ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 examines how the craft beer community constructs and maintains its value system, how status is negotiated within the community, and how the value system gets tested when tensions and disharmonies arise in the community as capitalist profit-seeking becomes more present in the community of brewers. It discusses these issues through the concepts of authenticity and subcultural values. It looks at the concept of authenticity as a genuine belief in, and adherence to, the values of the craft beer community, but also examines this concept through the way that participating in an entrepreneurial endeavor that necessitates the generation of profit creates inherent contradictions to the value structure that get dealt with through the community evaluating what its values are given the changing nature of the craft beer industry, as well as how those brewers or breweries in question are positioned within the community. Negotiating tensions and disharmonies requires the community to be self-reflexive and be aware of how it is positioned within the marketplace, specifically against “big beer.” This chapter concludes by acknowledging the internal contradictions in craft beer but also by asserting that craft beer can be seen as a model for alternative forms of economic development that do not just focus on financial growth but consider quality of life as a measurable value. Craft practices provide a model for living differently and embracing a different set of values.
