Comments on: American Beer In The UK

By: Max

Max — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:45:14 +0000

My guess is that there really isn’t any one single contributing factor. Each one of the reasons suggested are most likely valid and have impact in varying degrees. Personally though I belive the largest factor really comes down to the economics of transportation. My guess is the largest cost is shipping is shipping across the Atlantic (using out UK - USA example). Local distribution is probably nominal in comparrison. The greater quantity you ship, the cheaper it is per item to do so. Now compare markets… there would have to be 5x the demand in the UK for american beers to equate the reverse demand (just being rough based on population comparisons of the countries).

But if the average demand is similiar (which its probably lower based on the points people have raised) then the cost to ship small quantities from the US to the UK results in a much higher cost per item, which means expensive beer… and expensive beer means smaller demand, which means smaller shipments, which means…. well you get the point.

By: Eddie Rowles

Eddie Rowles — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 09:42:01 +0000

The appearance of US beers in UK supermarkets and national off-licences seems to be a cyclical trend.

I remember in the early days of Oddbins back in the early 80s we used to get inundated with Wicked Pete and his brews - plus Anchor Steam of course. I remember these being in Waitrose and going cheap as they were having trouble shifting.

Then a few years later we had Brooklyn Beers and Rogue being heavily promoted.

And in subsequent years we’ve had other brewers such as Rogue and Brooklyn (once again) trying to break into the UK market but they never seem to remain in numbers on a national scale.

Perhaps they’re regarded with disdain by home beer drinkers who wouldn’t normally touch American beers as they maybe suspect it’s just another “lite”? Maybe it’s the cost of importing them that means the supermarkets are not keen?

The suggestion that the British palate is not sophisticated enough to handle certain beers is utter crap. I suspect that Meantime beers went abroad as few people want to pay their over-inflated prices.

By: Kieran Haslett-Moore

Kieran Haslett-Moore — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:08:42 +0000

I think the reason pub culture suffers in the States is very similar to the reason it struggles here in NZ, prohibition. While in the states full prohibition was achieved, here individual suburbs voted themselfs dry and pubs were forced to close at 6pm for years. This turned pubs into ‘piss barns’ where you had an hour after work to consume as much beer as posible. Brewers adapted by making beer a watery medium for alcohol, pubs adapted by sheding anything that got in the way of fast binge drinking, the result was inhospitable pubs and very uninteresting beer.

As for American beer in NZ, while our micro brewers tend to take alot of influence from the states, the American beers that make it here all come via the UK, its pretty much unheard of to find anything outside of the Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Goose Island ect.

By: Al

Al — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:27:10 +0000

It’s not a one-way issue. It’s difficult to find British beer here that’s not Bass. Oh, sure, if you know where to look you can find stuff, and my favorite “candy store” has a nice selection, but in your run-of-the-mill beer store you might find, at best, a Boddington’s.

Stonch has a point. There’s no “pub culture” to speak of here. I’m not sure exactly why. I think it’s in large part economical. For the cost of two domestic industrial brewed light lagers at my local bar I could get a six-pack of 12 ounce bottles of something interesting. Not to mention that that’s not my kind of bar.

Of course, for most American, it’s not how much you spend but how much you saved.

Oops! I’m supposed to be on vacation! Sorry.

By: The Beer Nut

The Beer Nut — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:27:43 +0000

Given the extensive range of bottled beers in most UK supermarkets, albeit overwhelmingly domestic and European, I think the quality bottled beer market *does* exist and there’s no reason more Americans can’t be there, other than the reasons Mark gives above. That, and the stupid tiddly 12 oz bottles, Rogue excepted.

By: Stonch

Stonch — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:22:00 +0000

I think British beer lovers on the whole prefer to drink in the pub. That’s a limiting factor on the market for quality bottled beer. Quality ale in British pubs is usually cask-conditioned. Therefore the market for imported keg beers is limited. Those are two things I don’t want to change because of my love of pubs and real ale respectively.

One smaller but significant point to consider: the demographic these imports would be aimed at would be relatively affluent, well-educated people. Those are precisely the type of people who are more likely to be concerned about “food miles” (the environmental effect of importing something thousands of miles that could be sourced closer to home).