An ideal sunny day on the seashore. A soothing weekend barbecue. A rollerskating session with associates after a protracted day at work. In every of those situations, beer cans and bottles aren’t removed from attain. Smiling individuals pour themselves a beer and toast with their associates. These footage made by photographer Roberto Chamorro for Brooklyn Brewery painting a few of these moments whereas selling the brewery’s model in the USA.
In distinction, the picture beneath: a easy pint and bottle on a concrete floor with a colourful background mimicking the label. On the underside, the phrase “Alcohol abuse is unhealthy on your well being” is a part of the message. That is additionally an commercial for Brooklyn Brewery, however this one was made for the French market. If the brewery had launched the joyful footage on the seashore, they may have obtained a advantageous for being non-compliant with the nation’s Évin legislation, which restricts the way in which alcohol (and tobacco) producers can talk about their merchandise since 1991. Amongst different issues, the legislation prohibits the affiliation of alcohol with pleasure or sport in advert campaigns.
Fortunately, Brooklyn Brewery has a French staff (Brasseries Kronenbourg, owned by the Carlsberg Group, distributes their beer in France) that is aware of all concerning the do’s and don’ts of the Évin legislation and how one can preserve legislators glad.
However not everybody has the finances to have model managers in a number of international locations or to open breweries overseas—like Colorado-based Outer Vary did within the French Alps in 2023—to facilitate exporting beer.
“Promoting beer right here in Virginia requires us to have advertising and marketing on the market, to get individuals to grasp our manufacturers, to grasp what we’re doing and what we’re making, and it’s a lot more durable to try this in a overseas market,” says Chris Smith, co-founder of The Virginia Beer Firm in Williamsburg. The brewery exports to the U.Ok., Sweden, and the Netherlands.
For breweries eager to export and market their beers abroad, coping with the totally different European legal guidelines and laws will be difficult. Surprisingly, different facets of the beer export course of go smoother than anticipated.
A Value To Pay
In 2022, 7.3% of U.S. craft beer exports have been to the U.Ok., 7.1% to Sweden, and 5.2% to the Netherlands—adopted by Italy, Eire, and France. These high three markets are additionally the primary European markets for Qurban Walia, co-founder of Crafted Exports, an export and model administration firm based mostly in New York.
Whereas Walia says breweries’ important issues when reaching out to him are gross sales, progress, and the freshness of their beer, he’s a much bigger image. “We have now to grasp what’s occurring within the U.S. with all of the breweries and what they’re [European markets] on the lookout for,” he says. “However we even have to grasp what’s occurring in each worldwide nation that we promote to, and what’s occurring of their beer market as nicely.”
With foreign money fluctuations and the U.S. greenback being stronger in comparison with most European currencies, pricing can be powerful to navigate.
“Often breweries promote at a cheaper price for worldwide markets to try to offset the value of further delivery prices, elevated taxes, after which the foreign money,” Walia says. “It could typically appear to be U.S. beer may be very costly, but it surely’s simply because that’s the price of getting it from right here to there.”
Smith agrees. “If we bought [our beers] at our U.S. pricing, nobody would purchase it,” he says. “We attempt to make the beer as reasonably priced as potential on the shelf to present it an opportunity, however that places stress on us and on our margin.”
And The Winner Is
One other potential headache is compliancy with labeling legislations. Within the European Union, there are some shared guidelines relating to alcohol labeling legal guidelines: mentioning the substances is just not obligatory, neither is itemizing the calorie content material for drinks above 1.2% ABV.
Some international locations have exceptions, although: in France, the being pregnant warning pictogram measurement—which have to be represented on each label, home or imported—is regulated. In Eire, by 2026, alcohol merchandise must point out the well being dangers related to alcohol consumption on the label and anybody exporting may even must comply.
“We work principally with the breweries to replace their designs, to ensure that they’re compliant with the precise nation,” Walia says. Relying on the scale of the order and the nation the beer is distributed to, compliance can vary from making use of stickers to doing customized cans or altering the entire label. And one essential marketplace for U.S. breweries may be very particular on what it desires and doesn’t need: Sweden.
As in Norway with Vinmonopolet and Finland with Alko, Sweden has its personal government-owned alcoholic beverage retailer for drinks above 3.5% ABV (4.75% in Norway and eight% in Finland): Systembolaget. Labels connecting alcohol with work, kids, sports activities, weapons, visitors, or sexuality are strictly prohibited, which has led some breweries to redo their paintings. For instance, the little hop character on the can of Captain Lawrence Brewing Co’s Easy Grapefruit IPA needed to lose its knife to make it on their cabinets.
However earlier than even being listed in a Systembolaget, breweries must enter and win tenders categorized by beer types. After coming into three, Virginia Beer Firm gained the Summer season IPA tender and began exporting in 2025. “The method is a little bit bit powerful, however as a result of we got here in second place in that tender, our importer might pitch on to Systembolaget for some further beers,” Smith says. “We shipped a 40-foot container.”
Regardless of these rigorous guidelines, Walia says the Swedish market is one in all his favourite ones to work with, and the tenders and blind style take a look at are a part of the explanation why. “They’re judging the beer, not how huge your advertising and marketing finances is, however on the standard of the liquid, the standard of the beer,” he says. “That’s why there’s such an explosion of craft beer within the Scandinavian markets, as a result of they’ve made style the precedence, not value.”
On The Vibrant Aspect
Breweries wouldn’t undergo the difficulty of delivery beer abroad if there weren’t a constructive facet to it. Towards all odds, administrative procedures will be one in all them.
“Regardless that it’s dearer to ship beer to Europe due to the taxes, the governments do a very good job of creating it very straightforward to work with the compliance and really getting the beer via customs,” Walia says.
The compliance breweries must cope with every day when promoting their beer domestically is generally taken care of by the exporters and importers, which is a reduction in itself. “We’re requested why we don’t promote beer in a few of our neighboring states, and it’s as a result of we actually must register it in each single state,” Smith says. “It’s simpler for us to promote beer in France in so some ways, which is type of ridiculous.”
Smith additionally says he was stunned to see how related the European market was when it comes to individuals’s tastes, itemizing “hazy IPAs, barrel aged stouts, and closely fruited sours with a bunch of stuff in them” as a shared desire amongst beer drinkers. “I anticipated shoppers to have totally different preferences than American shoppers.”
Whereas there’s a rising curiosity for craft lagers within the States, European shoppers are nonetheless craving the haze. “All types have accomplished very nicely for us, however lagers are usually a little bit of a problem, partly as a result of Europe has so many nice and really reasonably priced lagers,” Walia says. “When individuals take into consideration the U.S., they’re actually on the lookout for IPAs, whether or not they’re hazy IPAs or West Coast IPAs.”
New Considerations
Due to that sturdy lager heritage and low pricing, some markets equivalent to Germany or Czech Republic nonetheless really feel out of attain for U.S. breweries. Others which are extra targeted on bottles equivalent to Italy or France have opened up, however with rising competitors.
“The beer has gotten so good in international locations like France that I feel there are fewer individuals prepared to pay the premium for American craft beer than there was,” stated Smith, who used to export to France earlier than his importer stopped doing enterprise. “The variety of importers has additionally decreased in plenty of these international locations, so it’s develop into tougher.”
Whereas he has hopes of getting again to enterprise in France and including Italy to the listing, it must wait. “Geopolitical points proper now have made it practically unattainable,” he says in reference to the Trump administration’s commerce wars which are bringing questions and uncertainty.
At Crafted Exports, Walia has to cope with these new issues from brewers. “I get plenty of calls from brewers who’re making an attempt to grasp the tariffs,” he says. “They need to understand how issues are working from a political standpoint globally, and the way that impacts worldwide commerce.”
Regardless of this unpredictable scenario, breweries, importers, and exporters nonetheless pursue collaboration. After a profitable expertise in Sweden in 2024, in 2025 Walia organized a street present to the U.Ok. with breweries he’s representing.
“[We brought] our beers there in order that they will meet individuals from the brewery and perceive American beer,” he says. “But additionally so the breweries can higher perceive the market and what they should do to achieve success in it.”
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