American craft beers return to the land of their forebears

As far as business proposals go, it’s a pretty daring one: American craft breweries are trying to penetrate the nirvana of every beer lover – Belgium.

The taps and shelves of Belgian supermarkets and cafes are still largely dominated by local favourites like Chimay, Hoegaarden and Leffe. But products from breweries farther afield, like Hawaii, California and Maryland, are slowly popping up.

“They’re starting to enter Belgium more and more,” confirms Sofie Vanrafelghem, a Ghent-based beer consultant and the only Belgian juror at the World Beer Cup 2016 competition that took place in Philadelphia earlier this month. “It’s a general phenomenon. Belgians are slowly starting to discover American beers.”

According to oft-cited figures, Belgium boasts some 1,500 different beers, the fruit of a rich brewing tradition that goes back several centuries. The largest beer company in the world, AB InBev, is based in Leuven, with an empire that includes dive bar staples Stella Artois, Budweiser, Beck’s and Corona, and has a global market share of nearly 31%. A request to have the country’s beer tradition listed as Unesco heritage is pending.

Belgium’s brewing legacy is admired around the world and, especially in the US, is still seen as the standard-bearer, says Vanrafelghem. Many US brewers slap “Belgian-style” onto their beers as a quality label of sorts – even when there is nothing “Belgian” about them. “Clearly, the Belgian aspect must still mean something to them,” she says.

Homage to Belgium

Joshua Smith, the UK-based brand ambassador for Goose Island, says that the first beers of the Chicago-based craft brewery, when it opened back in the 1990s, were inspired by Belgium’s brewing heritage. “I suppose it can be a bit funny when you’re thinking: ‘Why would Belgium import a beer that was almost a sort of homage to Belgium?’” he says.

In April, the brewery started serving its Goose IPA in a handful of bars in Belgium. Two additional brews, 312 and Honkers Ale, and more bars are to follow in the coming months.

But they come in peace, Smith says. “We’d love to be the favourite US import, but we haven’t got any takeover intentions,” he says. “It’s just offering different choices and expanding the market in terms of styles. Craft beer, for me, is all about giving people options as opposed to trying to get them to have just one option.”

At the same time, beer experts have warned that it is time locals get off their high horse and open their eyes to the changed realities of the international beer landscape. “We're absolutely not the only country that can make good beers,” says Vanrafelghem. “That list definitely includes the United States. And a number of countries in Europe, like Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, are also doing really well,”.

No easy pickings

For now, the inroads of US breweries like Goose Island into the Belgian market appear aimed at the beer connoisseur types who attend multi-day events like the Zythos Beer Festival, routinely seek out new brews, and turn their nose up at Jupiler, Maes and the like.

Average customers, meanwhile, have responded to the US incursions like one might to an indecent proposal – with a bit of curiosity but a polite “no, thank you”.

Bram Mombers-Schepers, 30, a Brussels local, says he doesn’t see the appeal of US craft beers. “I'm proud of our Belgian beer and craftsmanship. Why would I be unfaithful when I can drink so many good beers that were made here?”

Jean-Louis Van de Perre, chair of the Belgian Brewers industry association, says local brewers have been following the craft beer developments across the Atlantic. But threatened they feel not, thank you very much.

“We’re not panicking, no,” he says, smiling. “Belgian beers have enough qualities to take on the competition.”

Citing the richness of the beer landscape, which spans dozens of styles like pils, Trappist, abbey, Flemish browns and amber beers, he expects local customers to stick with home-grown brands for the foreseeable future. “If you look at the Belgian market, foreign beers have had little to no success so far. Belgians remain attached to their Belgian beers.”

In local hands

If local brewers seem so lackadaisical about the encroachment of American competitors into their home territory, it’s also because local consumers are no longer that important to their business figures.

Domestic beer consumption has been declining for years, and 62% of our beer production is today exported abroad, with France, the Netherlands, Germany and the US the top export markets. With the craft beer revolution of the last decades that has rocked beer landscapes in established as well as emerging markets such as Latin America, the competition has got a lot tougher for Belgian brewers.

Faced with this increasingly crowded marketplace and the rising popularity of US craft beers, one strategy of Belgian beer companies has been to simply gobble up the craft players. AB InBev, for instance, has bought Blue Point Brewing in New York, Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles, 10 Barrel Brewing in Oregon, Elysian in Seattle and Goose Island.

So, in a strange twist that underlines the behemoth position of Belgian brewers on the global market, several of the American craft breweries trying to seduce us are in fact owned by Belgian companies.

Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas, which is owned by Duvel Moortgat, for instance, premiered two of its beers on the Belgian market last year. Today, its Single White IPA and Tank 7 are available in some 400 bars across the country.

Debbie Wilmsen, press co-ordinator for Duvel Moortgat, says Tank 7 is a hit with local beer drinkers. “Customers love the beer and keep ordering it or asking after it. The surprising and novel taste was the decisive factor.”

Photo courtesy Goose Island