with flavors of both malts and hops.

 

We have hops.  We have malts.  We have high alcohol percentage.  The highest % ABV beer that The Wine Loft currently has is Double Dog Pale Ale, which has 11.5 % ABV.

 

All are definitely worth trying.  All are unique.  All are interesting.  Actually, all are very good -- but "good" depends on one's tastes and personality.

 

Try all of them and see which you do like.

 

 

 

The Wine Loft Mooresville