Yeah there are tons of great German beers, but they sure weren't being imported here in the US until the late 80s or so. We were stuck with the St. Pauli Girls and the Becks which aren't that great. It wasn't until the real beer revolution had begun, that we finally gained access to the elite German beers like Ayinger, Franziskaner, and Spaten.
What we DID have, at least at the pubs that specialized in international beer, was a solid host of UK beers. Whitbread, Young's, Sam Smith, Newcastle, Bass-- these were all mainstays at the beer-oriented pubs. And of course Guinness from Ireland. You still couldn't buy most of them in bottles until the 90s, but you could at least find them draught at your local ale houses.
Of course the American craft beer boom of the late 90s through present, has pushed most of these back out of American stores and off of American taps. Which is a pity. I'd much rather have a delicious variety of unique English/UK ales and lagers available, than a huge tap wall full of 90s taps of nothing but brutally over-hopped west coast IPAs that all taste equally bitter.
