World’s #1 brewer, Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev announced on March, 13 that it has completed the previously announced sale of the assets of InBev USA LLC (also doing business under the name Labatt USA) to an affiliate of KPS Capital Partners, LP.

Under the terms of the agreement announced on 23 February 2009, KPS has acquired the assets of Labatt USA and an exclusive license, granted by Labatt Brewing Company Limited, to brew Labatt branded beer in the U.S. or Canada solely for sale for consumption in the U.S.; to distribute, market and sell Labatt branded beer for consumption in the U.S.; and to use the relevant trademarks and intellectual property to do so.

This transaction does not affect Labatt branded beer in Canada or anywhere else outside the United States and also does not impact Kokanee, Alexander Keith’s, Brahma or any other brands except for Labatt branded beer.

In November, the Leuven, Belgium-based InBev agreed to divest the assets of InBev USA LLC to win clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice for its acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.

China’s total beer output in the first two months of 2009 rose 12.9 percent from a year earlier period to 4.97 million kiloliter, reversing the sluggish trend in 2008, China Daily cited on March, 16 data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The figure reflected a significant increase in sales as more than 95 percent of the output is consumed. Industry observers have already said that the big jump in beer output shows China market’s recovery.

Hurt by the snowstorm, beer output in the first six months of 2008 grew only 5.6 percent from the corresponding months in 2007. For the whole of 2008, the production of beer increased a mere 5.5 percent from a year before.

In 2009, the price of barley, a major ingredient in beer making, has dropped to $363 per ton from $450, it is reported.

The Denmark-based brewing giant Carlsberg Group strengthened its position on the German beer market in 2008, Bild.de communicated on March, 13.

The brewer’s sales grew 2% to reach 6.23 mln hl last year. “On a market which fell about 1% last year it is a good result,” Jörg Croseck, head of Carlsberg Germany, said.

About one fifth of the company’s production was exported abroad. Still, the northern and eastern regions of Germany remain Carlsberg’s “central area of activities.”

Despite the fact that the German beer market has been shrinking for the last 30 years, the nation remains world’s fifth-largest market for this beverage. According to Croseck, the structure of the consumers floats like “a sword of Damocles over the brewing industry” in Germany. The biggest consumer group consists predominantly of people over 60. “We must think how to make beer more popular among younger people,” Croseck said.

At the same time, Carlsberg is planning a 4 – 5% increase in beer prices for this year, it is reported.

American craft beer exports again grew by double digits in 2008, the US Brewers Association reported on March, 2009.

The Brewers Association reports that estimated international sales by independent craft brewers were up 25% by volume and 38% in dollars for 2008.

A recently concluded annual export survey shows that for the sixth consecutive year (the only years for which data has been collected) US craft beer exports increased substantially with solid growth to all markets. Exports to Canada rose by 78% on the heels of new general listings with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. In Europe (the largest export market for American craft beers), shipments rose 16% by volume with consistent gains in Scandinavia and the UK. In Japan, American craft beer exports grew by 51% while exports elsewhere in Asia grew by 53%, driven largely by gains in China and the Philippines.

Anheuser Busch InBev needs to take over Grupo Modelo, the maker of Corona, in a share swap to pay down its debt and round out its global reach, St, Louis Business Journal cited Credit Suisse analysts on March, 16.

According to Credit Suisse analysts Carlos Laboy and John Gilmore, the Belgium-based brewing giant should buy Modelo because the largest Mexican brewer’s $1.5 billion in cash would accelerate AB InBev’s pay-down of debt and improve AB InBev’s debt coverage ratios.

Corona’s global brand reach would also round out AB InBev’s Budweiser and Stella Artois brands, accelerate the turnaround of AB in the United States, help push Budweiser in Mexico and help AB’s “top line growth problem in the U.S.” with Corona Light and Corona Extra, the analysts state.

Modelo tried to derail Belgium-based InBev’s $52 billion takeover of Anheuser Busch last year, arguing that under a 1993 agreement, AB cannot transfer ownership of its half stake in Modelo without giving Modelo the chance to buy back the stake. Modelo filed an arbitration against AB last fall.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer.

Japan's Kirin Holdings on March, 16 said it is trying to buy the remaining publicly-owned shares of Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp.'s beer unit, AFP reported on the same day.

In a notice to shareholders published in a Manila newspaper, Kirin said it filed a tender offer with Manila's Securities and Exchange Commission with the "intention to acquire all the remaining 886.11 million common shares held by the public" in San Miguel Brewery Inc.

It said it was willing to pay about 8.84 pesos per share, with the offer ending on April 17.

Kirin confirmed earlier reports it had agreed to buy over 6.6 billion common shares of stock in the brewery, equivalent to approximately 43.29 percent priced at 58.925 billion pesos (over one billion dollars).

"On a post-closing basis, SMC will continue to own approximately 51 percent of SMB's total outstanding capital stock," Kirin said in its tender notice.

It said the 886.11 million publicly-held shares represent about 5.75 percent of outstanding capital stock.

Latvia’s breweries sold 1.24 mln hl of beer in 2008, 7.25% less than in 2007, The Baltic Course cited on March, 16 data provided by the Latvian Beer Brewers Association (LBBA).

According to LBBA, in 2007, Latvian breweries produced and sold 1.34 million hl of beer.

Last year, Latvia's biggest beer producer Aldaris produced 57.20 million litres of beer, it had a 46.1% market share; its production volume decreased by 1.04 million litres, compared to 2007, LETA reported.

The second biggest brewery Cesu alus produced 33.97 million litres of beer, or 3.2 million litres more than a year earlier. Cesu alus market share grew to 27.38%.

12.83 million litres of the Cido grupa-owned brand "Livu alus" beer were sold last year, which is 4.1 million litres down, compared with the previous year. The sales of another Cido grupa beer brand "Lacplesa alus" amounted to 5.35 million litres, or by 0.98 million litres less than in 2007. "Lacplesa alus" had a 4.32% market share.

"Bauskas alus" sold 3.89 million litres of beer, thus ensuring 3.14% market share; Agrofirma Tervete sold 3.65 million litres of beer and occupied 2.95% of the Latvian beer market.

Other Latvian beer producers, with smaller production volume and market shares last year were ...More Info

EU’s barley exports are still suffering from the competition with other barley producing nations on the international market, ONIGC communicated on March, 11.

As from the beginning of January, EU’s traders requested licenses on exporting just 174,000 tonnes of barley. If the trend continues, the exports of European barley will never amount to 4.8 mln tonnes forecast by the IGC for the 2008/2009 crop year, ONIGC posted.

Total barley export licenses issued by the EU since the beginning of the current crop year hardly reach 3.1 mln tonnes, compared to 3.3 mln tonnes registered for export in the same period of 2007/2008.

Yuhong Jin, Kaili Zhang and Jinhua Du

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 114(4), 289–293, 2008 In this study, the malting performance of six traditional Chinese wheat varieties was evaluated. The effects of protein content on wheat endosperm composition and the malt quality were studied. The beta-glucan in the malt showed a positive correlation (r = 0.806, P<0.1) with the protein content of the wheat. With an increase in protein content, there was a significant linear decrease in extract (r = ..0.923, P<0.01) and Kolbach Index (r = ..0.850, P<0.05), but diastatic power, soluble protein and FAN gave a peak value at 16.0% protein content. Because of the suitable protein and starch content, the malt qualities of wheat W-3 were satisfactory. Extract was 81.7%, saccharification time was 6.5 min, diastatic power was 484.07WK, FAN was 136.58 mg/100 g, the Kolbach index was 40.0% and viscosity was 1.77 cP. Key words: beta-glucan, malt, protein, wheat. Load full article, 5 pages, 718 Kb, PDF file