Puerto Rico: Second locally produced beer on the way to Puerto Ricans

Puerto Ricans will soon be able to taste a second locally produced light beer, Associated Press communicated on September, 17.

Cervezas del Sur expects to launch a light beer next year after securing a nearly $13 million loan to establish a $20 million brewing company in the southern coastal city of Ponce, it is reported.

The beer is yet unnamed, and it will be sold only in the U.S. Caribbean territory, said Luis Alvarez, of Mendez & Co., the principal shareholder of Cervezas del Sur.

Some 45,000 litres of beer a year would be produced, he said.

Cervezas del Sur would provide 80 percent of the investment and a North Carolina-based investment group the remainder, Alvarez said. Some 30 jobs would be created.

The beer would compete with Medalla, produced by Cerveceria India, a brewery that was established in 1937 in the western coastal city of Mayaguez.

23 September, 2009