They’re hop-ping across the pond… the Yanks are coming in force!
By: JimOldfield
July 19th, 2012
Just a handful of decades ago, Britain’s real ale drinkers were most definitely chasing the brewers, as lovers of proper beer tried desperately to avoid the swimming-pool vats of tasteless ‘ale’ turned out by a handful of mass producers.
But the real ale boom has produced an astonishing turnaround – as the mushrooming numbers of new ale producers mean the brewers are increasingly going to be chasing the customers.
Now, adding to the competition is the fact that the American “craft” brewing revolution is also about to burst onto our doorstep – to put further competition pressure on our ale producers.
Figures just out from the US Brewers Association show a staggering 52 per cent increase in exports of American “craft beer” to Europe last year – with the main markets identified as Sweden and the UK.
Sweden is now the world’s second biggest importer of US craft beers, behind Canada – and the American Brewers Association has an aggressive Export Development Programme (EDP) which is keenly targeting Britain.
To that end, it says next month’s CAMRA Great British Beer Festival, at London’s Olympia, is a “signature component” of its “summer activity schedule”.
It has shipped a total of 120 casks to the festival, together with bottles from 20 breweries, as its website says, to give: “a substantial presence for US craft breweries at the festival. In fact, the United States was, for the most part, given its own bar/booth at the festival… a departure from past years, in which all foreign beers were grouped together”.
One such brewery is Smuttynose, which is now exporting its ales – including its best-selling IPA – to Europe from Portsmouth… New Hampshire.
Likewise, Boston’s Samuel Adams brewery founder, Jim Koch, is out to prove to Europeans that American craft beer isn’t just “like McDonald’s, and Burger King and Taco Bell”.
Some of his ales are aged for TWENTY years in their barrels – and when one of his ales won beat all the ‘home’ brews in Munich to take the Octoberfest gold medal there, it was a signal warning to all European brewers…
The Yanks are definitely coming!
Hand-Pumped links:
www.samueladams.com
www.smuttynose.com
www.brewersassociation.org
