the craft beer

[Ostap]

"A Ukrainian brewery has reportedly switched from producing craft beers to making Molotov cocktails to help fight the Russian military. Though, if you really want to slow down the Russians, just give them the craft beer."
link with time conde Late Night with Seth Meyers

Hello. Does the article before "craft beer" refer to the particular beer produced by the Ukrainian brewery in question?

 

[Tarheel]

Yes, but you seem to already know that. The suggestion is (made tongue in cheek) that if you want to slow down the Russian military give them beer, and that would work better than weapons. In this case they are talking about one beer in particular.

 

[jutfrank]

The use of the article is to refer to what has already been mentioned earlier in the sentence. It isn't referring to one particular variety of beer but more generally to the beer produced at that brewery. We know that the brewery produces a range of beers and we're talking generally about all and any of them.

 

[probus]

And by the way, there is a widely-held but undoubtedly groundless stereotypical belief that Russians are overly fond of alcohol.

 

[Ostap]

And by the way, there is a widely-held but undoubtedly groundless stereotypical belief that Russians are overly fond of alcohol.

And Russians are usually more associated with vodka. It's the Germans who would fit better in the original sentence since they are stereotypically fond of beers.

 

[Tarheel]

Germans probably have that reputation for a good reason. They do like their beer. In fact, there are places in Germany called beer halls.