Until recently, few would have predicted that US craft beers would find their way into European markets, yet today they are successfully meeting European tastes. Craft beers are increasingly able to compete with other products in Europe, such as wine, and there is increasing market demand in Europe for innovative, rare and exotic beers.

US brewers looking to sell their products in Europe cannot, however, simply apply their US commercial strategies, but should instead adapt distribution models that align with their commercial goals in order to take into account the European legal and regulatory context. In addition, although the US legislative framework has a lot in common with that of the European Economic Area, each EU member state has its own regulatory and distribution peculiarities.

Read the full article, originally published in the November/December 2016 issue of The New Brewer.