Lotte Peplow, American craft beer ambassador in Europe for the Brewers Association, offers a personal view of why American craft beer is much sought after this side of the pond.
Lotte Peplow. Photographs: Nic Crilly-Hargrave
Reflecting on the Brewers Association’s participation at three beer festivals in the UK this summer, it’s clear to me that interest in American craft beer is at an all-time high.
The story began at the inaugural Manchester Craft Beer Festival, on 23rd and 24th July, held at the cavernous Mayfield Depot. The Brewers Association Export Development Programme showcased 27 American craft breweries, pouring 50 different beers. By the end of the festival almost every last drop had been sampled.
The good people of Manchester formed long queues all festival to sample UK-rare, top quality, and highly innovative American craft beers, and it was humbling to see the awe, admiration, and respect beer drinkers showed for the beers they sampled. The Brewers Association stand was one of the busiest of the festival.
Lotte serving keen drinkers at the London Craft Beer Festival
Fast forward to BrewLDN, held at a new venue, Printworks, on 29th and 30th July, where the Brewers Association hosted two full-house tastings to appreciative beer drinkers. Due to travel restrictions, no American craft brewers could attend, so instead they joined virtually and presented their beers on screen.
The Brewers Association has conducted highly popular tastings at BrewLDN for a number of years now, and always delivers a range of style-diverse, high quality, world-class tasting beers that have the audience enraptured. This year was no exception, and it was exciting to see beer drinkers appreciating the quality of the beers in real life rather than on screen.
Our final activation was at London Craft Beer Festival, 13th and 14th August, at Tobacco Dock, east London, in which the Brewers Association participated for the first time. This time we poured 70 different American craft beers from 27 breweries, including much sought-after, iconic beers that are unavailable in the UK.
Beers ranged from gold medal-winning non-alcoholic beers to 15.7% ABV quadruple oatmeal Russian imperial stouts, as well as a beer containing pineapple pulp, which caused much excitement. An extensive line-up of pale ales, IPAs, DIPAs, and TIPAs showcased sought-after hop varieties and flavours for which American craft brewing is renowned. As at Manchester, the stand was highly popular throughout the festival, with many beers running out by the end.
Discussing the finer points of American brewing in Manchester
Such interest in American craft beer was mind-blowing to see and re-affirmed my perception of gold standard quality and a high level of expertise in American craft brewing. But it’s not just my opinion. American craft beer regularly wins top honours at international beer competitions judged by the finest beer palates in the world.
The UK is an important export market for American craft beer and plenty of American craft breweries are available here, such as Athletic Brewing Co, Cigar City Brewing Co, Heretic Brewing Co, Oskar Blues Brewery, Rogue Ales, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, and Stone Brewing Co.
American craft beer helped to pioneer the global craft beer revolution and can be found in the UK’s bottle shops, pubs, bars, restauarants, and supermarkets, as well as via online beer shops and subscription services.
About the Brewers Association
The Brewers Association (BA) is the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts.
The BA represents 5,400 US breweries. The BA’s independent craft brewer seal is a widely adopted symbol that differentiates beers by small and independent craft brewers.
The BA organises events including the World Beer Cup, Great American Beer Festival, Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America, SAVOR: An American Craft Beer and Food Experience, Homebrew Con, National Homebrew Competition and American Craft Beer Week.
The BA publishes The New Brewer magazine, and Brewers Publications is the largest publisher of brewing literature in the US.
Beer lovers are invited to learn more about the dynamic world of craft beer at CraftBeer.com and about homebrewing via the BA’s American Homebrewers Association and the free Brew Guru mobile app.
