As Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) is expected to turn the first sod on Australia’s newest brewery on the NSW Central Coast in just two months, its entry in the local beer market underscores the enormous change sweeping through the sector, the Australian Business communicated on September, 12.

The nation’s once almighty brand Victoria Bitter, or VB, remains the clear number one beer but its market share has slipped from just under 30 per cent in 1999 to 19 per cent in 2007 and just over 17 per cent in July 2008, according to Nielsen figures.

While it remains unclear whether its demise will be as swift and complete as that of Foster's, Australia is unlikely to ever see such a dominant brand as VB again, experts believe.

The phenomenon of premiumization is taking hold, and low-carbohydrate beer headed by Pure Blonde and mid-strength brews led by XXXX Gold are continuing to eat away at the market share of the older-school mass-market monsters.

The local beer market some time ago turned into a cosy duopoly between Foster’s and Lion Nathan, but now CCA is trying to enter the competition.

According to experts, however, Coca-Cola's fitful boast that it wanted to be the number three beer maker and ...More Info

Winter barley production in 2008-09 is forecasted to reach around 7.8 million tonnes, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics published in its Australian crop report as of September, 16.

Although this is a significant increase from the 2007-08 production level, it is below initial estimates.

New South Wales

Winter barley production in New South Wales is forecast to increase to just more than 1.5 million tonnes in 2008-09, a significant increase from the 650 000 tonnes produced in the previous season, reflecting an improvement in yields (1.58 t/ha).

The area planted to barley in 2008-09 is estimated to have decreased by 3 per cent to 980,000 hectares.

Victoria

The barley acreage in Victoria is estimated to have increased by 3 per cent in 2008-09, to 950,000 hectares. Assuming an improvement in yields from last year’s drought affected crop, production is forecast to increase by 42 per cent to 1.6 million tonnes in 2008-09.

Queensland

Although the area planted to barley is estimated to have increased by 12 per cent in 2008-09, a decline in yields is likely to result in slightly lower barley production. Barley yields in Queensland are forecast at1.58 tonnes a hectare in 2008-09, compared with 1.80 tonnes a hectare in 2007-08. Total barley production ...More Info

Idaho is one of the few states that produce hops, the Idaho Statesman published on September, 15. But for the first time in more than a decade, new hop trellises were built in the region this spring and hop acreage statewide was increased by about 30 per cent – from 2,996 acres in 2007 to 3,885 in 2008, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.

Meanwhile, farmers in Washington, the largest hop producing state, added an estimated 8,000 new acres of hop fields this year to take advantage of higher prices.

The industry was hit by the crisis in 2006, when worldwide hop production reached a historic low of about 113,000 acres. The major hop shortage of 2007 was the result of a series of events including bad weather in Europe, a fire at a large hop warehouse in Washington state, an increased demand in Europe and emerging markets like China, experts say,

Hops that had been selling for about $6 a pound now cost $20 or more for brewers who haven't contracted for a lower set price.

Since 2006, about 20,000 new acres of hop varieties have been planted worldwide, but prices remain high, said Ralph Olson, owner of Hop Union, a ...More Info

Birthe Møller, Jose Luis Molina-Cano and Lars Munck

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 108(3), 294–302, 2002 In earlier studies concerning vigour, where subsamples are heattreated before germination there was found heat-sensitive as well as heat-resistant barley samples. The vigour model developed by Ellis and Roberts and further developed at Carlsberg, could only describe the heat-sensitive barleys. Seventeen samples of the “Alexis” variety grown widely in Europe were collected from the EBC trials in 1994 in order to see if heat resistance in barley was influenced by different growing conditions. We found both heat-sensitive samples following the vigour model as well as pronounced heat-resistant samples, but these were not divided according to growing conditions. The germination curves dependent on heat treatment and germination time were evaluated by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Heat-resistant barley samples could be differentiated from heat-sensitive samples already after ½ h of heat treatment at 68°C (12% moisture) and after 3 days of germination. The barley samples were analysed with regard to malting quality. The PCA evaluation of the data divided the samples according to growing location, mainly due to differences in protein and
-glucan. However, the malting analyses could not describe the differences in heat resistance and sensitivity of the barleys. The biochemical background of the heat resistance found is discussed on the basis of literature. Our findings should give an experimental basis for exploiting a biochemical principle for heat resistance, which is formed during grain filling and consumed during storage and germination. Key words: Heat resistance, malting barley quality, principal component analysis, vigour. Load full article, 9 pages, 278 Kb, PDF file