US craft beer: How it inspired British brewers

[bloomington-lib]

According to the Brewers Association, exports of US craft beer rose by 72% in 2012, with Canada, the UK and Sweden making up the largest international markets.

Today the US boasts more than 2,000 breweries - up from barely 50 in 1980.

It's a remarkable turnaround for a nation whose beer was recently widely written off by consumers around the world as insufferably naff.

"Five or six years ago, if you were abroad and said you were an American brewer people would look the other way - they thought it was all yellow, fizzy water like Budweiser, Miller and Coors," says Jim Caruso, CEO of Flying Dog, an award-winning microbrewery in Frederick, Maryland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21541887

[T_i_B]

1. US beer is very popular over here

The likes of Sierra Nevada & Goose Island are in many UK supermarkets, many pubs (especially the real ale/craft beer pubs) stock the stuff and many UK breweries are maijng beer that's a direct imitation of US craft beer.