Vietnam: The bottled-beer market - one rung up from bia hoi, as the beer stalls are known, - has been enjoying double-digit growth for several years. Upscale brewpubs also are starting to crop up, with more than a dozen opening in Hanoi in the last year to market high-end, homemade suds. With prices up to $2 a mug, they are aiming at a beer-drinking elite in a nation where per capita income remains $480 a year.
"This is a very interesting industry - a rapidly growing industry," said former San Jose, Calif., resident Van Dinh Man, who opened a cavernous brew pub in a former Hanoi discotheque last year. "And it's a long-term business. It's going to take some time to educate the palates of Vietnamese beer drinkers."
These days, only the true connoisseurs are heading to Vietnam's brew pubs. But many drinkers already have cultivated a taste for premium bottled beer.
Asia Pacific Breweries, which produces Heineken and Tiger beers, is planning a $45 million expansion that will allow it to increase production by 50 %. South East Asia Brewery, which produces Carlsberg and the local brand Halida, has enjoyed growth rates of more than 20 % a year for the last four years.
Vietnam's brewpubs are similar to their American counterparts - homemade brew is made according to a secret recipe in giant copper tanks, lending an aura of connoisseurship. Beers are served by the half-pint or pint - ales, pilsners, stouts. In some places, even two-liter frosty mugs are available for especially thirsty customers.
Despite all the change in Vietnam's beer industry, by far the most popular drinking establishment remains the traditional bia hoi, where the 15-cents-per-glass tab helps the watery draft go down easily. The beer stalls take their name from the drink bia hoi, "fresh beer."
As a developing nation, Vietnam's per capita beer consumption remains relatively low at roughly 12 liters a year, especially compared with such giants of the suds-swilling world as Germany, which consumes more than 120 liters per person per year.
22 December, 2004
