Many beers are brewed right here in the UK. Credit: Getty Images When package holidays changed the way we spend our summer vacations, a whole new world of exotic beers we knew nothing about was suddenly revealed. For many years, the brews served in pubs back home — Guinness, Harp, Bass, Tennent’s and Smithwick’s — just didn’t exist in the Costas.
Instead, the Spanish bars gave us sunshine beers like Estrella Damm, Moritz and San Miguel. In Amsterdam, it was Heineken or Amstel, while the cafés of France invariably served up Kronenbourg 1664. Now those beers that were previously only available for the two weeks of the year when you went on holiday can be easily found in any off-licence in Northern Ireland.
Lagers have become international, and breweries that were formerly family-owned and hardly known beyond their country’s borders are part of multinational conglomerates with brand names that are recognised everywhere..
