Don't Get Fooled by So-Called "Continental" Beers

As a Scottish premium lager, we’re clearly very passionate about home grown brews – we believe the UK has everything you need to make exceptional beer, and we’ve won the awards to prove it!

That’s why we were so surprised to learn that 90% of drinkers have been misled by the marketing of so-called ‘continental’ beers – which are actually brewed here in the UK.

What's more, our recent survey of 2,000 UK adults found that only a shocking 27% of Brits believe the UK produces good beer, while 50% of Millennials are willing to pay more for a beer they perceive as being 'continental' - even if it isn't true cerveza.

Dougal Sharp Gunn, our Master Brewer, clearly disagrees. He said:

“There’s no need to look to the continent for great beer when we’re producing award-winning homegrown lagers across the UK. And there’s surely no need to be duped by supposedly continental lager. Our flagship lager recently won gold at the World Beer Awards, and British beers are among the best in the world; there’s so much quality here and consumers should wake up to that.”

To put this to the test, we set up a bit of an experiment along with our friends at Teuchters Landing - a pub in Leith, Edinburgh - to prove once and for all British brews can stand up to the continent.

We disguised our own award-winning, brewed-by-Scotland lager with a vaguely Spanish label, and waited. Customers, assuming it was the latest continental brew fresh from Madrid, eagerly bought pints of this new 'Ámbaro' beer.

When we finally revealed they were actually drinking Innis & Gunn lager, many were shocked – even regular Innis & Gunn drinkers! - proving once again how clever branding and not-quite truthful marketing influences consumer choices.

Dougal, who has worked in Scottish breweries since he was a teenager and founded Innis & Gunn in 2003, continued:

“Look, the beers we are talking about here are all great beers from great companies. But consumers are drawn in by the image and the promise of continental beer. They end up paying a premium price for them because of that marketing and the image. To me, it feels like a scandal.

Homegrown lager is a movement worth getting behind and it’s time to give the incredible beer being proudly produced right here on our doorstep its time in the sun, as it were.”