Craft vs. Crafty: big and small breweries square off

Wynkoop Brewing CO.'s head brewer Andy Brown takes a small taste of the Chancellor beer which has been inside a whiskey barrel for 16 months. (Denver Post file photo)RelatedDec 13:Beer snobs wait in Colorado Springs for "world's best" Trappist ale

A brewing dispute between big beer and small, independent brewers escalated Thursday when the Boulder-based Brewers Association, a trade association for the little guys, accused the giants of being too, well, crafty.

The association issued a statement accusing megabreweries of "deliberately attempting to blur the lines" between their own craft-beer-inspired brands and beer created by small, independent brewers.

"We call for transparency in brand ownership and for information to be clearly presented in a way that allows beer drinkers to make an informed choice about who brewed the beer they are drinking," the statement said.

Since 2004, craft beer has doubled its share of the U.S. beer market to nearly 6 percent, according First Drafts: Beer Blog

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