Lotte Peplow, the Brewers Association’s American Craft Beer Ambassador for Europe, explains where to buy American craft beer for Thanksgiving, and why.


The eyes of the world are on America this month, with the presidential election at the beginning and Thanksgiving at the end. So help celebrate one of the biggest occasions in the American calendar by raising a glass of American craft beer to our friends across the pond.

Thanksgiving is a national holiday that traditionally celebrates the autumn harvest. Families come together to give thanks for many blessings and enjoy a traditional meal, which includes turkey, stuffing, mashed potato, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Of course, where there is food there is also beer, and the full and complex flavours of American craft beer make it the
perfect partner for a Thanksgiving celebration.

I’m often asked where to find high-quality examples of American craft beer in the UK. With many of us now living under covid restrictions, online deliveries are proving a lifeline. Here’s a guide to three online retailers who are offering fresh, sought-after, style-diverse American craft beers, in cans or bottles, direct to your door.

Three of the best

Beers of Europe, established 20 years ago, claims to be Britain’s biggest online beer shop, with a wide selection of American craft breweries, including Firestone Walker and Trappist brewery Spencer.

Beer Hop UK is a newly-launched online beer retailer with access to American craft beers unavailable anywhere else in the UK.
Breweries include Cigar City, Oskar Blues, Sierra Nevada, and Stone.

The Beer Bruvs, launching on 1st December, promises to bring some of America’s best craft beers to your door. Breweries will include Bronx and Rogue Ales, among many more.

You can also find American craft beer on draught in selected pubs, bars, restaurants, and diners. As well as online retailers, bottles and cans are available in certain bottle shops, supermarkets, and via online subscription services.

The UK is the second largest export market for American craft beer (behind Canada) and it’s easy to see why: relentless innovation, technical brewing expertise, and an unswerving commitment to quality on the part of the brewers has helped position American craft beer at the leading edge of the global brewing industry.

What’s more, American brewers benefit from close proximity to the freshest examples of highly sought-after hop varieties, and by visiting the hop fields themselves, they are able to develop flavour profiles in American craft beer that are difficult to match elsewhere.

The fact that American craft beer regularly wins top honours at prestigious, highly regarded, international beer competitions judged by some of the finest sensory palates in the world is testimony to its success.

• Lotte Peplow is the American Craft Beer Ambassador in Europe for the Brewers Association and is based in the UK. She is a certified cicerone, BDI accredited beer sommelier, beer writer, international beer judge, beer communicator, and beer lover, who enjoys nothing more than experimenting with beer and food pairings. Find out more about American craft beer at brewersassociation.org or craftbeer.com

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.