The Whole World Loves American Craft Beer

The rest of the world is extremely thirsty for American craft beer: U.S. craft beer exports shot up by 35 percent last year, reports Fortune. In all, $99.7 million in craft beer was exported to other countries in 2014.

Canada consumes a whopping 53 percent of all American craft beer exports, with Sweden a very distant second at 12 percent and the UK a close third. Interest is also booming in South America and Asia: Demand in Brazil was up 64 percent last year, and 38 percent in the Asian-Pacific market.

As Fortune points out, "The increase in exports goes hand in hand with a continuing surge of interest in the U.S. Craft beers accounted for one out of every 10 beers sold domestically last year." A brewer attributes some of the foreign interest in beer to America's relative lack of brewing traditions, saying, "In a lot of the older countries there’s an old-school mentality that has left pretty generic guidelines for what beer makers are making. The craft beer scene in America has let us be free and make whatever the heck we want."

Booze exports are a huge source of income for the U.S. economy: Nearly $1.5 billion worth of American wine was exported in 2014, with almost 90 percent of that coming from California.