The trade has fought back at national press reports that brewers are misleading the public over the origin of its "foreign beer" brands. Reports in the national press this week have slated brewers such as Scottish & Newcastle, Interbrew and Shepherd Neame for producing premium lagers such as Kronenbourg, Kingfisher and Oranjeboom while misleading consumers into believing they are imported.
Karen Kelshaw, of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), argued that brewers are able to reproduce the exact recipes and water quality in the UK: "The country is clearly labelled on the packaging. It makes more sense to brew in Britain for consuming in Britain," she said.
Stuart Neame of brewer Shepherd Neame agreed: "Each lager has to be clearly labelled as brewed in the UK," he said.
"We make the lager to the stringent demands of the brand owners who ensure that the product tastes like the real thing," he added
Meanwhile, Iain Lowe of the Campaign for Real Ale has spoken out and said that in some cases the quality of the product brewed in the UK is superior. He said: "The Kingfisher lager you drink here is often better than that in India, because the temperature fluctuations there make it difficult to brew a standardised product."
Research from Euromonitor says that 85 per cent of foreign premium lager sold in the UK last year was actually brewed domestically rather than imported.