Germany: 65,000 workers in the beer industry to produce more than 10% of the world’s beer

Germany has one of the world’s highest per-capita consumption rates of beer (123 litres per person in 2003 and 114.6 l in 2005). The beer industry employs about 65,000 workers, and German beer accounts for more than 10% of the world’s production, The Financial Express posted June 18.

The three states of Bayern, Westfalen and Bremen produce over half of the 115 million hectolitres produced annually in Germany. There are some 1,300 odd breweries in Germany which manage to produce a whopping 5,000-6,000 varieties which is indeed surprising as Germany’s Beer Law restricts brewers to just four basic ingredients (water, barley, yeast and hops), and forbids flavouring beer with any other additives.

For the layman, German beers can be categorised into a couple of broad categories:

Pilsner: With its light golden-colour, this is the most popular beer in Germany. A pint of Pils from the tap usually takes three minutes to pour as the foam needs to settle following each refill before the creamy head results.

Weizen: This beer brewed mainly in Bavaria is unlike others as it is based on wheat and not barley, which gives it a unique colour and flavour. Usually drunk out of tall conical glasses

Kolsch: ... More Info

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Australia & China: Foster’s brewery hits the Chinese dust. What went wrong?

Last week, Foster's sold the last of three breweries in China into which it had pumped large amounts of money, management, technical expertise and hopes. What went wrong? What does the failure of Foster's and its competitor Lion Nathan, which pulled out of its three Chinese breweries nearly two years ago, say about the capacity of Australian manufacturing to follow the rest of the world into China?, The Australian asked June 19.

Most of China's exports are today produced by foreign-owned companies. Yet Australia's best-known brands are only present at the margins.

It was different in the early 1990s, when The South China Morning Post reported on "China fever, which is being compared with the gold rush of the 1850s when thousands of Chinese prospectors poured into Australia to seek their fortune. This time the rush is in the other direction - Australian companies seeking a share of the world's fastest-growing economy". In the first few months of 1993 alone, Australian industry sloshed $1 billion into China. That was when Foster's bought breweries in Guangdong, Tianjin and Shanghai.

Since that first youthful foray into China, Australian manufacturing as a whole has slid down the corporate poll, with only 10 or so ... More Info

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Czech Republic: Pivovary Staropramen posts a CZK 240.5 million profit in fiscal 2005

Pivovary Staropramen, the second largest domestic beer producer, was back in black figures last year when it netted CZK 240.5 million after a CZK 22 million loss and its sales grew by 2 percent to CZK 3.5 billion, spokeswoman Michaela Tryznova told CTK after a general meeting on June 16.

The shareholders decided that the profit will be used for covering part of the losses from previous years.

Beer sale rose by 3.2 percent to 2.884 million hectolitres. "Exports contributed to the overall increase in the amount of the sold hectolitres [last year]. Net exports grew by 18.5 percent to 547,200 hectolitres," said Tryznova, adding that the company is thus also the second largest Czech beer exporter.

Staropramen is exported to thirty world countries and on foreign markets belongs into the segment of premium and superpremium beers. Among the most important export markets are Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and Slovakia.

"In 2005, foreign licence production of the Staropramen brand rose in a significant way - by 76 percent to 384,000 hectolitres. [Lager] Staropramen Svetly is brewed under licence in Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine," Tryznova noted.

Pivovary Staropramen in 2004 cut loss form CZK 45 million to CZK 22 million and its sales increased by ... More Info

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World: Barley production is projected by USDA to increase by 4% in 2006-2007

USDA’s export sales report showed barley exports last week at 3.1 TMT for Canada and Mexico. New barley export sales totalled 100 MT, all for Canada. According to the USDA Export Sales Report, accumulated U.S. barley exports in Marketing Year 2005/06 - which ended May 31, 2006 – totalled 516.5 TMT, compared to 396.9 TMT in the previous year.

USDA made only one minor adjustment to the U.S. barley balance sheet. They lowered 2005/06 barley exports by 5 million bu to 25 million bu and raised U.S. ending stocks by 5 million bu to 110 million bu. That resulted in an increase in 2006/07 beginning stocks of 5 million bu to 110 million bu and higher 2006/07 ending stocks of 5 million bu to 105 million bu. World barley production was increased slightly this month due to bigger crops expected in Russia, Ukraine and the EU.

World barley production is projected to increase by 4% to 144.3 MMT, with consumption outpacing production for the second consecutive year. US production is pegged to decline another 3% to 4.5 MMT.

World barley supplies are estimated to increase slightly to 172.8 MMT, while US ... More Info

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World: June 2006 Hop Report by Douglas MacKinnon

It is too early to make predictions regarding the hop crop for 2006 other than to say that supply will be tight at best in some varieties. The hop crop in both the U.S. and Germany got off to a late start due to a colder than normal spring. Hops love the heat however and that late spring in the U.S. was followed by some above average temperature causing hop growth to be ahead of schedule at the time of this writing. German hops remain roughly one week behind schedule, but, as we have seen in the U.S., that can quickly change with several days of warm weather. The weather in August typically determines the hop crop in Germany. A hot August with little or no rain can send German yields plummeting as they did in 2003. Conversely, as was the case in 2004 and 2005, a warm and wet August can deliver excellent hops and alpha acid. The biggest problem at this time is hop powdery mildew, which although potentially devastating to a hop crop can be managed with pesticides.

The most recent news out of the U.S. is the acreage data listed in the following table. With acreage figures being the main newsworthy event, this appears to be a calm year in the hop world. One significant difference between 2006 in the U.S. and previous years is the fact that nearly all American hops are sold. Supply will be tight even if the crop produces average yields. If yields are low, there may be some shortages. Quite a few European hop varieties however are still available. One reason for the inequity between American and European hop sales is, of course, the weak dollar, which has made American hops relatively inexpensive on the world market. There has been little market activity recently although quite a few inquiries. What activity there has been confirms that prices for hops in general are on the rise with some hops already being impossible to obtain.

In short, there are many things that can happen to a hop crop between June and September, which is why most growers don’t feel safe estimating their crop until it is in the bale.

Douglas MacKinnon, former director of Hop Growers of America is chairman of the International Hop Growers Convention executive committee. He publishes the MacKinnon Report, a subscription newsletter that reports developments and market activity within the hop industry.

Comments are welcome via email at doug@mackinnonreport.com.

Related table:
"Hops: Area Harvested by Variety, State, and United States, 2004-2005 and Forecasted June 1, 2006" 10 kb, 1page, *.pdf file

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Abstract:
J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chem. 63(2):63-68, 2005
A trifactorial experiment with a level of confidence of P < 0.05 was performed to study worts and lagers produced with barley or sorghum malts, refined maize (MZ), or waxy sorghum (WXSOR) grits treated during mashing with or without amyloglucosidase (AMG). Worts were produced from the different malts, type of adjunct, and enzyme treatment combinations following a double-mashing procedure. The diastatic activity levels of the barley and sorghum malts were 119 and 20°Lintner, respectively. The barley malt produced 35% more 12°Plato (°P) wort with higher amounts of free amino nitrogen and total fermentable carbohydrates compared with counterparts produced from sorghum malt. The barley malt wort contained higher amounts of maltose but lower amounts of glucose compared with the sorghum malt wort. The WXSOR grits produced worts with similar yield and properties as did the worts produced from MZ grits. AMG addition led to a 3% increment on wort yield and increased glucose from 9.3 to 21.5 g/L of wort and total fermentable sugar equivalents from 59.2 to 72.6 g/L of wort. After 144 hr of fermentation, lagers from barley malt and treated with AMG contained 1.0 and 0.25% units higher ethanol than did the counterparts produced from sorghum malt and without AMG. For AMG treated beers, nonsignificant differences in ethanol content were observed between samples mashed with barley malt and beers produced from sorghum malt and MZ grits. Results demonstrated that AMG could be used to increase the initial amount of fermentable sugars especially in sorghum mashes. Keyword: Sorghum beer
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