The Word “Craft” Has Been Stolen from UK Beer — and Nobody Seems to Care
I was scanning the news this morning and something from CAMRA caught my attention. Their annual Beer in the UK report, published yesterday, makes a blunt claim: seven of the top 10 selling “craft beers” in the UK are made by just four global brewing conglomerates.
Not independents. Not small breweries. Not local operations with character. Big beer — Heineken, AB InBev, Asahi, and Molson Coors — selling you cans and bottles with artisanal vibes while the actual independent breweries are closing at a rate of nearly three per week.
The Craft Illusion
The brands named in the CAMRA report read like a who’s who of UK craft beer’s most beloved names: Beavertown (Heineken), Camden Town and Goose Island (AB InBev), Meantime (Asahi), and Blue Moon (Molson Coors).
If you bought one of those thinking you were supporting independent brewing, you weren’t. Not anymore. Camden Town was acquired by AB InBev for £85 million in 2015. Beavertown took a £40 million investment from Heineken back in 2018, which has since grown into full ownership.
The report also flags beers marketed as foreign imports that are actually brewed in the UK — like Madri, promoted as the “soul of Madrid” despite having minimal Spanish connection.
The Independent Brewers Gave Up on “Craft” Two Years Ago
This isn’t new information — it’s been building for years. The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) abandoned the word “craft” entirely in October 2024, replacing it with “Indie Beer” and launching a certification mark to help consumers identify genuinely independent breweries.
The reasoning was simple: the word “craft” had become meaningless when the biggest brewers in the world could slap it on a can and call it a day. If Goose Island counts as craft, the word doesn’t mean anything.
Yet despite SIBA’s efforts, the term persists on supermarket shelves, pub menus, and bottle store displays. Consumers remain unaware that many of their favourite “craft” brands are now subsidiaries of multinational conglomerates.
The Real Crisis Isn’t the Label — It’s the Closures
Here’s the data that should be the real headline. According to SIBA’s UK Brewery Tracker, published in January, the UK now has just 1,578 individual breweries as of January 1, 2026. That’s down from 1,715 at the start of 2025, 1,815 in 2024, and 1,828 in 2023.
Companies House data is even starker: 320 breweries shut their doors last year, while only 170 opened, resulting in a net loss of 150. The sector peaked at 2,594 brewing companies in 2022 and has been in steady decline ever since.
SIBA chief executive Andy Slee called it a “survival crisis for British brewing.” And it’s not about demand — SIBA’s own research shows that independently brewed cask beer is in double-digit growth and consumer appetite for independent beer is high.
The problem, as CAMRA’s Tim Webb puts it, is access to market. Large brewery companies own the draught lines in pubs. Commercial deals ensure their own products get prioritised. Independent breweries are blocked from supermarket sales by price undercutting. Meanwhile, around two pubs a day are closing across the UK.
Why CAMRA Asking the CMA to Investigate Matters
What makes this week’s report particularly significant is that CAMRA isn’t just complaining — they’ve formally asked the Competition & Markets Authority to investigate whether small breweries are being unfairly elbowed off the bar by anti-competitive tactics from larger rivals.
This goes beyond the “craft” label debate. If the CMA finds evidence of anti-competitive practices — pub companies prioritising their own brewery’s products, supermarket supply deals that lock out independents — the remedies could reshape how beer gets onto UK bars.
The Irony
I find the broader picture quietly tragic. The UK craft beer boom of the 2010s — when every town seemed to have a new brewery, beer festivals were everywhere, and “craft” was the most exciting word in the beverage industry — has been hollowed out from within. The big brewers didn’t beat the independents at their own game; they bought the game.
The brands that defined the craft beer movement are now the products of the conglomerates that were supposed to be its opposition. And while consumers sip their Heineken-owned “craft” IPA, wondering why there are fewer local breweries than there used to be, the answer is sitting on the shelf next to their beer.
Look for the Indie mark next time. Or better yet, ask your local pub what’s actually independent on the cask list.
