PretendPint

Which beers sold as foreign are brewed in Britain, and what to buy instead

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The back of the can, read for you

40 beers sold as foreign are brewed in Britain.

Madrí, Birra Moretti, Stella Artois, Cruzcampo, San Miguel and Staropramen are sold as Spanish, Italian, Belgian or Czech, and made in Tadcaster, Manchester, South Wales, Lancashire or Burton, often to a lower strength. Sold as foreign means the branding says another country: the name, the flag, the story on the pack. This site names them, says where each is really brewed and who owns it, and points you at the beers that are what they say they are.

See the 40 brewed here What to buy instead

By Mark Porter, one person in the UK. Last checked 24 October 2026. In the press.

150beers checked, every one sourced and datedBrowse every beer 40sold as foreign, brewed in BritainSee the pretenders 46what they say they are: genuine imports and honest British beersSee what to buy

The clearest evidence is strength

Recipes are not published, so the most checkable difference between a beer here and the same brand at home is how strong it is. 26 of the beers on this site are weaker in Britain than in their home market, and 15 of those are brewed in Britain to a lower strength than the version sold at home; the rest are imported, wholly or partly, or we have not yet confirmed where they are brewed. The reason is largely visible in one number: UK alcohol duty steps up sharply at 3.5%, which is why twelve beers on this site sit at exactly 3.4%, whether they were cut to get there or brewed there from the start.

UK strength of every beer on the site, from 3.0% to 6.0%A dot chart of UK strength for 114 beers, from 3.0% to 6.0%. 13 of them fall below the 3.5% duty threshold, and 12 of those sit at exactly 3.4%: Amstel, Banks's Amber Bitter, Bass, Boddingtons Draught Bitter, Bud Light, Carlsberg Danish Pilsner, Coors Lager, Foster's, Greene King IPA, Grolsch Premium Pilsner, Rosa Blanca and Sol. The largest stack on the chart is at 5.0%, with 16 beers. A further 13 below 3.0% and 8 above 6.0% fall outside the axis and are not plotted. 135 of the beers on the site have a UK strength on record.3.0%3.5%4.0%4.5%5.0%5.5%6.0%3.5% duty thresholdCruzcampo Sevilla Orange, 3.3%Amstel, 3.4%Banks's Amber Bitter, 3.4%Bass, 3.4%Boddingtons Draught Bitter, 3.4%Bud Light, 3.4%Carlsberg Danish Pilsner, 3.4%Coors Lager, 3.4%Foster's, 3.4%Greene King IPA, 3.4%Grolsch Premium Pilsner, 3.4%Rosa Blanca, 3.4%Sol, 3.4%Michelob Ultra, 3.5%John Smith's Extra Smooth, 3.6%Tetley's Smooth Flow, 3.6%Worthington's Creamflow, 3.6%Black Sheep Best Bitter, 3.8%Caffrey's Irish Ale, 3.8%Smithwick's, 3.8%Beck's, 4.0%Carling Original Lager, 4.0%Heineken Silver, 4.0%Murphy's Irish Stout, 4.0%Pravha, 4.0%Tennent's Lager, 4.0%Adnams Ghost Ship, 4.1%Guinness Draught, 4.1%Timothy Taylor's Landlord, 4.1%Wainwright Gold, 4.1%Guinness Extra Stout, 4.2%Peroni Nastro Azzurro Stile Capri, 4.2%Shepherd Neame Spitfire, 4.2%St Austell Tribute, 4.2%Sharp's Doom Bar Amber Ale, 4.3%Cruzcampo Sevilla, 4.4%Pilsner Urquell, 4.4%Budweiser, 4.5%Cobra Premium, 4.5%Coopers Original Pale Ale, 4.5%Corona Extra, 4.5%Fuller's Frontier, 4.5%Hobgoblin Ruby, 4.5%Kingfisher Premium Lager, 4.5%Perlenbacher Pilsner Lager, 4.5%Marston's Pedigree, 4.5%Modelo Especial, 4.5%M&S Spanish Lager, 4.5%Sharp's Atlantic Pale Ale, 4.5%Shipyard American Pale Ale, 4.5%Birra Moretti L'Autentica, 4.6%Estrella Damm, 4.6%Kirin Ichiban, 4.6%Kronenbourg 1664, 4.6%Sabor Premium Lager, 4.6%Madrí Excepcional, 4.6%Maltsmiths IPA and Pilsner, 4.6%Mythos, 4.6%Stella Artois, 4.6%Tuborg Green, 4.6%Carling Black Label Premium Lager, 4.7%Estrella Galicia Especial, 4.7%Fuller's London Pride, 4.7%Birra Ichnusa, 4.7%Perlenbacher Lager, 4.7%Miller Genuine Draft, 4.7%Newcastle Brown Ale, 4.7%Red Stripe, 4.7%Super Bock, 4.7%Tsingtao Premium Lager, 4.7%Birra Moretti Sale di Mare, 4.8%Birrificio Angelo Poretti 4 Luppoli, 4.8%Bitburger Premium Pils, 4.8%Carlsberg Expørt, 4.8%Estrella Damm Inedit, 4.8%Korev, 4.8%Krombacher Pils, 4.8%Lech Premium, 4.8%Lucky Buddha, 4.8%Mahou Cinco Estrellas, 4.8%Birra Menabrea Bionda, 4.8%Sharp's Offshore Pilsner, 4.8%Singha, 4.8%Tiger, 4.8%Warsteiner Premium Verum, 4.8%Hoegaarden, 4.9%Asahi Super Dry, 5.0%Bavaria Premium, 5.0%Budweiser Budvar Original, 5.0%Chang Classic, 5.0%Efes Pilsener, 5.0%Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier, 5.0%Greene King Abbot Ale, 5.0%Heineken Original 5%, 5.0%Holsten Pils, 5.0%Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc, 5.0%Sagres, 5.0%San Miguel Especial, 5.0%Sapporo Premium Beer, 5.0%Staropramen Premium Czech Lager, 5.0%Stella Artois Unfiltered, 5.0%Tyskie Gronie, 5.0%Peroni Nastro Azzurro, 5.1%Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn Lager, 5.2%Spaten Munchner Hell, 5.2%Erdinger Weissbier, 5.3%Damm Daura, 5.4%Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, 5.4%Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier Naturtrub, 5.5%St Austell Proper Job, 5.5%Zywiec Premium, 5.5%Theakston Old Peculier, 5.6%Desperados, 5.9%Leffe Blonde, 6.0%
Foreign-branded, brewed in BritainGenuine importBritish brandNot confirmed
A dot chart of UK strength for 114 beers, from 3.0% to 6.0%. 13 of them fall below the 3.5% duty threshold, and 12 of those sit at exactly 3.4%: Amstel, Banks's Amber Bitter, Bass, Boddingtons Draught Bitter, Bud Light, Carlsberg Danish Pilsner, Coors Lager, Foster's, Greene King IPA, Grolsch Premium Pilsner, Rosa Blanca and Sol. The largest stack on the chart is at 5.0%, with 16 beers. A further 13 below 3.0% and 8 above 6.0% fall outside the axis and are not plotted. 135 of the beers on the site have a UK strength on record.
The numbers behind the chart
UK strengthBeersOf which sold as foreign and brewed here
3.3%11
3.4%125
3.5%10
3.6%30
3.8%31
4.0%63
4.1%40
4.2%40
4.3%10
4.4%21
4.5%135
4.6%106
4.7%101
4.8%156
4.9%10
5.0%166
5.1%10
5.2%20
5.3%10
5.4%20
5.5%30
5.6%10
5.9%10
6.0%10

The strength gap, beer by beer · why the 3.4% cluster exists

What this is

A record of where the beer on British supermarket shelves is actually brewed, who owns it, and how much weaker it is than the version sold in the country on the label. Every entry carries its sources and a date. Where we are not sure, we say so.

Why it matters

A lot of the lager sold here as Spanish, Italian, Belgian or Czech is brewed in Burton, Tadcaster, Manchester, South Wales, Lancashire or Northampton. That is legal and has been normal for fifty years. What is less obvious is that the beer is often different: brewed to a lower strength to land under a UK duty threshold, sometimes to a changed recipe, and priced as an import. You are allowed to know that before you pay for it.

What to do with it

Look up a beer before you buy it. Read the small print on the can. And if you want a beer that is what it says it is, we keep a list of the imports that arrive at full strength and the British beers that are honest about being British.

Start here

The pretenders
40 beers sold under foreign branding and brewed in Britain
What to buy instead
Imports that arrive at full strength, British beers that say so, and a swap for each pretender
By supermarket
Tesco, Morrisons, Ocado, Asda, Sainsbury's: what is really imported, what to check on the can, and a link to each listing
Beer against beer
25 pairs people search for, side by side: where each is brewed, who owns it, and which is actually from the country on the label
Weaker in Britain
The strength gap, beer by beer, and the duty band behind it
Beer strength chart
Every beer on the shelf by ABV, strongest first, with the home-market figure where there is one
By country and by brand
Every beer we have checked, filterable
Who owns what
12 groups behind the brands on the shelf
How to read a can
Where the producer has to be named, and what the wording means

Recently checked

How we know

Each beer page says where the beer sold here is brewed, how strong it is and who owns the brand, and each of those rests on something we can point to: the brewer's own statement, or a supermarket listing that copies the small print off the pack. Where we have only part of that, the page says what we have not confirmed rather than guessing. A few beers, mostly supermarket own-label lagers whose brewers are not named anywhere we can read, are still waiting for that, and those pages stay out of search results until they are settled.

How we check a beer, and what would change our mind. Almost every open question here would be closed by the small print on the base of a can, which is the one place the producer has to be named. The site collects nothing about you beyond optional visit counts; the privacy page says exactly what.