InBev announced North American leadership team of combined Anheuser-Busch InBev on its official site on October, 8.

The brewing giant said that upon close of the transaction, Luiz Fernando Edmond will become Zone President North America, and David A. Peacock will become president of Anheuser-Busch.

As previously announced, St. Louis will be the North American headquarters for the combined company and the global home of the flagship Budweiser brand. Both executives will be based in St. Louis.

As Zone President North America, Luiz Fernando Edmond will oversee all of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s operations in the United States and Canada. He currently serves as InBev’s Zone President Latin America North and AmBev’s Chief Executive Officer, positions that he has held since January 2005.

Edmond’s current position at InBev and AmBev will be filled by Joao Castro Neves, who currently serves as InBev’s Zone President Latin America South. The incumbent Zone President for North America, Bernardo Pinto Paiva, will move from Canada to Argentina to become Zone President Latin America South, replacing Joao.

As president of Anheuser-Busch, David Peacock will manage all U.S. operations for the combined company, including the brand management of Budweiser and Bud Light. He will assume this position after having served as Vice President ...More Info

According to experts’ latest forecasts for 2008, beer sales figures are to increase by 3 - 4% in Brazil, it was reported earlier this month.

The Czech Republic reported a sales volume of 9.9 mln hl for the first half of 2008 - a 0.5% drop from last year.

Germany’s August beer sales fell 7.6% from August 2007 results. In France, 9.36 mln hl of beer were sold in H1 2008 – down 4.5% from 2007.

According to Japan’s estimates, its H1 2008 total beer sales decreased by 4.2%, of which Pilsen type beer minus 7.6%.

India forecasts its beer sales to increase by 4% in 2008, after 18% last year.

Russia reported a 3% rise in its beer sales during January – July 2008. Ukraine’s July beer sales dropped 1.9%, however, its January - July results still showed a 7.5% increase, and forecast for the year is plus 5.8%.

Vietnam posted 2007 beer sales of 19 mln hl, forecasts for 2008 above 20 mln hl and 27 mln hl by 2010.

United States beer sales are up 0.7% to 127.3 mln barrels, experts reported.

Brewer InBev SA said its major shareholders expect to buy up about one-tenth of new shares being issued to help pay for a $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch, Associated Press reported on October, 7.

According to the company, its two main groups of shareholders each plan to take 600 million euros ($830 million) of the new shares, and may seek to buy more.

Some 60 percent of Inbev is held by several Brazilian financiers - including the investment banker Jorge Paulo Lemann - and a group of Belgian aristocratic families who founded the business.

Norwalk, Connecticut-based Beverage Information Group, asserts that the U.S. beer industry has seen good numbers this year, Marketing Daily communicated on October, 7.

According to the firm, despite industry consolidation (Coors and Miller, Belgium-based InBev and Anheuser-Busch) and higher feedstock costs, light and import beer segments are likely to grow 2% and 2.1%, respectively, on annual compound growth rate over the next five years.

"Light beers have gained ground since their arrival in the mid-1970s and show no signs of slowing," says Eric Schmidt, manager of information services for the group, in a release. "The category was helped last year by the successful introduction of Miller Chill, selling seven million cases in its first year."

As it is stated in the Group’s 2008 Beer Handbook, the overall U.S. beer market rose 1.2% last year to 2.9 billion 2.25-gallon cases, while growth of the imported beer category gained 2.8% to 408.3 million cases last year. It's the second consecutive year of consumption gains, the firm reports.

But Schmidt warns that both the distilled spirits and wine are outpacing the U.S. beer industry. "New product offerings have been the driving force behind growth not only in the distilled spirits industry, but also among wines."

Eric ...More Info

Shipments of beer and quasi-beer alcoholic beverages in Japan in January-September hit a record low as price hikes sapped demand, Jiji Press communicated on October, 10.

According to the data provided by the nation’s brewers, shipments totalled 353,623,000 cases, 2.7% less than in the same period of 2007. One case contains the equivalent of 20 633-millilitre bottles.

Beer shipments fell 6.7 pct to 185,818,000 cases, it is reported.

Asahi Breweries Ltd. ranked top in terms of market share, followed by Kirin Brewery Co., Suntory Ltd. and Sapporo Breweries Ltd.

After three years of building its Tiger beer brand, Thai Asia Pacific Brewery (TAPB) says it’s gaining recognition in the Thai market, the Bangkok Post reported on October, 8.

Ronnie Teo, the commercial director of TAPB, which is also the brewer of Heineken, said the Tiger Translate music-marketing campaign had given the brand a good profile among target consumers.

This has prompted the brewer to carry on the brand-building project for a second year by investing 70 million baht, double last year's budget, the Singaporean executive said.

According to the CEO, Tiger's target consumer group is aged 24 - 29.

Mr Teo said that TAPB had commissioned the market-research firm Nielsen to evaluate the local response to the Singapore-based Tiger brand since in July 2007, and the results were positive every month.

When Tiger was launched in Thailand in 2004, it aimed to tap into Singha's market share, but also to target young and independent drinkers, he said.

However, Tiger to date has gained only a 5% share of the 9.8-billion-baht standard beer segment, though with 12% average annual growth.

The entire beer market in Thailand is estimated to be worth 106 billion baht this year, up slightly from 104 billion last year. Volume ...More Info

The Australian Coopers Brewery announced an initial shipment of 400 cases of Coopers Pale Ale, Coopers Sparkling Ale and Coopers Stout would arrive in India this week, the Age published on October, 9.

According to the brewery’s chairman and marketing director Glenn Cooper, this shipment is the first India, although the company had previously shipped malt extract and home brew kits.

"This contract arose from discussions with the export manager of the Indian import company DC Johar & Sons, which is based in Bangalore," Mr Cooper said.

"They were after a premium quality beer to be stocked at numerous five-star hotels throughout India and thought Coopers would be a perfect match.

"Although this is a trial shipment, we hope to cement a good relationship with the distributor and continue to expand the Coopers brand throughout India," the CEO said.

Coopers now exports bottled beers to more than 26 countries, including the United States, the UK, Vietnam, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium and Germany, it was reported. The exports currently account for 3 per cent of the privately owned brewer's sales, but after opening a sales office in New York earlier this year the brewer said it hopes to lift that proportion to 5 per cent by ...More Info

Barley consumption for malting in France was 1.441 mln tonnes in July/June 2007/08 versus 1.497 mln tonnes in the previous year, according to the recently published malt production statistics.

Germany’s malt production in July/June amounted to 1,894,900 tonnes versus 1,739,800 last year, it is reported. Wheat malt production reached 90,600 tons vs. 89,800 in 2006/07.

United Kingdom used 1.5 mln tonnes of barley for malting during July/May 2007/2008 – 0.9% more than last year.

Total EU malt exports in the first month (July) of the new crop year were 140,000 tons, which is below the licence bookings figure of July 2007, experts said.

The harvest of malting barley in the European region is finished, and experts summarized its results earlier this month.

The excellent French crop, very good crop all along the Mediterranean, in the Balkans and Central Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia), a better than in past years crop in Germany turn the North European and Baltic quality problems into local affairs, experts state. Poor results in the latest two regions will not have a major influence on the general supply and demand balance, they reassure.

However, analysts note, an S/D balance is never final, until the campaign is over. At this time possible damage done to barley germination in all North European countries is not known yet.

Experts say that very low market prices of malting barley, especially winter barley, may provoke large sales into the feed sector. On the other hand the French surplus may even be greater than estimated today.

Northern England and Scotland harvested reasonably good crops, after the rains stopped. The variety Oxbridge was more vulnerable to the heavy precipitation, causing a high share of pregermination. Protein contents were surprisingly low.

It is speculated that Scotland needs to purchase around 100,000 tons of malting barley from England and the Continent. England, ...More Info

North America barley crops in the U.S. and Canada were larger and of better quality than expected at the beginning of the harvest season, experts reported earlier this month.

Both countries are uncompetitive in feed barley markets, analysts state. According to reports, Canada offers malting barley to China at US$ 340 FOB Vancouver, but Chinese bid ideas are lower.

However, the situation is different in Argentina, as it has recently become known. The nation reported that lack of rainfalls endangers the crop potential, it is unlikely that an earlier forecast of a 2 mln tons barley crop will be achieved.

As of October, 6, Russia has harvested 23.6 mln tonnes of barley from 9 mln ha (92% of the barley acreage), the Ministry of Agriculture reported on October, 7.

Experts forecast that Russia’s final crop figure in net weight will reach 20.5 to 21 mln tons.

UkrAgroConsult forecasted a Ukrainian crop of 2.5 mln tons winter and 9.8 mln tons of spring barley = total 12.3 mln tons, it was reported earlier this month.

Ukraine’s domestic consumption estimates range from 5.2 to 5.7 mln tons; exports are anticipated to reach 5.5 to 6.0 mln tons, of which almost half is already shipped.

The Russian and Ukrainian bumper crops of all grains show bad deficits in both countries: there is not enough storage space, insufficient drying installations, a lack of rail and road transport, and totally overburdened port elevators. Possible large export business was lost mostly to the EU, experts presume.

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture will hold a tender for wheat and barley imports totalling 57,200 tonnes on October, 10, Reuters informed this week.

The tender will be reinstated after calling a halt last month in the wake of a scandal in which tainted rice from abroad was used illegally in food products.

The ministry is seeking to buy 26,200 tonnes of food barley and 5,500 tonnes of malting barley via a simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) tender with a minimum lot of 1,000 tonnes. The SBS system allows users and trading firms can negotiate the grain's origin, price and quantity in advance, and then place a joint bid.

All shipments are due between when contracts are made and the end of December.

Michiko Kobayashi, Toshinari Hiroshima, Keisuke Nagahisa, Hiroshi Shimizu and Suteaki Shioya

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 111(2), 128–136, 2005 Apparent extract concentration, which is defined as the apparent total dry matter concentration in the media calculated by measurement of the specific gravity, is a very important variable in the process of beer and low-malt beer fermentation. In the present study, ethanol formation and the residual apparent extract concentration were estimated using the CO2 concentration in the exhaust gas. A simple mathematical model involving the CO2 production rate, temperature and cell activity was constructed and a novel system for on-line estimation and control of apparent extract concentration was developed. In the control system for the residual apparent extract concentration, cell activity was estimated by monitoring the differences in actual CO2 production rate. In addition, the future trajectory of the apparent extract concentration was predicted. The degree of fermentation, i.e., the residual apparent extract concentration trajectory, was controlled by raising or lowering the temperature, taking into account the estimated cell activity at that time. The residual apparent extract concentration reached the target value at a given time, using the on-line estimation of apparent extract concentration and temperature control. Key words: Apparent extract, CO2 production rate, control, lowmalt beer, on-line estimation. Load full article, 9 pages, 1039 Kb, PDF file