Breweries in Malaysia have cautioned that the RM4.77bil beer and stout industry will face tougher times if excise duties are increased further, thestar.com reported on July 29.

Malaysian excise duty rates were the highest in Asia and second highest in the world, after Norway. The Government increased the excise duty three years consecutively from 2004 to 2006 with an unprecedented 27% hike in 2006.

Guinness Anchor Bhd managing director Charles Ireland said another round of excise duty hike could result in smuggling becoming more lucrative and increased competition from wine, spirits and compounded hard liquor.

“The Government would be right not to increase excise tax this year. The industry is under tremendous pressure and we expect it to remain negative in the next year or so.

“Even more people will switch to wine, spirits and compounded hard liquor, which have higher alcohol content, thus promoting irresponsible drinking and causing health hazards.”

Based on a consumption forecast model, when excise duties increase, beer and stout consumption will decline 6.5% and 20.8% respectively.

Government tax collection had already reached an optimum level and any further increase would only lead to lower tax collection, Ireland added.

Feed barley and designated barley values have not changed since June, says the CWB’s Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2008 – 2009 crop year published on cwb.ca on July 24.

Feed barley

With Europe and the Black Sea region reaping the harvest, high declines in prices were registered on international markets. Relatively favourable weather conditions promise good yield this growing season. Feed barley prices in North America have declined during the past month, due mostly to the drop in corn values. Dryness in Australia is providing some support as the prospects for average yields begin to decline. Despite poor soil-moisture levels and reduced yield expectations in the extreme northern growing areas of Alberta, Canada has mostly good crop conditions. Barley crops suffered from late-season dryness in the Pacific Northwest, Montana and North Dakota, as a consequence, condition ratings dropped over the past month. Some support for prices will be rendered by the US deteriorating crop conditions.

Designated barley

The forthcoming harvest of spring barley in Europe has reduced international prices. Some concerns about quality in the EU caused by recent rains were dissolved by the favourable yield prospects. Malting barley prices will be supported by declining conditions in Australia. Canada’s success has been ...More Info

Tuija Sarlin, A. Vilpola, E. Kotaviita, J. Olkku and A. Haikara

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 113(2), 147–153, 2007 Fungal hydrophobins have been shown to induce gushing of beer. In order to study the occurrence and fate of hydrophobins at different stages of the production chain of beer, barley samples artificially infected in the field with Fusarium culmorum, F. graminearum and F. poae were collected during the growing period as well as during various stages of the malting process. In addition, naturally infected malt was brewed in pilot scale and samples were collected throughout the process. The samples were assayed for hydrophobin content using an ELISA method. The results showed that fungi produced hydrophobins that accumulated during barley grain development in the field, but that production was more pronounced during malting. Prolonged storage of barley tended to reduce the ability of fungi to produce hydrophobins in malting. Studies on the fate of hydrophobins during the brewing process revealed that mashing released hydrophobins from the malt into the wort. Some loss of hydrophobins occurred throughout the brewing process with spent grains, cold break (wort boiling) and surplus yeast. In addition, the beer filtration step reduced hydrophobin levels. Despite the substantial loss of hydrophobins during brewing, the level was high enough to induce the gushing detected in the final beer. Key words: Brewing, Fusarium, hydrophobins, malting. Load full article, 7 pages, 534 Kb, PDF file