Whisky is a fundamentally industrial product; fetishizing the "small batch artisinal" etc aspects ignores all the hard work that goes into making a replicable product, especially over the course of a decade-plus production cycle.
Beer has a similar problem; "small batch artisinal" tends to result in inconsistent product, so the easiest thing to do is to cover up inconsistencies with a lot of malt and hops. It's actually significantly harder to make a nice light pilsner than it is to make a heavyweight IPA.
If you want a "craft" product, you should really make it yourself.
Some of that is true; but there are historical antecedents that explain the use of hops and malts...
My company[1] builds quality control tools for artisan beverage producers; we know that craft production is a batch process relying on agricultural grains with inherent variation.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't be produced.
Craft production is undoubtedly higher quality than any continuous production - it just takes more skill (or software tools..) to do correctly and consistently.
Furthermore, the use of certain ingredients to reduce noticeable inconsistencies came at a time before process control was a known science. For example, hops were originally added to beer being shipped from England to India (hence the name India Pale Ale or IPA). Now, that practice didn't survive because of quality control - it has survived because people like the taste of IPAs and there is demand in the market for that flavor profile.
Consumers don't think of skill of production when rating beers or whiskeys; they judge only the resulting flavor profile and are influenced by contextual clues such as age statements or 'hand made batch numbered artisan spirit' promises.
"Craft production is undoubtedly higher quality than any continuous production - it just takes more skill (or software tools..) to do correctly and consistently."
Craft production peaks at a higher quality than any continuous production, I think is what you're trying to say? Because obviously, those who fail to do it correctly or consistently are still engaged in "craft production".
If we take this a little further though,
part of craft production is the curation;
being willing to dump batches that don't meet your quality standard.
Any producer who knowingly ships product below their quality standard is no longer engaded an artisan production.
I think it certainly runs risk of "No true Scotsman". It also assumes that "their quality standard" is higher than that employed in the continuous production cases. I do think it's a good nudge for artisanal producers, which fits your role :-P
Only if you see inconsistency as bad (if you do, then McDonald's makes the best hamburgers.) Inconsistency is the key selling point of small batches.
Agreed, IPA is a no-brainer beer without subtlety. If you put enough hops in sewer water it'll taste like an IPA but that doesn't mean making a pilsner is rocket surgery.
And as long as I am ranting on IPA, I can't wait for the current craze for them to be over. A few years ago when I would ask the waitress what beers they have on tap she'd rattle off 8 wheat beers. (Seriously, one wheat beer in the summer is plenty and Bell's Oberon is a pleasantly inconsistent choice.) Now it's half a dozen IPAs. I have a suggestion to the bars and brewers for the next beer fad: an old world artisinal classic - lager.
Over here in the UK everywhere is doing IPAs at the moment. It's such a pain. I think it's because the hoppiness masks the fact that they don't clean their lines as much as they should.
I miss the days of a good mild or bitter with porters and stouts thrown in the mix.
On tap at a bar in my area? Yes, absolutely. I see nothing but wheat beer, IPA and maybe a stout or porter. If I want a lager I usually end up with Sam Adams, which is OK, but it'd be nice if another brewery could make a lager too.
Perhaps this is my "Midwestern privilege" rearing its ugly head, but I suspect that most of the USA has a different sort of bar scene.
"Oh yeah we got lots of stuff on tap. We got Bud, Bud Light, Miller, Miller Lite, Busch, Busch Light, Michelob, Michelob Light... oh I forgot: Coors Light, too!"
Frankly I'm always ready for an IPA the recipe for which is "sewer water + hops".
Hey, brazilian feeling good here! Because we sucessfully make huge amounts of pilsen beer, in a very consistent way. Yes, the thing always tastes like water and cat piss :)
Covering a beer up with a lot of hops and malts isn't so much to hide the off-flavors. Rather, some producers like to weave together complex malts and hops into a balanced product.
And the off-flavors aren't a by-product of the size of the producer. I work in the industry doing quality control at the same company[1] as another commenter, and we see inconsistencies with producers the size of a local brewpub to large producers that sell to 7+ states.
Using technology can help reduce inconsistencies, but the end goal it to never let the consumer taste a bad batch. It is cheaper to dump a bad batch than to ship it, as this may result in loss of customers.
Bigger producers know this and will more readily dump a bad batch than a smaller producer.
Lastly, I have seen a producer that ships to 3 states have a manual brewing system, while a small neighborhood brewpub that just started distributing uses a fully automated system.
Beer has a similar problem; "small batch artisinal" tends to result in inconsistent product, so the easiest thing to do is to cover up inconsistencies with a lot of malt and hops. It's actually significantly harder to make a nice light pilsner than it is to make a heavyweight IPA.
If you want a "craft" product, you should really make it yourself.