A licence to fill?
Does it make any difference to taste if a beer is brewed under licence in a country rather than imported? Nigel Huddleston finds out
What do the five best-selling beer brands in the United Kingdom have in common?
Well, no surprise that they are all lagers, but more than that, they’re all beers that started out as overseas brands that were imported to the UK, only to end up being brewed there under licence once their popularity reached critical mass.
Paying shipping costs for a beer that’s sold in quantities of a few thousand cases is one thing, but when the figures start to hit the millions it’s easier and cheaper to hijack the name and produce it on home soil.
Stella Artois, Foster’s, Carling, Budweiser and Carlsberg have all at some point in the last 30 years decided that upsetting a few beardy beer lovers is worth while for the opportunity to make production reassuringly more inexpensive.
Over the years this has got up a few noses from time to time. Carlsberg Export came in for some particular stick for its ads showing the beer that’s ‘so good the Danes hate to see it leave,’ when the only Danes who would have seen it on its way from the brewery would be those who’d bought houses next door in the English Midlands town of Northampton, where Carlsberg has its UK base.
And these days, your imported beer might well be a genuine import – but just not from where you imagined. Cobra, the lager brand with its emotional roots in India, has some of its supplies for the UK and other European countries, produced in Poland, while Japanese brand Asahi was until recently producing for the UK in the Czech Republic.....
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By Nigel Huddleston
Section : Beer Issues
Page number : 44
