Adam Dulye, the Brewers Association’s (BA) Executive Chef, and Lotte Peplow, BA PR consultant in the UK, returned to London in early August to once again represent the BA at the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) and at several other events around the city put on by the BA Export Development Program (EDP). The day before the festival began, Adam and Lotte participated in the British Guild of Beer Writers event at Brixton Brewery, and poured seven EDP member beers for them to sample. Consistent networking events like these with the guild remain highly valuable for the opportunity to strengthen existing media relationships while creating new ones in the process.

The following day was the start of GBBF, which saw high levels of attendee interest in the U.S. craft beers on offer. One notable shift in the festival this year was the inclusion of canned beers, which had previously not been allowed at the show. This resulted in quite a few EDP member breweries supplying beer to GBBF for the first time. In total, beers from 27 U.S. breweries were present at the show, with several brewery representatives in attendance as well. Throughout the show, BA members were able to meet with importers and give them firsthand guided tastings of U.S. craft beers.

Beyond the Guild of Beer Writers tasting event and GBBF, the BA worked to put on a media lunch event and two tasting events designed to target both trade and consumers. The media lunch consisted of five beer and food pairings created by Adam, and utilized Alaskan Sockeye Salmon—this was included as a result of the BA’s collaboration with the Alaskan Seafood Marketing Institute, a fellow U.S. trade group. The media impact of the lunch was significant, and bolstered further by the attendance of several members of USDA staff from the London Embassy, including the Deputy Chief of the Mission. The two tasting events were held at local pubs—one was a guided tasting with a Q & A session at The Distillers pub, and the other was a canned-beer takeover at The Rake, Borough Market. They drew in a mixture of trade and consumers interested in trying EDP member beers.