Does it matter where your beer is brewed?

That’s the question raised by the settlement just reached in a class action lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch InBev AB over its Beck’s beer. Apparently in America it does, even though a brewer can make the exact same beer anywhere in the world if he’s careful to replicate the conditions and use ingredients from the same sources.

America is different than a lot of other countries in this respect. “It’s a bit of an anomaly,” said Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights. “In the rest of the world, it doesn’t matter if it’s shipped overseas.”

A Diageo PLC affiliate brews Guinness in Malaysia for Asian drinkers. Heineken NV brews Heineken in Ethiopia for Africans. And AB InBev brews Budweiser in China for Chinese beer lovers.

But Americans want an import to be imported from its country of origin. It’s what Tom Shellhammer, a professor of fermentation science at Oregon State University, calls a fascination with “provenance.”