Asia is forecast to post strong growth for beer consumption in years to come, Reuters communicated on July, 19.

In China and India, as well as smaller markets in Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, beer drinking is becoming a popular past time due to rising disposable income and relatively young populations who are embracing the party scene.

"I'm a firm believer in the Asia growth story and when there's growth there's going to be increased consumption," said Edward Chia, managing director of Singapore's Timbre bars.

"My analysis of trends is that people tend to start drinking beer as the first form of alcohol, then move to wines and spirits. That (applies) to both age and maturity of industry."

Market research firm Euromonitor International says Asia is the most dynamic region globally in volume for beer, with average annual growth of 8 percent between 2003 and 2008. China is the world's biggest beer market and India's $12 billion alcohol market has been enjoying 12-15 percent annual growth.

So it's no surprise that beverage firms, facing slowing sales in mature markets in Europe, Japan and the United States, have heightened M&A activity in the past few months. Analysts suggest there will be more to ...More Info

Japanese brewer Asahi Breweries Ltd. intends to acquire the 21.61% stake in Beijing Beer Asahi Co., Ltd. put up for auction at the China Beijing Equity Exchange by Beijing Red Star Brewing Group Company, SinoCast Daily Business Beat reported on July, 22.

An executive with the China department of Asahi confirmed that the company wanted to take the stake. For the moment, state-owned Red Star owns 21.61% of Beijing Beer Asahi, and the Japanese brewer represents 47.03% as its biggest shareholder.

The base price for the auction was fixed at CNY28 million. Beijing Beer Asahi is a Sino-Japanese joint venture incorporated in 1995 with registered capital of USD58 million. The venture has production capacity of 100,000 kiloliters.

The potential buyer should have over-10-year experience in beer production and marketing, or in liquor production, sales, and investment management. Moreover, it should promise in written form to invest USD30 million at least in the target company, it is reported.

Grupo Modelo, S.A.B. de C.V. and Subsidiaries, the leading brewer in Mexico and producer of the best-selling Mexican beer in the world, announced on July, 22 its financial and operating results for the second quarter and the first half of 2009.

During the second quarter, Modelo’s domestic beer sales reached 10.060 mln hl (9.751 mln hl in the same period of the prior year). Volume growth in domestic brands was 3.3%, driven by the implementation of the company’s initiatives to improve its execution in the market, as well as the benefit of Holy Week during the quarter. These factors contributed to compensate the negative effect of the H1N1 flu outbreak which impacted mainly the centre of the country, the brewer said.

The imported brand portfolio decreased 1.0% in the quarter, to 0.218 mln hl, as a consequence of the price increase carried out to compensate part of the exchange rate depreciation.

Export volume decreased 4.6% to 4.555 mln hl with respect to the same period of 2008. During the quarter, there was a volume recovery, with almost every region showing better performance than the previous quarter.

The brewer’s total beer sales amounted to 14.616 mln hl over the reporting period (+ 0.6%).

Net sales ...More Info

Nomura has maintained its "buy" rating and the share price target of DKK450 on Danish Carlsberg A/S, expecting the brewer to raise its market shares and profit margin in Russia in the long run, Trading Markets reported on July, 21.

Those factors will more than offset the currently weak Russian market and various setbacks such as the generally low private consumption and the rumours of the government raising the excise duty on alcohol, according to analyst Ian Shackleton.

Up to the release of the half year report, due on 6 August, investors should take advantage of each backward step of the stock and increase their exposure to Carlsberg, he said.

"We also expect a negative development in second quarter sales volumes in Northern and Western Europe despite the good summer weather, but the restructuring measures will offset it," Shackleton said. "As a consequence, we expect Carlsberg to maintain its operating profit forecast," he added.

The analyst expects the group's earnings per share (EPS) to rise in 2010 and 2012, boosted by growing revenue in Eastern Europe and Asia, and improved profitability in Northern and Western Europe.

Shackleton also pointed to the fact that the Carlsberg stock is trading at a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of ...More Info

The Union of Brewers in Bulgaria (UBB) reported on July, 20 a 4% decline in sales from January to June 2009, pinning the bulk of the blame on unfavourable weather conditions, tourist outflows and consumers’ increased price sensitivity. Another major drag was the decrease in sales in outdoor bars and restaurants.

Total beer sales of the Union’s members amounted to 2,536,122 hl, of which 2,507,490 hl were sold on the domestic market.

The main reduction is in the so called ‘cold market’ – the quantities sold in restaurants, hotels and other establishments – around 10% less than the previous year. Meanwhile the sales in stores and the consumption at home (70% of the market) is pretty much the same, Vladimir Ivanov, chairman of the union said.

Investments in improving the quality of Bulgarian beer will not be curtailed despite slumping sales and the damage the ongoing global economic downturn is wreaking on the sector, industry representatives shared.

Over the first half of 2009, investments in the Bulgarian brewing industry totaled EUR40 mln.

"I have faith in the Bulgarian market but I expect a grey future and a recovery not before mid-2010," Carlsberg Bulgaria executive director Aleksandar Grancharov said.

Last year the members of the industry ...More Info

The delayed monsoon has brought some cheer to the Indian beer industry as volumes rose 6% in the first quarter, The Economic Times posted on July, 18.

This is despite the fact that volumes in the largest beer market, Andhra Pradesh, plunged over 40% as top manufacturers United Breweries and SABMiller remained absent, following a litigation with the state government. The state government had stopped procurement of beer from these companies since March 31, following a dispute over revision of beer prices.

The summer months of April to June rake in 40-50% of the annual volumes for brewers. Data from brewers suggest that excluding Andhra Pradesh, domestic volumes were up 13% in the April-June quarter.

North Indian states drove growth in the first quarter, reporting a 19% rise. It was this region that had been hit by the early monsoons in FY09. Uttar Pradesh showed a 52% volume increase, while Haryana and Delhi clocked a volume growth of 38% and 31%, respectively. The western states saw beer consumption grow 14%, while the eastern states showed a 39% increase with West Bengal and Orissa boosting sales.

The southern markets, however, continued to perform below expectations, down nearly 18% largely due to the ‘no-supply’ ...More Info

SUN InBev, AB InBev’s Russian subsidiary, posted net losses of 380.4 million roubles in 2008 compared to 1.7 billion roubles in net profit in 2007, Interfax-Russia cited a company report on July, 18.

Sales revenue grew to 39.7 billion roubles in 2008 from 38.2 billion roubles in 2007.

The company produced and sold 19.99 million hectolitres of beer in 2008, down 12% from 2007. The decline in production is the result of the worsening economic climate in Russia and around the globe in addition to a drop in demand for beer, the company said.

SUN InBev exported 450,300 hectolitres of beer in 2008. Export revenue did not exceed 2% of total revenue. The main buyers of SUN InBev products were Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Georgia, Germany and Baltic countries.

SUN InBev is the second largest beer producer in Russia with a roughly 20% market share. It includes eleven breweries that produce Stella Artois, Beck's, Brahma, Staropramen, Hoegaarden, Sibirskaya Korona, Klinskoye, Tolstyak and BagBier.

The US barley markets continued in their summer holding pattern due to the lack of any news that would steer them in one direction or another, Farm & Ranch Guide communicated on July, 17.

The late planting dates and poor planting conditions led barley growers in the key production states to plant fewer acres than last year, according to Steve Edwardson, executive administrator of the North Dakota Barley Council. This generally would support the market, but the last crop condition update indicates the barley crop is doing well, which means yields could make up for the reduced plantings.

“According to the National Ag Statistics Service, North Dakota growers planted 1.2 million acres of barley in 2009, a decrease of 450,000 acres or 27 percent less than the 2008 plantings,” Edwardson said. “Wet conditions delayed planting, especially in the northeastern part of the state, where estimates indicate only 15 to 25 percent of the crop acres were planted.”

“In addition, significant spreads between malt barley and feed barley prices generated concern among growers that profitability for barley would be negatively impacted if malting grades were not achieved.”

Minnesota in the end of June acreage report said its barley acres were off 38 percent from last ...More Info

The total area sown to barley in the UK for harvest 2009 has seen a significant increase compared to a year ago, according to the HGCA planting survey published on July, 20.

The survey results suggest that the total barley area is significantly up this year (+ 13.4% to 1.14 mln ha, with a sharp increase in the spring barley area (+ 22% to 727.1 thousand ha) and a very slight increase in the winter barley area (+ 0.9% to 414.5 thousand ha).

"The increase in the barley area suggests that there will be a larger barley crop compared to last season and this may have implications for the wheat and barley balance sheets, given the reduction in the wheat area," said Tosin Onikoyi, HGCA's analyst.

The survey results are based on completed survey forms from approximately 3,000 producers across Great Britain.

The Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation has adjusted its forecast for the nation’s barley production in 2009, Agrimarket communicated on July, 22.

Ukraine is expected to harvest 14 mln tons of barley this year.

Earlier, the Confederation had said Ukraine would produce 13 mln tons of barley in 2009.

Graham G. Stewart

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 115(1), 3–29, 2009 Horace Brown spent fifty years conducting brewing research in Burton-on-Trent, Dublin and London. His contributions were remarkable and his focus was to solve practical brewing problems by employing and developing fundamental scientific principles. He studied all aspects of the brewing process including raw materials, wort preparation, fermentation, yeast and beer stability. As a number of previous presenters of the Horace Brown Lecture have discussed Brown’s achievements in detail, the focus of this paper is a review of the brewing research that has been conducted by the author and his colleagues during the past forty years. Similar to Horace Brown, fundamental research has been employed to solve brewing problems. Research studies that are discussed in this review paper include reasons for premature flocculation of ale strains resulting in wort underattenuation including mechanisms of co-flocculation and pure strain flocculation, storage procedures for yeast cultures prior to propagation, studies on the genetic manipulation of brewer’s yeast strains with an emphasis on the FLO1 gene, spheroplast fusion and the respiratory deficient (petite) mutation, the uptake and metabolism of wort sugars and amino acids, the influence of wort density on fermentation characteristics and beer flavour and stability, and finally, the contribution that high gravity brewing has on brewing capacity, fermentation efficiency and beer quality and stability. Key words: Co-flocculation, flavour, flocculation, genetic manipulation, high gravity brewing, petite mutation, propagation, stability, wort clarity and composition, yeast management. Load full article, 27 pages, 45 508 MB , PDF file