13 Bucket List Beers That Are Only Available Overseas

Almost every hobby or interest has a "holy grail." An object of outstanding quality, frustrating rarity, and — more often than not – great expense. Beer is no different. Many of us beer lovers have a bucket list of brews we're dying to try before we shuffle off this mortal coil. Some are desirable because they've been crafted by a world-class brewery and others have gained a cult status thanks to their unique flavor. There are beers viewed as collector's items and others that represent important aspects of beer history.

Between managing brewpubs and working directly for well-known breweries, my lengthy international hospitality career has been intrinsically tied to beer. I've been extremely fortunate to enjoy my fair share of world-class beers; however, it did take some traveling. Despite how straightforward it is to transport goods, some beers can only be found closer to their source. Today, I'm sharing a selection of unusual, rare, and outstanding beers that are almost impossible to locate in the United States. If you're lucky, you might find a specialist importer or private seller with what you're looking for, but that won't always be the case – a lack of availability isn't always a matter of cost or scarcity. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at some of those bucket list beers that are only available overseas.

The UK has its fair share of outstanding beers that every beer lover should try at least once. However, the majority of these beers are pretty easy to source in the US. One such beer is the legendary Old Peculier from Theakston's, one of Britain's oldest remaining brewers.

Founded in 1827, the Yorkshire-based company is famous for its traditional ales. The fruity, full-bodied, ruby-hued Old Peculier is considered by many to be one of the greatest expressions of the style. Here's the thing – Old Peculier is by no means a rare beer, and it's pretty easy to find stateside. But not in its finest form. While you can find bottles and cans of Old Peculier in the US, it's traditionally brewed as a cask ale, one of the oldest surviving beer styles. Because cask ale has additional yeast added to the barrel to produce natural carbonation, it's a live product with a short shelf life. Unfiltered and unpasteurized, there's no way it would still be fresh by the time it was shipped across the pond. It's no secret that fresh draft beer tastes superior to bottled, so if you want to try this iconic ale the way it's intended to be enjoyed, pay a visit to an English pub.

Although many countries are famed for producing superb beers, there's one that's practically synonymous with the stuff. In fact, Belgian beer is so renowned that UNESCO considers it an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. As a result, the European nation produces more than a few must-try beers.

If you're a fan of traditional sour ale styles, like lambics, gueuzes, and krieks, there's a good chance you've heard of 3 Fonteinen. Ironically based in Beersel, 3 Fonteinen has been brewing for at least 135 years, and its beers are in extremely high demand among enthusiasts. Because these beer styles are bottled conditioned, not unlike champagne, they can be shipped overseas. Although they tend to be pricey, you can find some of the brewery's regular releases in the US. However, some of its beers – like the Oude Gueuze Platinum Blend – remain frustratingly elusive. With 25 percent of the oak-aged beer consisting of four-year-old lambics, as opposed to the standard three-year-olds, the intensely funky brew is definitely one to seek out if you're able to embark on a European beer tour.

For lambic beer enthusiasts, few breweries are more highly regarded than Brussels' Cantillon. Family-owned and operated since 1900, Cantillon is as traditional as it comes. Its equipment and brewing techniques have remained practically unchanged for over a century.

Although they tend to be expensive, Cantillon beers can be located in the US through specialist craft beer outlets. However, there's one notable exception. Blåbær Lambik is a highly acclaimed fruited lambic that contains a whopping 350 grams of bilberries – a more intensely flavored variant of blueberries – per liter of beer. 

Cantillon has brewed a limited annual release of the delicious Blåbær Lambik for almost twenty years. Although Blåbær Lambik is made in Brussels, it was originally brewed in collaboration with a Danish bar in Copenhagen called Ølbutikken that received every bottle. When Ølbutikken closed in 2017, the allocation was passed on to a bar called Drikkeriget. Outside of a visit to Drikkeriget, you might find a bottle at the Cantillon Brewery – also home to the Brussels Gueuze Museum – but there's no guarantee of success.

You'll often hear microbreweries claim that they're not like the rest. They've thrown the brewing playbook out the window and value creativity above all else. Forget profits, beer is more important. While I believe this is usually said in earnest, few breweries manage to achieve or maintain these idealistic expectations. Austria's Brauhaus Bevog, however, has pulled it off.

Bevog has a pretty sizable range of beers, and while its IPAs range from great to superb, the true gems in its darker styles – the stouts, porters, and barley wines. However, the brewery's most highly acclaimed beer is a relatively uncommon style called an ice bock. Bocks are strong, malty, dark German-style lagers, but ice bocks are created through freeze distilling. Freezing the liquid and removing the ice concentrates the beer's rich flavors and supercharges the alcohol strength – DREAMS 2023 is bottled at an impressive 19.6% ABV. Rich and complex, this is not a beer for the faint of heart, but a common item on beer lovers' wishlists. Unfortunately, although DREAMS isn't incredibly rare or expensive, you're unlikely to find a bottle unless you're in Europe.

Although BrewDog may not have been the UK's first craft brewery, you have to give them some credit for helping to bring craft beer into the mainstream. Now, BrewDog's had its fair share of controversy over the years. In fact, I was managing one of its busiest venues when the BBC released its damning BrewDog documentary. While some controversy relates to unacceptable business practices, not every headline-grabbing action is negative. Who wouldn't want to stay in a craft beer hotel? However, one of BrewDog's most infamous acts was brewing the world's strongest beer.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin, a 32% ABV freeze-distilled stout, kicked off a race to the top between craft brewers. While BrewDog no longer holds the record, its 55% Belgian blonde – The End of History – is still considered a white whale among beer fanatics. Not only is the beer itself a draw, but in true BrewDog fashion, the brewery opted to encase each bottle in taxidermied roadkill. The chances of finding one are incredibly low wherever you are, as only 12 were ever released. As part of a crowd-funding initiative, BrewDog brewed a second batch in 2016, then sold out at an eye-watering $20,000 a pop, so the chances of laying your hands on one are slim to none.

When I first visited Vietnam in 2014, the local beer wasn't famed for its quality but for the fact that it cost roughly 20 cents a glass — and by a glass, I mean a plastic cup. When I returned in 2017, I was shocked to see how quickly craft beer had taken the country by storm. Although many of these beers left a lot to be desired, some breweries, such as Heart of Darkness, were on the path to greatness.

The Saigon-based outfit has managed to scoop up plenty of awards since it started brewing in 2016, offering beers that can easily go toe-to-toe with what's being produced in the US or Europe. My favorite example is The Ghost, renowned among beer lovers in Southeast Asia. Powerful and complex, The Ghost is a 12% cask conditioned stout aged in ex-Teeling Irish whiskey barrels to intensify its rich flavors. As Southeast Asia's brewing scene continues to flourish, it's a prime example of the region's brewing potential. Although Heart of Darkness was inspired by American craft beer, it's extremely difficult to find its beers outside Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. A few cans and bottles make it over to Europe but they're nigh impossible to source in the US, particularly the higher-end beers like The Ghost.

When many people think of Australian beer, they typically think of mass-produced lagers like Fosters. Aside from the fact Fosters isn't even Australian and the locals rarely touch the stuff, it does a disservice to the country's many outstanding craft breweries. Sourcing Australian craft beer in the US is always a bit difficult given the distances involved, but there's one bucket list beer that you'll taste unless you're prepared to take a trip down under.

Tusk, from Feral Brewing Co. in Western Australia, is commonly recognized as the country's first-ever American-style Imperial IPA. At a weighty 10.8% ABV, Tusk changed people's perception of what beer could be and paved the way for big and bold IPA styles. Although being first doesn't necessarily make something the best, an inordinate quantity of high-grade hops and plenty of brewing talent make the legendary Tusk one of Australia's most delicious and desirable beers. The downside is that Feral brews Tusk twice a year in small, kegged batches, so it's only available on draft. Furthermore, those kegs are saved for a small handful of regional brewpubs where they're polished off almost immediately.

When breweries join forces, great things can happen. One of the best examples is Helium Flash, a Double IPA that combines US and New Zealand hops to create a deliciously dank and juicy hop bomb of a beer.

Helium Flash is the work of not two but three breweries, with Barcelona's Garage Beer Co. joining forces with two of the best IPA brewers on the planet – Monkish and The Veil. Collab beers of this caliber are always in high demand. Despite Garage Beer's partners hailing from the US, you're unlikely to find Helium Flash outside of Europe. The beer was brewed specifically for Mash Fest, Barcelona's iconic craft beer festival, and despite subsequent releases, cans and kegs never seem to make it stateside. Fortunately, Monkish and The Veil beers are easy enough to get your hands on in the US. So, while you might not appreciate the fruits of this phenomenal collaboration, you can still get a taste of what these incredible brewers offer.

One of the perks of globalization is that it's allowed more people to enjoy the best food and drink the world has to offer. Japanese cuisine has been a welcome addition to the global palate, and the Asian nation has proven extremely capable to adapting and recreating Europe's offerings. Nowadays, Japanese whisky is considered some of the best on the planet, and the country produces wines that could rival those from France. There have been European-style beers in Japan for centuries, but craft brewing is still a comparatively new affair.

Shiga Kogen – named after the nearby ski resort – was founded in 2004 by master brewer Sato Eigo. The brewery evolved from his family's two-hundred-year-old sake distillery and has developed a stellar reputation over the past two decades. Like Japan's revered whisky distilleries, Shiga Kogen embodies the local spirit and pays homage to its beers' overseas influences. It is possible to find some Shiga Kogen beers in the US but its iconic No. 10 IPA – brewed in honor of its 10th anniversary – is a tricky one to track down. However, for anyone interested in premium international beers, it's well worth making a pilgrimage to Japan.

For those who can't get enough of experimental breweries that push the boundaries of what beer can be, Hungary's Mad Scientist truly lives up to its name. The Budapest-based brewer is responsible for some of Europe's most unique beers and isn't afraid to take risks, putting it on the radar of many adventurous beer lovers. Mad Scientist's beer offering ranges from thick, smoothie-like sour ales to decadent imperial pastry stouts. But Beeznuts is arguably its most ambitious and creative concoction.

Mad Scientist could have made a superb bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout and called it a day. However, Beeznuts blends that beer with mead, which has also matured in ex-bourbon casks. The beer is then infused with hand-roasted walnuts and pistachios, amplifying its deliciously nutty complexity. Unfortunately, Mad Scientist's beers typically don't find their way outside the European market, and the brewery only ships directly to a handful of nearby countries.

While Varvar is known for producing some spectacular beers, that's not the only reason behind its excellent reputation. Varvar was founded in 2015 in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, a year after Russian separatists had invaded the city. Varvar moved its operations to the nation's capital, Kyiv.

The ongoing war with Russia impacted Ukraine's wine and beer industries hurt by the increased cost of goods. However, when Varvar was forced to temporarily close at the start of the invasion, UK-based beer distributor Euroboozer bought up its remaining stock and donated the profits to humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine. Varvar's tonka-infused imperial stout — Black Bean – is arguably one of its most beloved beers, and for many Europeans, buying it contributes directly to those in need. Although you're unlikely to find Black Bean stateside, some US brewers – like Midwest Coast Brewing – have also collaborated with Varvar to brew fundraising beers. So, if you manage to find one of these collab brews, it's definitely worth giving it a try.

Whenever a beer is hailed as one of the best in the world, everyone wants to see what the fuss is about. When Närke released Kaggen Stormaktsporter in 2019, the brewery's reputation became legendary, and the limited-release beer has been in huge demand ever since.

Infused with heather honey and aged in bourbon barrels for around four months, this inky black Russian imperial stout is unbelievably rich and powerful. The dessert-like flavors of vanilla, dark fruits, chocolate, and maple syrup envelop the palate, and the mouthfeel is remarkably smooth and creamy. Plus, at 12% ABV, the beer remains perfectly balanced without coming across as overly boozy. Despite Kaggen's popularity and rarity, bottles aren't unreasonably pricey, but do get snapped up quickly and it's rare to see them outside Sweden. Typically, the only way to try the beer stateside is to have a very good friend in Europe who's willing to source and ship a bottle.

If there's one beer that almost every beer nerd has heard of, it's Westvleteren XII. A rare Trappist beer, Westvleteren XII is a traditional Belgian quadrupel brewed by monks and has frequently been named one of the best beers on the planet. It's wonderfully complex, sweet, and smooth, with hints of succulent raisin and rich caramel. However, Westvleteren XII is one of the hardest beers to find.

If you're extremely lucky, you might find a bottle through a specialist retailer, but it won't come cheap. Realistically, if you want to try Westvleteren XII, you'll have to buy it in person from the monks at a Trappist abbey. Thanks to the beer's huge popularity, you can't just turn up and buy a case; the ordering process is pretty convoluted. First, you've got to place an order online in advance and get allocated a time slot. If you do manage to get on the waitlist, there's a limit to how many bottles you can purchase. The abbey keeps strict records to prevent anyone trying to cheat the system. If you need another reason to arrange a beer tour of Belgium, this is it.