Sunday, March 8, 2009

Exporting American Beer Internationally

As the number of small breweries in America and the American population's taste for varying beer styles continues to grow, foreign breweries have become more and more involved in American beer commerce. Of course, giants like Guinness and Heineken have been a mainstay here for decades, but lately more and more small breweries from Belgium, Germany and even Japan have been introduced and well received in the American brewing scene.

The same cannot be said for the flip-side of the coin. My travels in Europe have proven to me that only the Budweisers and Millers have made it to the other side of the Atlantic. Here, in the storied, historical beer cultures of Europe, they are typically not well received. Many of my European counterparts have become forever jaded against American beer due to the bland taste demonstrated by its macro-breweries.

If only those Europeans could taste the recent explosion of flavors of American craft brew! In the true entrepreneurial spirit, America has become a melting pot of domestic and international flavors, and shrewd, experimental brewers have combined and added to these styles, creating truly American adaptations of old recipes. Could there be a market in Europe or elsewhere for exciting, American craft brew?

First, a few problems. Take Germany for example. This country clearly loves it's beer--events like Oktoberfest center around the delicious beverage and very high percentages of the population drinks in large quantities. Clearly a market, right? Perhaps not. An American micro-brew would have to travel a long distance to be exported to Germany, and many preservatives would be added, reducing flavor and potentially harming taste, and thus, overall business. Second, building a satellite brewery in Germany or selling it in German bars would be tough--until recently Germany beer purity law, the "Reinheitsgebot," prohibited selling or producing any beer in the country that was not made with a very strict bill of ingredients. Even though this law has been since abolished, many proud Germans still adhere to this practice.

Any entrepreneur interested in international commerce would have to be very careful to weigh the pros, cons, and expenses of such a venture. Personally, I believe that it is only a matter of time before delicious America brews peak the interest of international beer drinkers and suppliers. The creativity of brewers here has exceeded anything on the international scale and the question is simply thus; who will be the first to capture the international market--and how will they do it?

1 comment:

  1. We are trying to address this same issue. We are based out of Charleston SC. Our company is in the process of doing pilot research in Austria. We would love to bring american craft beer to Austria. We are finding with are research that most Austrians are unaware of an pale ale, IPA, BarleyWine etc. Again, all they know is Budwiser, Miller and Coors.

    I would love to get your thoughts on this and what you know about american craft beers in Austria

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