The normal Italian beer drinker, even an aficionado, could raise various objections to craft beer.
It is very often an aggressive beer, strongly hopped and therefore bitter.
It often has an alcohol content well above the usual 4.5-5% ABV.
Without pasteurization or microfiltration, lager (bottom-fermented beer, which is the type preferred by the great majority of Italians and Americans) keeps badly. In a first phase microorganisms remaining in the beer thanks to the absence of these processes can give the beer character and freshness, but after 15 days they begin to go bad and give off a nasty taste. For this reason craft breweries often do not offer their lagers in bottles but only in kegs to be tapped immediately by drinking spots or for that matter only in pubs attached to the breweries. This limitation is much less important with ales (top-fermented beers).
It costs much more than an industrial beer.
This price may be considered justified, but in any case the price is much higher.
There is a certain preciousness to craft beers thanks to the ecstatic appreciation of its connoisseurs, who sip it as though it were a highly prized vintage of Brunello wine. Such a beer is far from the spirit of good company in a carefree evening of many rounds of an easily drinkable beer.
The taste of the same type of craft beer is not guaranteed to be the same from one batch to the next because it is affected by various factors that are hard to control. This can irritate the beer drinker who wants to count on a certain taste without surpises.
