In 2008, Belgian beer production dropped by 3.8% and exports fell for the first time since 2000 by 6.8% or 716,000 hl, Belgian press reported on June, 25.

However, Theo Vervolet, president of Brasseurs Belges, asserts that the situation is not as bad as it seems.

For Mr. Vervolet, the volumes do not show the reality. “In 2007, Belgian brewers explored a number of new markets, which led to boosted results. If we exclude this phenomenon, we would see that our exports grew last year,” he said.

“The reported 24.7% increase of beer imports in Belgium is even farther from reality, our market is stable,” Mr. Vervolet said adding that Belgium still remains a country with the lowest beer import in the world.

According to industry data, Belgium exported 9.8 mln hl of beer (a little more than half of its total beer production) last year.

“In 2007, InBev exported large volumes to the US through a contract with Anheuser-Busch. Last year, InBev’s export to the US slightly fell as a result of the takeover of Anheuser. Since AB InBev holds 57% of Belgium’s beer market, the impact on the total export was significant,” the president of Brasseurs Belges said.

Exports to France, Germany and ...More Info

Heineken NV will stop trucking some regional beer brands across Russia and keep closing inefficient breweries around the world as cost reductions take on a “larger scope,” Chief Financial Officer Rene Hooft Graafland was quoted as saying by Bloomberg on June, 25.

Both measures will make the world’s third-largest brewer more profitable, Hooft Graafland said in an interview. In Russia, where Heineken’s market share trails that of Carlsberg A/S, only the most profitable brands will be distributed nationwide, he said.

Beer consumption is slowing worldwide, while U.K. assets Heineken acquired last year in the breakup of Scottish & Newcastle Plc have performed worse than expected. The expense controls are also necessary as Heineken remains loath to use price reductions to drive sales at the expense of profitability.

“We’re not convinced that there will be a quick economic turnaround in Western Europe,” hence the wider cuts, Hooft Graafland said. “We’re planning for the worst economic scenarios, and then hoping for the best. We have credibility delivering on costs.”

The initiatives are part of a plan called “Total Cost Management,” which started this fiscal year. The company’s last expense-reduction program was dubbed Fit2Fight, which closed 5 breweries and reduced staff by 12,000 people over three ...More Info

Latest estimates of beer output by country, communicated by industry observers earlier this month, are as follows:

January – March: France’s beer output is estimated to have decreased by 4.9%, Finland - by 2.8%, Poland by 10%. Romania’s official first quarter results show a 12.3% drop in beer production, unofficial estimates claim a just 5 – 6% decrease. Ukraine – minus 14%; USA minus 0.3% but March plus 2.6%. China and South Korea increased beer production in the reporting period by 5.6% and 3.8% respectively.

January – April: Brazil’s beer output grew by 5%, Germany’s fell by 3%, but in April alone increased by 6.2%. Japan – minus 3.6%, but April alone plus 6.4%. Russia’s beer production fell by 7.4% in the four months and by 9% in April alone.

It looks as if beer sales of North America and Western Europe will recover from the downfall early in the year, analysts comment. Some countries of South America and all of Africa look positive. Figures of Asia are variable, China positive as usual, and the Japanese numbers are a positive surprise. Eastern European beer sales dropped drastically after many extremely good years, because the economic crisis reduced disposable incomes.

Budgets of beer production ...More Info

World's number 1 brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev denied a report it was planning to restructure its US beer distribution strategy, Brewers’ Guardian communicated on June, 25.

AB InBev has pledged support for the US three-tier supply system in a bid to scotch speculation it is planning to consolidate distribution in the country.

According to earlier reports, the Leuven, Belgium-based brewer is exploring the possibility of eventually selling up to half its US volume directly to retailers through its own distributors, a move that could significantly lower costs.

Such a move would hit the Bud and Stella brand-owner’s approximately 600 distributors hard. The brewer currently supplies around 7% of its output directly to retailers.

“There is no change in our current U.S. strategy. Anheuser-Busch InBev has no plans to force consolidation,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement on June, 25.

“Consolidation has been occurring for many years, and we believe it will and should continue. We believe this should happen voluntarily over time. This is a position we have expressed to wholesalers repeatedly, and there is no change in our position.”

The Wall Street Journal quoted a report by UBS AG's Melissa Earlam, an analyst who is said to have recently met with AB ...More Info

Heineken will close in September its brewery Fischer de Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin), Pascal Sabrié, Heineken France vice-president, confirmed to Usine Nouvelle on June, 25.

Two of the three production lines of brewery Fischer will be transferred this autumn to the company’s closest brewery de l’Espérance.

Brewery de l’ Espérance will remain Heineken’s only plant in Alsace. The Dutch brewer plans to invest 30 mln euros “in the installation of new production lines and the modernisation of compressors and packaging equipment” at the plant, Jan-Willem Kroonen, head of Heineken’s Alsace operations, said.

As the consumption of beer continues to shrink, Heineken is “in the situation of overcapacity”, Pascal Sabrié said. Brewery de l’Espérance will produce 1.8 mln hl of beer in 2010 (brands Heineken, Fischer and Desperados) versus 1.7 mln hl it produced in 2008 and 600,000 hl brewed at the Fischer beer plant.

Heineken’s sales volume in France dropped by 1% last year, but the brewer managed to secure the leading position on the nation’s beer market in money terms. Its main competitor, Brasseries Kronenbourg, has also launched a reconstruction plan.

Last month, Japan purchased EU malt at very attractive prices between EUR 330,- and 350,- FOB in bulk in container, partly helped by the weak Pound Sterling, which gave British maltsters a competitive edge over their continental colleagues, market sources communicated early in June.

EU’s domestic malt sales ranged in May from EUR 335,- to 350,- delivered breweries in Western Europe, but at least EUR 20,- lower in the Baltic Sea region.

The largest activities of the month went almost unnoticed; the international brewing groups covered large quantities of malting barley of crop 2009 against their LTA’s.

Malting barley markets have become much firmer, beer output in April and May had been good in Western Europe, therefore malt prices are bound to rise at least by EUR 10,-/20,- per ton in the nearest future, analysts forecast. It will depend on the final outcome of barley crops, but also on the general grain markets in the EU and the world, whether higher price levels can be sustained throughout and after summer.

The crop year 2008/09 ends with firmer markets of feed and malting barley, farmers abstaining from sales, less offers to intervention than expected, analysts communicated at the beginning of this month.

It had been anticipated that farmers would rush to markets to sell their old crop stocks and markets would come under heavy pressure. The reasons for the different trend are the influence of international (speculative) commodity markets, doubtful crop prospects in several important growing regions of the world, also inside the EU, experts comment.

A very important question is whether old crop grain stocks are really as large as most analysts estimate them. Markets rather give the impression that stocks are becoming tight in the EU, but also in the neighbouring Russia and Ukraine.

Malting barley markets were active in the first half of May, when large brewers anticipated firmer markets and covered good quantities of new crop barley against their LTA’s. Very quickly farmers and first hand sellers withdrew from markets, the second hand trade became very defensive as well and thereby drove up prices. Traders find present premiums of malting above feed barley and wheat too low to be bearish on malting barley.

It would need a changed trend ...More Info

Canadian Wheat Board released on June, 25 its June 2009 Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2009-10 crop year.

Malting barley values have increased by C$7 from last month's PRO to C$251 per tonne of two-row and C$231 per tonne of six-row malting barley. Feed barley values remained unchanged.

International malting barley prices have strengthened over the past month as the market shifts focus to new crop. Production in Canada, EU and the U.S. is forecast lower, with more downside risk. Barley production in Australia is forecast to increase 26 per cent, but dryness prevails in Western Australia, which could limit yield potential. Adequate moisture levels continue in the rest of Australia. The majority of the barley crop in Argentina has received adequate rainfall and production is forecast to increase 10 per cent in 2009. The spread between malting-quality barley and feed barley has widened over the past month as more concern over malting-quality supplies arises, but spread should return to more traditional levels in the upcoming crop year. Global demand for malting-quality barley is expected to improve slightly from 2008-09, the CWB commented.

Barley breeding in Australia may move towards a commercial model, following a review of the peak breeding body, Weekly Times Now posted on June, 26.

An external review of Barley Breeding Australia has recommended it be wound up in the next few years as part of a transition to a commercial, market-based model.

BBA, an unincorporated joint venture between the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the University of Adelaide and departments of primary industries in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, released its advisory board's response to the review last week.

The review team recommended the BBA joint venture, which began in 2006, wind up in June 2010, a move rejected by the BBA advisory board.

The review team said barley breeding should shift to a commercial, market-based model similar to wheat breeding.

"Deregulation is creating a more complex, more competitive environment where commercial imperatives will be more important," the team wrote.

The review team recommended institutional and GRDC funding continue as financial modelling showed none of the current breeding programs at Warwick in Queensland, in Adelaide and in Perth could achieve commercial viability before 2012-13.

While the BBA advisory board agreed barley breeding should move towards a commercial model, it recommended a five-year transition period.

The board ...More Info

Belgravia, a new spring malting barley bred by Nickerson, has received full approval from the Institute of Brewing & Distilling (IBD), while Concerto, another of the company’s spring malting varieties, has been granted provisional approval, FarmingUK reported on June, 25.

Belgravia, which has produced very high yields and good specific weight in the UK’s major malting barley growing areas, joins Nickerson’s other fully-approved spring malting barley varieties, Decanter, Oxbridge and Westminster.

Medium- early to mature, Belgravia has a high Hot Water Extract, very low levels of Glycosidic Nitrile and good enzyme activity, making it suitable for both malt and grain distilling. The variety also features medium-length straw combined with good lodging and brackling resistance, excellent resistance to mildew and Rhynchosporium, plus good resistance to brown rust. In Scottish trials Belgravia has also demonstrated very good resistance to Ramularia and excellent green leaf retention.

Concerto is an ideal malting variety, its very high Hot Water Extract, low grain nitrogen and very low levels of Glycosidic Nitrile making it very attractive to the brewing and distilling sectors. Medium-early in terms of maturity, it combines very high yield potential with a good all-round agronomic package that has no significant weaknesses. Evaluation suggests that, like Optic, ...More Info

Junguang Hao, Jianjun Dong, R. Alex. Speers, Wei Shen1, Lianju Shan, Wei Fan, Qi Li, Guoxian Gu and Jian Chen

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 114(4), 322–328, 2008 The secretion of proteinase A (encoded by PEP4) from brewer’s yeast is detrimental to the foam stability of unpasteurized beer. The aim of this study was to construct mutants of the allopolyploid Saccharomyces carlsbergensis strain TT, which were partially or completely deficient in proteinase A activity. Allelic PEP4 genes were consecutively disrupted by using the Cre-loxP recombination system combined with PCR-mediated gene disruption. A single PEP4 deletion mutant TT-M was successfully constructed. However, no viable mutant could be obtained when the second allelic PEP4 gene was deleted. The brewing performances of the parent strain and the modified strain were compared on a 100 L pilot fermenter scale. Proteinase A activity in fermented wort brewed with mutant strain TT-M was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of the parent strain TT, whereas no significant difference on either maltose or maltotriose assimilation (p>0.05) was found. The mutant TT-M remained genetically stable, as shown by diagnostic PCR, after re-streaking for 20 generations. The flavor and taste of the final fermented wort, brewed with the mutant strain TT-M, was evaluated by the Tsingtao expert sensory panel, and found to be comparable to that of the parent strain and exhibited no distinct defects. The flavor component profiles of these two finished products were also comparable. The study demonstrated allelic genes in polyploid industrial yeasts could be efficiently and consecutively deleted by the retractive primer disruption strategy, and the mutant of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis partially deficient in proteinase A contributed to an improvement in foam stability. Key words: Beer foam stability, gene disruption, PEP4, Proteinase A. Load full article, 7 pages, 1348 Kb, PDF file