Carlsberg A/S plans to buy any shares Vietnam won’t be able to sell in the initial public offering of Hanoi-Beer-Alcohol-Beverages Corp., (Habeco), according to Nguyen Van Viet, chief executive officer of the brewer, Bloomberg reported March 19.

Carlsberg will buy the shares at VND50,000 (US$3.2) each if the Vietnamese government permits.

Vietnam has already allowed the Danish company to take a 10 percent stake in Habeco.

The government will auction 34.8 million shares in Hanoi-based Habeco on March 27 with a minimum bid of VND50,000.

Deputies from Ukrainian Verhovna Rada (Parliament) passed the law on alcohol advertising, the media reported March 18. The new law bans the alcohol, including beer, advertising in transport and in media (newspapers, journals, TV and radio).

Advertising is allowed only at special events like exhibitions.

Big Rock Brewery Income Trust announced that Mr. Ken Barbet has resigned as the President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Big Rock Brewery Operations Corp., in a press release, March 18. Mr. Barbet has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Big Rock since October 1, 2005. Effective immediately, Mr. Edward McNally, the current Chairman of the board and founder of Big Rock, has been appointed as the interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Big Rock. Mr. McNally will serve as the interim President and Chief Executive Officer until a suitable replacement is identified and appointed by the board of directors.

Management and the board of directors of Big Rock wish to thank Mr. Barbet for his dedication to the success of Big Rock and his valued contributions to the board.

About Big Rock Brewery

The Trust is an unincorporated open-ended limited purpose trust established under the laws of the Province of Alberta. The Trust owns all of the securities of Big Rock Brewery Ltd. ("Big Rock") which entitles the Trust to receive all cash flow available for distribution from the business of Big Rock, after debt service payments, maintenance capital expenditures and other cash requirements.

Big Rock - ...More Info

Baltika Breweries plan to increase its sales on Spanish market, according to company’s press release, March 19. The company has been operating on this market since 2000. In 2007 Baltika’s sales increased 16% mainly due to Baltika Nb. 7 brand (+23%). The bestseller is always Baltika Nb. 3 Classic with 26% of sales, than Baltika Nb. 7 with 17% and Baltika Nb. 5 with 16%.

Baltika’s specialists have recently participated at an important international exhibition in Spain – Alimentaria, where they have closed new agreements in order to expand company’s distribution on the local market.

Baltika Breweries is the largest FMCG producer in Russia. Ever since 1996, it has been the leader on the Russian beer market. The Baltika brand occupies second place in Europe in terms of sales. The Company comprises 11 breweries across all of Russia and has a broad portfolio of brands. There are around 12,000 employees in the Company.

The Philippine government hopes to sell a 24 percent stake in San Miguel Corp in the second half of this year after coming to a settlement with a coconut farmers group that is contesting its ownership, Reuters reported March 13.

"We are hoping we can get this done in the next semester," Finance Secretary Margarito Teves told Reuters on Thursday.

"We are trying to figure out if we can reach an amicable settlement," he said in an interview.

The government's stake in the company, Southeast Asia's largest food and drinks group, is worth about $740 million.

The stake was sequestered by the government upon the overthrow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 after it was deemed to have been acquired by using an illegal levy on coconut farmers.

A farmers group has contested the government's ownership.

"These are government shares, but the intention is to use the proceeds for the farmers," said Teves, adding that he hoped to sell the stake in one block via an auction.

SABMiller plc, one of the world’s leading brewers, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ronald van Amerongen to the group marketing team as the International Brand Director for Grolsch, according to company’s press release, March 19. It follows SABMiller acquisition of Royal Grolsch which was finalised on 21st February 2008.

Reporting to Nick Fell, SABMiller’s Group Marketing Director, Ronald was previously Grolsch Director for Global Marketing, where he was already responsible for the growth of the Grolsch brand in its domestic and international markets.

Commenting on his appointment, Nick Fell said:

“I am very pleased to welcome Ronald and of course, Grolsch, to SABMiller. Grolsch will provide SABMiller with a powerful addition to its international portfolio, and Ronald brings with him experience and understanding of the Grolsch brand. Within the SABMiller family Grolsch will continue to build on almost 400 years of brewing heritage and together we will establish new positions in the most important emerging beer markets around the world. I look forward to working with Ronald to write the next chapter in this great brand’s history.”

Previously, Ronald worked for Friesland foods as Marketing Director for the juices and still drinks business and as International Marketing Manager for the enhanced ...More Info

According to the President of the Ukrainian Grain Association Vladimir Klimenko, they ask the President of Ukraine to cancel feed grain export quotation because, currently, the elevators accumulate large stocks of grain, Agrimarket reported March 14.

At that, V. Klimenko stated, that Ukraine can export in the current season no more than 1.1 mln tonnes of barley, taking into account currently valid quotas and under condition of the cancellation of feed crops export quotation.

In addition, the President of UGA stated that the draft resolution developed by the Ministry of Economics of Ukraine about increasing of grain export quota to 1.7 mln tonnes by the end of the season has lost its actuality because much time is required for beginning of grain export to the external markets.

In July 2007, farmers won a court challenge, reversing the federal government's Order-in-Council that would have stripped the CWB of its barley marketing mandate, The Daily Observer published March 19.

The government appealed its loss. On February 26, the appeal was heard in Winnipeg, and it was a victory for farmers, reports Dave Mackay, president of the Renfrew County National Farmers Union.

The three judges ruled unanimously against the federal government and its appeal, saying that they found no grounds to overturn the original ruling.

"This is a huge victory for farmers, for their collective marketing agency, the CWB, and for all citizens who value democracy and who want it safeguarded against unilateral and illegal government actions," says the NFU. "Over the past year, thousands of farmers have contributed time and money toward the defense of the CWB. This is their win," reports the NFU.

"Ottawa acted illegally by issuing its Order-in-Council. It then engaged in a costly court fight, and lost. Then, they appealed the loss, setting up another costly court fight, the result of which we see today.

The recent Federal Appeal Court hearing was a colossal waste of taxpayers' money, made even more so by the Minister of Agriculture's announcement that he ...More Info

On a few farms that planted a new variety called "Charles" last fall, the crop is already up and starting to grow, Capital Press reported March 14.

Charles is a two-row winter malting variety released in 2005 by plant breeders at the USDA Agricultural Research Service small grains facility in Aberdeen, Idaho.

The new variety is now being tested by two major brewing companies. If it passes the crucial taste test, it could become the first winter malting barley recommended by the American Malting Barley Association.

Charles has the potential to out-yield the best available spring malting varieties by as much as 35 percent in parts of the Intermountain West, according to industry officials.

It's expected to be best adapted to irrigated production in the Snake River Plain.

Timm Adams, who farms near Rupert, Idaho, planted 130 acres of Charles last fall.

"I think it has a lot of promise," Adams said in an interview last summer. "If I could get a 25 to 30 percent increase in yield by growing a winter variety, that would make a big difference."

In variety trials, Charles produced a much high percentage of plump kernels (96 percent vs. 88 percent) compared with Harrington, the most widely grown spring malting barley ...More Info

D.E. Evans(1), M. Ratcliffe(2), B.L. Jones(3), A.R. Barr(1). (1) The University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Dept. of Plant Science, Glen Osmond, SA 5064; (2) Victorian Institute for Dryland Agriculture, PO Box 260, Horsham, VIC 3401; (3) USD-ARS, Cereal Crops Unit, 501N Walnut St, Madison, WI 53705, USA.

Introduction
Beer foam quality is one of the critical characteristics that a consumer will use to determinethe quality of dispensed beer. Brewers are particularly interested in optimising foam quality because it will impact upon customers purchase decisions. Beer foam quality is a combination of its stability, quantity, lacing (adhesion or cling), whiteness, 'creaminess', density, viscosity and strength (Bamforth, 1985). Brewers current strategies for improving foam stability are to specify malt with relatively low Kolbach indices (KI, soluble/total protein) and supplement the beer produced with PGA (propylene glycol alginate), use foam generating "widgets" or use chemically hydrogenated hop extracts (i.e. “Tetra” hop). All these strategies are relatively costly and will impart visual or flavour effects on the beer that may not be desirable. Naturally occurring foam promotants in beer include proteins (>5kDa), isohumulone, metal cations, low levels of ethanol (<3%) and gums (presumably ß-glucans and arabinoxylans) while lipids and high levels of ethanol are foam inhibiting (Bamforth, 1985). Foam-positive proteins can be divided into two fractions based on molecular weight, 1. high molecular weight (HMW, 35-50 kDa); 2. low molecular weight (LMW, 5-17 kDa). Both fractions originate primarily from malt (Asano & Hashimoto, 1980), with the HMW fraction containing mainly protein Z (Kaersgaard, P. & Hejgaard, 1979), and the LMW fraction containing LTP1 (lipid transfer protein 1) and a mixture of hordein and glutelin fragments (Sorensen et al., 1993, Sheehan & Skerritt, 1997, Vaag et al., 1999). Protein Z may be further sub-divided into the protein Z4 and protein Z7 forms which are highly related and expressed from one or more genes on chromosomes 4H and 5H, respectively. In barley and malt, protein Z4 is the dominant isoform accounting for approximately 80 % of all protein Z. Evans et al., (1998, 1999) applied quantitative enzymelinked immunosorbent as says (ELISA) to measure the quantity of protein Z4, protein Z7 and LTP1 in malt. In small and pilot scale brewing trials, the level of protein Z4 was significantly and positively correlated to foam stability as measured by the Rudin head retention time test (Bishop et al., 1975). It follows that if foam quality could be predicted by measurement of foam-positive proteins in barley and malt it would be possible to deliver malt to both domestic and international brewers that produce beer with high quality foam heads. In this study, the quantity of protein Z4, protein Z7 and LTP1 were assessed in malt from a selection of Australian and international malting varieties. The genetic basis for the level of protein Z4 and Z7 were established by QTL analysis in two mapping populations.
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