Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. ("FEMSA") announced its operational and financial results for the third quarter of 2008 on October, 29.

FEMSA Cerveza total revenues increased by 5.7%, the brewer reported.

Mexico sales volume decreased by 1.9% compared with 3Q07 to 6.757 million hectolitres in 3Q08. This decrease reflects price increases implemented in the quarter in addition to the one made at the beginning of the year, as well as some unfavourable weather conditions experienced during the quarter and an increasingly cautious consumer, the company posted.

For the first nine months of 2008, Mexico beer sales volume increased by 2.4% to 20.275 million hectolitres.

Brazil sales volume increased by 8.0% over 3Q07 reaching 2.370 million hectolitres in 3Q08, as balanced growth across the brewer’s product portfolio drove these results.

For the first nine months of 2008, Brazil sales volume increased by 7.6% to 7.035 million hectolitres.

Export sales volume increased by 10.0% compared with 3Q07 to 948.8 thousand hectolitres in 3Q08, despite a challenging environment in the US. The increase was mainly driven by the Dos Equis and Tecate brands in the U.S. as well as by Sol in other key markets.

For the first nine months of 2008, export sales volume increased by ...More Info

In the Australian beer market, Foster’s has the leading beer portfolio with 7 of the top 10 brands and 5 of the 7 fastest growing brands, Foster’s CEO Ian Johnston claimed in his address posted on the company’s website on October, 29.

According to Mr Johnston, Australia’s No. 1 beer brand, VB, returned to revenue growth in 2008. Carlton Draught grew volume and revenue for the 6th consecutive year. Pure Blonde has been built from an innovation to a mainstream beer brand, and shows the largest value growth of any beer brand in Australia’s top 10.

The company also said it had reinvested significantly behind Crown Lager to maintain its position as Australia’s favourite premium beer and Launched Crown Ambassador – a premium vintage lager.

The international premium and low carb segments are growing fastest in the Australian beer market and Foster’s increased market share in both during the year, the CEO stated.

In international premium brands Corona continues to lead category growth. Pure Blonde created the low carb segment and volumes were up over 60%. Besides, the brewer relaunched its Carlton Premium Dry as a lower carb beer and introduced two new offerings – Carlton Natural Blonde and Pure Blonde Naked – a ...More Info

Asahi Breweries Ltd. said its group net profit rose 22.5 pct in the first nine months of this year as cost reduction efforts more than offset rising material prices, Jiji Press reported on October, 29.

Net profit grew to 41,799 million yen from 34,119 million yen a year before. Operating profit rose 14.8 pct to 70,464 million yen. Sales inched down 0.2 pct to 1,079,858 million yen.

The company's alcoholic beverage operations saw sales fall 1.2 pct as demand for beer and "happoshu" low-malt, beer-like beverage fell amid slumping personal consumption and price hikes in March.

But operating profit at the operations grew 23.4 pct as the company reined in fixed expenses such as advertising costs.

For the full year, the company left its earnings forecasts unchanged.

Net profit is estimated at 41 billion yen, up 1.2 pct from the previous year, and operating profit is projected at 88 billion yen, up 10.1 pct, on sales of 1,027 billion yen, down 0.4 pct.

China’s Tsingtao Brewery said its net profit of the nine month ended September, 30 may increase by 24% to 699.82 mln Yuan due to higher sales, emfis.de posted on October, 28.

In the third quarter the company’s net profit amounted to 318.69 mln Yuan, a decline of about 54 percent compared to the same period in 2007.

In July – September 2008, Germany’s brewers sold 28 mln hl of beer, up 2% compared to the third quarter in 2007, the nation’s Federal Statistical Office announced on October, 28.

Beer mixtures - beer mixed with lemonade, Cola, fruit juices and other alcohol-free additives – made up 1.3 million hectolitres of combined sales, going up by 4.9 percent.

According to the Statistical Office of Germany, 84.2% of the nation’s beer output is sold on its domestic market. However, the sales of German beer enjoy significant growth abroad as well. Thus, in the third quarter of 2008 the sales of German beer on the European market increased by 1.3% to 3.4 mln hl, and by 16.5% in the Third World countries.

Coors, the UK’s second-largest brewer, reported its pre-tax profits drop 78.3%, from £68.01 mln in 2006 to £14.75 mln in 2007, the Morning Advertiser published on October, 30.

The company saw overall turnover drop by 3% in 2007 to £1.32 bln after a volume decline of 6.8% offset by an increase in turnover per barrel.

The brewer’s profit margin fell by little more than 1% of turnover last year — it made just £5 mln more in profit than Shepherd Neame, which has a turnover one thirteenth its size.

It sold 6.8 million barrels of beer in the UK last year, making less than £2 per barrel profit. Coors derives 60% of its volume from the pub and on-trade sector — and an even greater proportion of its margin.

Coors said: “Beer volume in our on-premise business declined by about 9 compared to 2006. “This compared to an overall industry on-premise channel decline of 6.5%, giving a market-share decline for Coors. Our off-premise volume for 2007 declined about 2%compared to 2006.

“This compared to an overall industry off-premise channel decline of 0.1%, again giving a market-share decline for Coors. These declines resulted from a difficult trading environment, with Coors attempting to balance pricing ...More Info

Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd reported a marginal fall in net profit to RM23.59 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2008, the Edge Daily communicated on October, 30.

A year earlier, the company announced a net profit of RM26.63 million for the same period.

In a statement, Carlsberg Malaysia announced that its profit before tax, which fell 11.1% to RM30.9 million, was impacted by a higher marketing expenditure to support new product launches, lower contributions from contract manufacturing, and higher prices in raw and packaging materials.

The brewer, however, said revenue rose to RM266.59 million from RM244.64 million last year, driven by higher domestic sales, which included the launch of two new products.

While beer is still Australia’s favourite drink, per capita consumption is declining, and the growing popularity of wine and ready-to-drink mixed spirits presents the domestic brewing segment with a substantial challenge, a new report from IBISWorld stated on October, 20.

The beer market in Australia is worth around AU$7.9 billion. Within the sector, premium beers have a 7.8% share of the market; full strength beer has 70.6%; mid-strength holds 12%; and light beer has 9.6%. Low-carb beers account for 2.4% of industry revenue, with their share growing by a massive 127% per annum, albeit off a low base.

Imported beers are gaining popularity, and growing by 6.9% per annum in value terms. The nation largely imports beer from Mexico (39.9%); the Netherlands (15.2%); Germany (10.1%); and the USA (4.6%), and favourite brands include Corona, Heineken, Grolsch, Becks and Budweiser.

Last financial year, Australian beer manufacturers exported around 5.6% of their total production to Australia’s major markets: Thailand (19% of export value); Vietnam (16.7%); Korea (15.8%); and Japan (15.1%).

The thirstiest beer drinkers are aged between 18 and 30, a demographic which responds well to change, innovation, and clever advertising campaigns, and that’s exactly what they’ve been getting recently, IBISWorld posted.

IBISWorld General Manager (Australia), ...More Info

The UK Malting Barley Committee discussed the progress of new malting barley varieties within the testing system at its Spring 2008 meeting, the Committee informed in an official statement as of June, 6.

As a result of the meeting, the Cassata variety got full approval for brewing use, the Publican was accorded provisional approval 2 for distilling use, the Jolika variety got provisional approval 1 for brewing use, and the Belgravia barley variety received provisional approval 1 for distilling use and for special use (grain distilling).

Having successfully completed Micromalting trials from crop 2007, the Wintmalt and Jolika varieties are listed at Provisional Approval 1 for brewing use. Commercial scale malting and brewing trials will be undertaken from crop 2008, the Malting Barley Committee reported.

The Belgravia variety has successfully completed Micromalting trials from crop 2007 and now is listed at Provisional Approval 1 for distilling use and also special interest for grain distilling. Further commercial scale malting and brewing trials will be undertaken from crop 2008.

Institute of Brewing and Distilling approved list for Harvest 2009

Brewing use: Winter varieties with full approval – Pearl, Flagon, Cassata Winter varieties with provisional approval 1 - Wintmalt Spring varieties with full approval – Optic, Cocktail, NFC Tipple, Westminster Spring varieties ...More Info

The trading atmosphere on the European market of feed barley is rather calm due to the high availability of feed grain on the continent, La Depeche published on October, 30.

The demand for feed barley is manifested just occasionally, market participants inform.

The market of malting barley also is quite inactive. European maltsters have made supplies which will satisfy their needs up to next May. In consequence, prices have fallen again this week.

The market of the crop 2009 is completely deserted by traders. In fact, there have not been any deal reported of late and information on prices available is very scarce.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture bought less than it planned for the fourth food grain tender in a row on October, 30 as it purchased 600 tonnes of food barley from Australia, instead of a planned 1,000 tonnes, Reuters communicated on October, 30.

All placed bids were accepted in the tender under the simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) system, a ministry official said.

Another tender the ministry closed on the same day fell in line with its original plan. Japan bought 6,000 tonnes of malting barley from Canada, the official said.

The tender was for for bulk imports with a minimum lot of 1,000 tonnes, it was reported.

All shipments are due between the time contracts are made and Jan. 31, 2009.

Unlike an ordinary tender between the ministry and licensed traders, the SBS system allows users to negotiate directly with trading firms and decide the grain's origin, price and quantity before together placing bids to the government.

C. Lekkas, G.G. Stewart, A.E. Hill, B. Taidi and J. Hodgson

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 3–8, 2007 The Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN) content of wort prescribes efficient yeast cell growth and fermentation performance. FAN consists of the individual amino acids, small peptides and ammonia ions formed during malting, the relative amounts of which vary. In this paper, the individual constituents of FAN were dissected and their effect on both ale and lager fermentations determined. The patterns of amino acid and small peptide uptake and the changes in extracellular protease activity revealed the dynamic environment that develops during fermentation. Lysine and methionine, previously identified as key amino acids in wort fermentation, were investigated further. Key words: Amino acids, beer flavour and stability, diacetyl, free amino nitrogen, wort oligopeptides, wort supplementation, yeast proteases. Load full article, 6 pages, 919 Kb, PDF file