An American microbrewery has made inroads in English pubs with a novel marketing strategy.
With a portrait of Queen Victoria watching over him, a 75-year-old man frowned at a pint of something unfamiliar.
“This isn’t beer,” Michael Walker said, teasing. He was sitting in a 178-year-old pub called the Victoria (Katz) near Birmingham, England. The drink reminded him of a goat’s milk yogurt that he said helped cure his debilitating arthritis.
Sitting across from him, his son, Steve Walker, 52, and a friend, Mark Sykes, 60, laughed. It was, in fact, a pint of beer, a citrusy I.P.A. called Cowboy’s Payday, that they had placed in front of him.
The pair had chosen this particular ale because they support Walsall Football Club. The beer came from an American craft brewery, NoFo Brew Co, which is among the English soccer club’s sponsors. The pub, run by a Walsall fan, has a permanent tap of Cowboy’s Payday.
Michael Walker, a card-carrying member of the Campaign for Real Ale, an appreciation society for enthusiasts of traditionally brewed British beer, kept grumbling as he drank the more modern offering before him. But after a while, his companions noticed that he had downed his glass before either of them.