Efes Breweries International N.V. (EBI) announced on October, 17 its sales volume figures for the nine months period ended September, 30.

In the first nine months of 2008 EBI’s total sales volume increased to 11.2 mln hl, by growing 8% over the same period of previous year, the company said.

Third quarter volume growth of EBI on a consolidated basis was 2% year-on-year.

The company said it was able to manage volume and top line growth in a very challenging environment with significant inflationary pressures and slowing consumer demand.

Despite the challenging conditions in the Russian market, which were especially apparent in the third quarter of 2008, EFES increased its sales volume to 8.8 mln hl by growing 9% in the first nine months of 2008 and by 4% in the third quarter alone.

In Russian beer market, poor weather conditions and the deteriorating consumer confidence are the primary reasons of the slowdown in the growth, where the estimated market growth in the first nine months of 2008 was only 1%, the brewer posted.

In Kazakhstan sales volume reached 1.2 mln hl in the first nine months by growing 9% over the comparable period of previous year. Cycling a very strong base effect in ...More Info

Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo denied on October, 17 a report that it was seeking to buy back all or part of the 50 percent stake its U.S. partner Anheuser-Busch holds in it, Reuters communicated on the same day.

The Wall Street Journal had reported that Modelo wanted to buy back the stake, citing people familiar with the matter. However, a Modelo spokeswoman said the report was “untrue”.

The spokeswoman said Modelo is focusing on the arbitration it has just started against Anheuser, claiming its U.S. partner did not consult it about InBev's offer.

Japan's Asahi Breweries is close to completing due diligence for a possible offer for InBev's South Korean division, Reuters cited Belgium's Le Soir newspaper on October, 18.

Next day, however, Asahi spokesman said “there was not truth to the report” denying that his company was conducting due diligence on InBev’s Oriental Brewery.

He declined to comment on whether Asahi was interested in bidding for the unit.

Oriental Brewery wasn't immediately able to comment on the report, Bloomberg communicated. The Korean unit said last month its Belgian parent had no plans to sell it.

Asahi, which sells InBev brands in the Japan market, is seeking to increase sales overseas to offset declining demand in its home market. Japan's beer shipments fell to the lowest last year since at least 1992 as younger consumers switched to wine and other beverages.

InBev, the maker of Stella Artois and Beck's, has said it plans to sell “non-core” assets to help fund its $52 billion purchase of Anheuser-Busch that it expects to complete by the end of the year.

In 2004, InBev paid 612 million euros ($823 million) to boost its stake in Oriental, the second-largest brewer in South Korea, to 95 percent from 50 percent. The ...More Info

Case sales of craft brews increased 10.6% for the year ended Oct. 4 while sales of imported beer at food stores (excluding super centres) declined 0.6%, The Nielsen Co. published on October, 19.

According to Mintel, through the first three quarters of 2008, 191 new beer products were introduced compared with 134 last year and 122 in 2006. More of them are craft seasonal brews — beers with limited production that are released during a particular time of year. Several wholesalers remarked that they’re distributing more fall beers — Oktoberfest, harvest ales, pumpkin ales — than they have within memory.

“Craft brewers are doing a nice job of coming out with seasonal packs, which drive up volume,” said Nick Lake, vp/group client director for beverage alcohol at Nielsen. “Craft [dollar sales are] up 14% year to date, but seasonal is up 29%. What that is telling you is there is interest in different beer styles and variety and consumers are willing to experiment.”

That search for newness is taxing Corona Extra and Heineken, which have grown into top 10 beer brands but are down 7.2% and 0.4%, respectively, experts reported. Also, drinkers may not see much of a trade-off in price, especially when ...More Info

Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd, the Singapore-based joint venture between Dutch brewer Heineken NV and Singapore’s Fraser and Neave Ltd, is to establish two new breweries in a move to consolidate its position in India, the Wall Street Journal published on October, 17.

APB’s Indian operations were slightly embarrassed when Heineken, a majority stakeholder, inherited a 37.5% holding in rival United Breweries Ltd, India’s largest beer company, from Scottish and Newcastle Plc. (S&N) after a global buyout in January.

At the moment, Asia Pacific, which sells global brands, Baron’s Strong Brew and Tiger, as well as local brand Cannon in India, operates the fully owned Asia Pacific Breweries (Aurangabad) Ltd in Maharashtra and another at Hyderabad in partnership with the Andhra Pradesh brewer C.K. Jaipuria.

The company is now planning a third, new brewery in Goa, with a proposed annual brewing capacity of 350,000 cases, and another in a yet undecided location.

The new brewery may result in the re-launch of Arlem beer in India, analysts assume.

Asia Pacific’s newly appointed South Asia chief executive officer and head of Indian operations, Aswin Deo, said the company plans to expand its brewing capacities to northern India as well as Goa. He declined to give details.

"We entered the ...More Info

Japan’s Asahi Breweries Ltd. plans to expand its operations in India encouraged by growing demand for beer in the South Asian country, Jiji Press cited informed sources on October, 17.

Specifically, Asahi aims to raise sales of its Super Dry draft beer there to 8,000 cases in 2009 from 5,000 cases planned for 2008, the sources said. One case contains the equivalent of 24 330-milliliter bottles.

The company launched Super Dry in India in September 2007. The beer is now sold mainly at hotels and pubs in such big cities as Delhi and Mumbai through major Indian winery Sula Wines.

In addition, Asahi will start exports of 10 whisky brands, including "Yoichi" and "Miyagikyo," the sources said.

The firm will sell these products through Brindco, a major Indian liquor distributor, mainly targeting wealthy people in India, the sources said. It plans to sell a total of 500 cases in 2009, with each case containing the equivalent of six 700-milliliter bottles, the sources said.

Other major Japanese brewers have not entered the Indian market due partly to hurdles in terms of food culture and religion.

Brussels is set to reintroduce import duties on cereals in an attempt to prevent any further slippage in the price of grain to farmers, Farmers Weekly communicated on October, 20.

Import duties were suspended at the beginning of January 2008 to boost grain supplies following the reduced global harvest of 2007.

Since then, prices have headed steadily downwards, in response to a massive global harvest and, more recently, to frenzied selling by investors in the commodities markets due to the financial crisis.

Grain market managers in Brussels have therefore decided to reintroduce import duties on all cereals coming into the EU from third countries.

About 306,000 tonnes of barley are covered by a 16 euro/tonne tariff rate quota, it was reported. The annual quote for malt is established at 50 thousand tonnes with an 8 euro/tone tariff rate, according to finance.ua.

Grain already in transit by the time the regulation is published in the next few days will still be allowed into the EU without import duties applied, the authorities announced.

Canada produced 11.219 mln tonnes of barley in 2008-09, up from 10.984 million in 2007-08, Country Guide communicated on October, 20.

Market sources said feed grain supplies in Western Canada should be more than adequate to meet the demand in the coming year. Besides, the ample domestic feed grain supplies should limit imports of U.S. corn, some analysts forecast.

Bruce Burnett, director of weather and market analysis with the Canadian Wheat Board, said that there were fewer acres planted specifically to feed barley varieties this year. However, rains in the middle of September left some of the barley harvested after that unsuitable for malt, he added.

Burnett said there would be "a reasonable availability" of feed barley, noting that the majority of the barley crop will be marketed domestically as feed, as is normally the case.

Overall, Burnett thought feed grain supplies in Western Canada would be adequate to meet the demand, but not overly large either.

"We have ample supplies for our domestic market," said Dave Guichon, of Ag Value Brokers in Alberta, on the western Canadian feed grain supply situation. Given better-than-average yield, he expected the carryout numbers of both feed barley and feed wheat would increase on the year.

Also, he said, "there's ...More Info

ABB Grain made public initial estimates for its national pools in barley for the 2008/2009 harvest on October, 20.

ABB’s pool estimates are quoted on a national free on board (FOB) basis and will be updated weekly, the company said.

“Growers can also forward contract into our pools at any time to reserve their grain in the pool should it close prior to them harvesting their grain. Pools may close at anytime,” ABB’s Pooled Grain Business Manager, Anthony Fitzgerald, said.

As at October, 2008, ABB’s National Pool Estimate for feed barley was A$265 – 275 per tonne, for malting barley – A$340 – 350 per tonne.

Britain's brewers - struggling against falling beer sales - are cutting costs by importing hops from China and America, the Telegraph communicated on October, 21.

According to reports, there are now fewer than 100 hop growers in the UK.

Kent hop grower Ian Strang claims the label on a bottle of beer costs more than the hops it contains.

There is, though, good news for the hop growers. A new report - Cask Ale Report - shows that while the big brewers' sales went down by 8 per cent, cask or real ale fell by only 0.3 per cent.

When it comes to regional and local breweries there is actually an increase of 1.8 per cent in value.

The report also reveals that drinkers of real ale are usually more affluent being more than twice as likely to earn more than the national average wage.

"In fact beer's the new wine" said Mr Strang whose family has been growing hops for generations.

He added that America this year had planted more acres of hops than the entire area used for the crop in the UK. Hops had also come in from China and Eastern Europe.

He said "You have to wonder about the air miles involved. Why can't ...More Info

Robert Muller, Sam Walker, John Brauer1 and Maria Junquera

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 102–109, 2007 Elevated blood cholesterol is a problem for many people. Although a significant proportion of this cholesterol arises from metabolism within the body, approximately 50% comes from our diet. Certain plant sterols (phytosterols) are known to inhibit the absorption of this dietary cholesterol by the human body, and there are now several commercially available food products that contain these phytosterols. Barley malt, yeast and hops also contain phytosterols or similar materials that might potentially act as inhibitors of cholesterol uptake but this effect has not been studied. In this work we examine one aspect of the potential for competition between cholesterol and selected beer components when binding to a protein. The method used was ligand docking. This uses computer modeling to examine the binding energies expected when the ligand (e.g. cholesterol or analogue) binds to a protein. The two proteins examined were both natural cholesterol binding proteins. The cholesterol analogues, sitosterol (from barley) and ergosterol (from yeast), had similar binding energies to cholesterol and thus had potential for competition. Other molecules (iso-xanthohumol, 8-prenylnaringenin (8PN) and iso-humulone) had lower binding energies suggesting that they would not compete effectively. Standard beers normally contain very low levels of either sitosterol or ergosterol, although some wheat beers that contain high levels of yeast may contain elevated levels of ergosterol. We have also developed a beer that contains elevated levels of sitosterol by incorporating whole grain material. The level of -sitosterol in these beers was still very low and even a whole grain beer would not contain sufficient of the cholesterol analogues to completely inhibit cholesterol uptake or transport. Key words: Binding energy cholesterol, ergosterol, protein, sitosterol. Load full article, 8 pages, 5540 Kb, PDF file