Why is Boddingtons so easy to find in the US and so hard to find in the UK?

September 26, 2007 3:26 PM

Two questions about Boddingtons Beer's relative popularity in the US and UK.

Why is Boddingtons so ubiquitous in US pub-style bars? I saw more Boddingtons on draught in ten days in Northern California in 2004 than I have done in 10-15 years of drinking in the UK. Is their distribution particularly good? Were they just the first bitter available over there? Is it particularly suited to American tastes, as bitters go?

And a related question: What has happened to Boddingtons' British profile and availability since its cultural zenith? Perhaps this is confirmation bias, but I rarely see it in off licenses, and never see it in pubs (based on my experience in both Sheffield and Oxford). Is it a victim of the lager/Premier League phenomenon of the 90s? Or is it just that I've never lived in the North West? Was it ever popular, or was it just a memorable advertising campaign?

posted by caek to food & drink (17 comments total)

The distribution got even 'better' this year, when Anheuser Busch bought distribution rights from InBev. From my (albeit limited) experience in these things, my guess is that it gets offered as the 'British keg beer' in a distribution bundle, just as a tied pub in Britain will have a choice of one or two lagers.

On its UK blip of popularity: regional beer, chosen by megabrewer for high-profile nationa promotion. On a related topic: you find more Sammy Smith's in London and the US than you do in my home town, which is about 60 miles from Tadcaster.

(I still can't get over Newcastle Brown being on draught in the US.)
posted by holgate at 3:41 PM on September 26, 2007

Isn't Boddingtons owned by InBev? It's a fairly inoffensive beer that can be sold at a right mark-up to folks who want the cachet of drinking British booze without having the Guiness bloat.
posted by klangklangston at 3:41 PM on September 26, 2007

Yeah, Smith's is all over here, especially since they've got the organics. Aside from that, I think Holgate's right.
posted by klangklangston at 3:42 PM on September 26, 2007

Boddington's is owned by InBev (formerly Interbrew) a large, international distibutor of many brands. You're just seeing inroads gained by marketing strength and deal-making.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:42 PM on September 26, 2007

I'd say blame it on the TV show Friends. If I recall correctly, after they go over to the UK for Ross' wedding they all keep talking about how good it was. Maybe that drove up demand.

According to Answers.com:
"In the fifth season of Friends episode entitled "The One With All The Kissing", Ross, Chandler and Joey remember with enthusiasm drinking Boddingtons at a pub recommended by their taxi driver when in London for Ross' wedding; and Ross also finds out that a pub at the Trade Centre serves it. "

Just a hypothosis.
posted by lannanh at 3:49 PM on September 26, 2007

In the United States, a beverage's popularity has less to do with its inherent qualities and more to do with marketing, legality and finances.

Beer distribution is, to put it mildly, a regional mess in the United States. Ostensibly it emerged as a way to wrestle the control of liquor and beer from the Mafia's control -- which was wholly a result of prohibition. This drives up prices on distribution and requires a strong network of regional distributors. Budweiser cannot distribute its own beer, but that doesn't mean it can't control distribution through other legal means. It may offer an "English beer" at a discount, or its other beers as a discount for carrying Boddington, which it in turn acquired due to the fact it is an inoffensive and marginal English beer. This reduces costs of acquiring the name and the image and ups the chances of someone trying it at a bar, due to the fact it doesn't deviate from the norm.

To give you an idea of how terrible the whole distribution is, and why this question is almost impossible to answer without a thorough briefing of Anheuser's legal and marketing team, Kansas has some of the best potential vineyards in the world. It receives the same sunshine and climate as many of the wine producing of France and even better than California. Some of the wine it grows are the best in the world (as the experts say), but don't try buying it in stores. To legally buy it you have to go to the actual vineyard itself, which not surprisingly does a brisk business.

So popularity in beer does not equate to what people like, but what people are told to like, much more than any other product category.
posted by geoff. at 3:56 PM on September 26, 2007 [3 favorites]

From a British perspective (and I say this as a proud Mancunian), Boddingtons is only one of many bitters on offer, and it is not a particularly good one. If you are a bitter drinker, you would almost certainly choose something else. The US is a smaller bitter market so there is no need for a wide choice and the distributor just chose that brand to get behind.

Australians ask the same about Fosters in the UK. It's everywhere in the UK, but no-one in Australia would drink it by choice, even though it is actually the same as Crown lager, which is popular. Ah, the power of branding...
posted by csg77 at 4:45 PM on September 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

csg77 - From a British perspective (and I say this as a proud Mancunian), Boddingtons is only one of many bitters on offer, and it is not a particularly good one. If you are a bitter drinker, you would almost certainly choose something else. The US is a smaller bitter market so there is no need for a wide choice and the distributor just chose that brand to get behind.

Precisely. I'm not British (Dayton, OH - about as vanilla US as you can get), but I have a soft spot for good bitters, and Boddington's is not on my short-list, or any of my lists for that matter (except maybe my list of beers not to buy).

I'd say it's a similar phenomenon to what's happening with Stella Artois. Stella is like the Budweiser of the UK, but now that we have it in the US people here view it like God's Gift to Beer Drinkers. Hardly. A fine lager, no doubt, but it's nothing to get snobbish over, especially considering the ubiquity of the drink overseas.

And as an aside... I love having Newcastle drafts all over the place here. It's like Mother's Milk to me :)
posted by sprocket87 at 5:27 PM on September 26, 2007

Wait, what's weird about Newcastle on draught?
posted by diggerroo at 6:41 PM on September 26, 2007

Wait, what's weird about Newcastle on draught?

It's traditionally bottle (or can) only in the UK, and served in a half-pint glass. I'd never seen it on tap until I visited the US for the first time. It's kegged for export -- and, apparently, in the South of England too, but only since 2003.
posted by holgate at 7:10 PM on September 26, 2007

Heh. Well I drink Boddington's cause it's damn good. I am not traditionally a fan of bitters of any kind either. And I think Stella tastes like crap!
posted by Big_B at 8:42 PM on September 26, 2007

newcastle is tremendously uneven on tap. the taste can vary from place to place and time to time. my favorite beer, but only from the bottle.
posted by tremspeed at 9:44 PM on September 26, 2007

Boddies is a fairly bland beer, and while a bitter it's not particularly bitter in taste. So I suspect it suits people who are accustomed to relatively bland-tasting lagers.

It was always more popular in the North than the South though. Especially around Manchester where it was brewed.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:45 PM on September 26, 2007

I think the market for keg bitters is pretty small in the UK these days. Keg bitters used to be relatively popular in the 70s / early 80s when there wasn't much else to choose from, but bitter's place as the default choice has been taken on by lager.

Discriminating beer drinkers (ie those that order their drink by brand rather than style) tend to go either for cask ales or premium continental lagers / wheat beers. These days keg bitters tend to be drunk by those that choose it as a legacy of a lifetime's habit, or because it's cheap / on promotion.

There was a brief period in the late 90s when "premium" keg bitters (including Boddington's) made a small resurgence alongside "Irish ales" (ha!), but this has really died off again now.

From a beer snob's perspective, keg bitter is pretty much always drek. Cask Boddington's is an okay session beer, but nothing special, and it is renowned for travelling very poorly.
posted by bifter at 1:32 AM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Love bitter beers and actually a fan of Boddington's since they don't serve Caffreys anymore where I livein DC. Any recommendations on great, authentic bitters I should try?
posted by skimides at 7:43 AM on September 27, 2007

sprocket87 said: I'd say it's a similar phenomenon to what's happening with Stella Artois. Stella is like the Budweiser of the UK,

Eh? I thought Stella is the Budweiser of Belgium! Or do you mean Stella is as popular in the UK as Bud is in the US?
posted by zaphod at 9:26 AM on September 27, 2007

Hailing from the North West of England, I still sup Boddies every time I go home to visit my folks - it's available in nearly every pub. I've drunk and loved it since I was a teenager. As a student I lived beind the Strangeways brewery for a year.

Living in the US I drink Boddies on rare occasions, favouring local microbrews instead - not wanting to up my carbon footprint.

I remember when Whitbread took over Boddingtons. But I didn't know about this InBev nonsense, how they'd changed the beer nor that they'd closed the original brewery. This is a most depressing read.

Damn them. Damn them all to hell.
posted by NailsTheCat at 4:22 PM on September 27, 2007 [1 favorite]