Genuine Imported Beers: US Beers

Budweiser and Miller may be among the most obvious brands associated with the United States, but it's the genuine American imports that are causing a real stir at the moment. Adam Withrington reports.

Put the words "American" and "beer" together and they don't normally form pleasing pictures in the mind of the consumer. You know they produce it, but the feeling is they don't do it very well. However, the times could be a-changing. For where in the 1980s we saw the great German beer invasion with brands such as Holsten, 2005 could well be the start of the great North American beer invasion.

You might feel this has already happened given the popularity of brands like Budweiser and Miller. According to recent AC Nielsen statistics bottled Bud accounts for just under 35 per cent of the premium packaged lager market. However, this is an invasion of an entirely different kind. All of the well-known big US brands are brewed under licence in the UK. The new kids on the block are genuine imports - this is the invasion of the American craft brewer.

There are some American craft beers that have been in the on-trade for a few years, and are now starting to gain momentum. Brands like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (pictured)​, for example, have been slow burners, but they are now being joined in the UK by an ever growing list of major craft brewers. Last month The Publican reported on High Falls brewery in Rochester, New York, and its decision to export several of its beers in to the UK market.

High Falls is the fourth biggest brewer in the US and was formed in 2000 as the successor company to the, perhaps, better known Tennessee Brewing Company.

As well as this, UK-based beer importers are starting to bring genuine American craft beers into the on-trade. James Clay is now handling brands brewed by the Brooklyn Brewing Company, while Specialist Brand Development, based in Uxbridge, Middlesex, is importing beers from Canadian brewer Sleemans.

So why this sudden demand for all beers American? According to Pete Martin, managing director of International Brands, who is helping High Falls with its export plans, the answer is that the UK market is ripe for the plucking. "Both myself and those in charge at High Falls felt it was a great time to target the UK market. There is a real leaning towards American craft beers over here right now," says Pete, who worked for Warsteiner at the time of the great German beer invasion in the late 1980s. "I think that this has a lot to do with the fact that the European beer market has bottomed out somewhat. People want to find something else now."

More to US beer than Bud​

There is a growing awareness among UK consumers that there is more to American beer than Budweiser, as Nigel Stevenson from James Clay explains: "People might think that US beer is quite 'samey' with Bud and Miller. But now more and more people are going to the States, thanks to cheaper flights, and they are starting to realise that there is much more to its beer."

Nigel says what James Clay is now doing with Brooklyn Brewery is a good example of this. "Every beer drinker in Britain is familiar with the beer that made Milwaukee famous, but it's not to everybody's taste - many people find it bland and uninteresting. We are convinced that Brooklyn Brewery's products will change the way drinkers in this country view Uncle Sam's beer and help them realise there are breweries in America turning out fantastic products," says Nigel.

Steve Holt, managing director of Vertical Drinks, which imports Sierra Nevada (pictured)​ to the UK, believes that American craft beers will stand out on your bar like no other genuine import.

"Importers have to be very careful with what they bring in," he explains. "They have to make sure it has a real point of difference to what is already in the UK. So people may not accept European or English-style beers from America - they want the original US styles. What's really unique about these craft beers is the way they use American hops - they have citrusy and fruit flavours that you can't really find in British hops."

Steve believes the British brewing industry can learn a great deal from American craft brewers and what they have done for the image of beer. "There has been a small revolution in US brewing," he says. The profile of the consumer at the Great American Beer Festival is of a young, trendy, smartly dressed person - completely different to that of the Great British Beer Festival.

"The reason is that the American brewers have worked very hard with the idea of beer and food," explains Steve. "Americans are far less snobbish about food and beer matching than we are."

North American craft beers winging their way to the UK​

• Brooklyn Brewery​

Brooklyn Lager is amber gold in colour, the beer is made using centuries-old traditional methods. Its fruity, malt body is balanced by a floral bouquet, achieved by a process known as "dry hopping", in which hops are added to the beer as it matures for a period of up to four weeks. As well as being great to drink on its own, Brooklyn Lager is a good accompaniment to Italian food or salads.

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout has a powerful malty flavour with an aroma of dark chocolate and coffee. At 8.25 per cent ABV it is obviously not designed to be a session beer and is best sampled as a digestif in a brandy glass. It blends perfectly with chocolate desserts and is made between October and March.

Post Road Pumpkin Ale is made to a recipe first used by early American colonists that has benefited from the addition of a few secret spices by Brooklyn's master brewer, Garrett Oliver. The result is an ale of 5.1 per cent abv that has a warm aroma with a rich, spicy, crisp finish.

The brewer also has a range of seasonal beers that come over to the UK once every couple of months such as Anchor Steam and Goose Island.

Sierra Nevada​

The brewery, in Chico, California, was founded in about 1980 and is now the ninth largest brewery in the US. Steve Holt from Vertical Drinks says the beer produced is much more like traditional English beer. "Sierra Nevada is like an American-style pale ale. It is brewed much like the traditional IPAs would have been brewed in the UK about 100 years ago. Pale ale is seen as a dying drink in the UK. In the US it is much stronger (around six per cent) and much hoppier."

Sleemans​

Imported by Specialist Brand Development, whose managing director Nick Holmes says it has taken time to get the right beer from the Canadian brewer's portfolio for the UK market. "We started off importing Sleeman's Silver Creek beer but I think we got that wrong," he admits. "UK consumers would consider it to be a light beer, which is not that popular here and it means you can't really price it at a premium. Therefore we decided to introduce Sleeman's Honey Brown. We will launch it on draught in February and we are pretty sure that it will be the only genuine imported North American lager available on draught in the UK."

High Falls​

The Rochester-based brewer has a large portfolio of beers but it has cherry-picked its entire JW Dundee's range, which consists of American Pale Ale, Original Honey Brown and American Amber Lager, as well as Genesse Cream Ale, for the UK market.