The Reason Why Import Beers Are Being Brewed in America | VinePair

Before craft breweries carpeted America in IPAs, import beer deliciously contrasted domestic lager. British oatmeal stouts, German pilsners, and Belgian tripels bobbed across the Atlantic Ocean and stamped passports prior to settling in bars and bottle shops. Provenance and stories about time-creased brewing traditions sold bottles and pints.

With skyrocketing shipping costs and more than 9,000 breweries and taprooms, foreign breweries are ditching import status and producing beer stateside to better compete on freshness and price. Heineken-owned Lagunitas Brewing makes Newcastle Brown Ale, a British beer, at its breweries in Chicago and Petaluma, Calif., while Anheuser-Busch InBev shifted production of the Belgian lager Stella Artois to America in 2021. And global breweries such as Guinness and Trumer are opening taprooms and brewing small-batch beers, muddying the lines between import brands and trusted local breweries.

For VinePair, I take a look at why American breweries are producing imported beer.