If you like to purchase craft beer online, what’s the main driving force behind it? Are you just trying to shun bigger corporate brands? Are you trying to impress your friends with your finer taste in beer? Maybe you just like to taste and sample different beers and craft beers allows you the variety to do that. Whatever your reason, you’re in good company.

Craft beer truly is the best of what beer has to offer, and below we’ll give you all the best reasons to suppose that craft beer simply is the better choice, hands down.

Reason 1: Richer and More Varied Flavours

Where mass-produced beer is restricted by a small handful of recipes and styles, craft beer producers are free to try and make different flavours and styles, sometimes in small, limited-edition batches. Where big labels only reach out to a wider market, typically via the lowest common denominator, craft beer makers are much more likely to put more time into making a much more creative brew.

With craft breweries popping up all over the place, the number of unique styles and varieties is also growing exponentially, giving craft beer fans the potential for all-new beer taste experiences every week while big-label beer drinkers just get the same thing every day.

Reason 2: Higher Alcohol Content

Craft beers tend to follow a more European continental style when it comes to alcohol content, particularly like Belgium. If you look at a selection of Belgian beers, they are typically much stronger than either French, German, or Danish mass-produced lagers, for instance. Craft beers follow that similar Belgian pattern, offering beer anywhere from 5-10 percent volume, and sometimes closer to 20 percent. Big-name beers are typically 3.1-5.0 percent in volume.

Why not enjoy a nice beer buzz from a few finer bottles of richer, finer beer rather than having to sink double the amount of regular lager and get all gassy and bloated in order to feel anything.

Reason 3: You Support Local Businesses

As we touched on in the previous point, many of the world’s most popular large-scale beer producers are in Europe and the US. Australia isn’t without them, either, but it’s still nice to support smaller up and coming businesses whenever you can. It helps new companies grow and provide jobs to smaller communities where these beers are often made, especially suburban and rural communities.

Craft breweries are more likely to reinvest the money they make back into their local communities rather than sending all the profits to some corporate mothership somewhere else. They get involved in community events as sponsors and vendors, and help these places to thrive once again.

Reason 4: A Beer for Every Season and Occasion

Whereas drinking big-name beer brings the same taste and experience whenever you drink it, many craft breweries make seasonal creations and tailor the taste of their beer to those occasions. Seasonal ingredients can help make each beer better suited either to the weather or to the season, such a rich, spiced flavours for the autumn months, contrasted with crisp, delicate and refreshing tones for the hot summer months.

Reason 5: High-Quality Ingredients

One final reason that sets craft beer above the rest is their producers’ dedication to using the best-possible locally sourced (and invariably) organic ingredients. This is yet another way, too, that craft breweries better support the local economy and community. They are also very transparent about their ingredients, allowing visitors to see them with their own eyes and get a sample of what’s going into the beer. That’s much harder with any larger, corporate beer maker.