Danish brewing giant Carlsberg and Vietnamese brewery Habeco plan to increase their successful partnership in the fast growing and prosperous Vietnamese beer market, Carlsberg posted in a statement on September 17th. In the presence of the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung Carlsberg and Habeco today signed a so called Memorandum of Understanding which is planned to increase Carlsberg’s ownership in Habeco from 16.07% up to 30%.

Habeco and Carlsberg also agreed on accelerating the strategic cooperation plan on key business areas.

The agreement was signed by General Director Nguyen Van Viet, Habeco, and President & CEO Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen, Carlsberg.

The signing ceremony took place at Carlsberg’s Headquarters in Copenhagen.

Habeco is market leader in the northern Vietnam where Carlsberg is present through its brewery joint ventures in Hanoi and Halong. The increased partnership will provide opportunities for both Habeco and Carlsberg to further jointly strengthen their market positions in northern Vietnam but also in central Vietnam where Carlsberg is market leader through its brewery joint venture in Hué. Carlsberg and Habeco are already partners in southern Vietnam where a new brewery is being constructed.

"Habeco’s choice of Carlsberg as strategic partner and the plan to increase the partnership is a major ...More Info

Part of the former Kimberley Brewery has been put up for sale, three years after its closure, Eastwood & Kimberley Advertiser posted on September 17th.

The Hardy and Hansons brewery, in Hardy Street, closed in 2006, when it was sold in a multi-million pound deal to Greene King brewery.

Borough councillor Richard Robinson and Broxtowe MP Nick Palmer campaigned for the site to be sold off in partsADVERTISEMENTto ensure historic buildings were not bulldozed.

Cllr Robinson said this week that he had now been informed that parts of the site had been put up for sale.

He said: "A selling agent for Greene King is to advertise parts of the brewery for sale individually by private treaty."

The parts up for sale include former garage buildings, offices and stores at the junction of Brewery Street and Hardy Street. He added: "The main brewery site is not being offered for sale, neither are any of the houses.

"These will continue to be owned by Greene King, along with the bridge over Hardy Street and the offices either side."

A total of 80 jobs were lost when Greene King bought the site, and chose to end brewing and distribution there. Beer had been brewed in the town since ...More Info

Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Carlos Brito said this week that there will be "much more" room for the company to expand internationally, including acquisitions, after having paid off most of its debts, BizDaily posted on September 18th.

The world's largest brewer is "focused on deleveraging over the next year or two" although "this does not mean" we cannot evaluate "opportunities," Brito said in a telephone interview in New York. AB-InBev will consider purchases carefully, said Brito, who declined to mention specific regions.

Since the U$52 billion merger that created the company in November, the AB-InBev has cut staff, selected marketing budgets of brands and sold assets to help pay their debts. In the past ten months, the company has completed nearly 70% of the U$7 billion plan to sell operations." In the Americas, we still have a lot to do" in terms of expansion, he said. "China is a big venture."

The company will use American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on a secondary New York Stock Exchange listing. Papers began trading yesterday under the "BUD" ticker symbol. That makes its shares more accessible to investors in the United States, said the CEO.

"Anheuser-Busch InBev shifted its focus to become a company of the Americas and ...More Info

The majority owner of Russian casual dining chain Tinkoff Restaurants has announced his decision to sell his share in the company after 11 years of operation. Oleg Tinkov made the announcement through his Twitter account, telling his audience that he had grown bored of the investment and asking potential buyers to email their offers to his LiveJournal account. The two companies have signed a US$10 million direct equity investment agreement. Though it's not clear how much Tinkov's share is worth, he claims to own 70% of the company after selling some share to Mint Capital in 2008. The chain currently operates nine locations throughout Russia, down from thirteen a year ago.

The Mint Capital investment was designed to aid the expansion of Tinkoff Restaurants with a goal of 50 locations by 2011 but tough economic times have scuttled that plan while also forcing the close of four locations. Analysts expect any buyer who comes along to be a foreign investor rather than one from Russia.

“Now we have everything for aggressive regional growth to become a pan-Russian casual dining restaurant chain. Mint Capital’s partners have already provided good governance and strategic support, and it will be a pleasure to have them on ...More Info

Brick Brewing Co. Limited (TSX: BRB) announced on September 17th it has received an Amended Statement of Claim from brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated ("AB") and related Canadian company, Labatt Brewing Company ("Labatt") in response to Brick's Motion to Strike portions of the claim. Most significantly, the revised claim removes AB's and Labatt's claims and assertions that Brick has depreciated goodwill in AB's and Labatt's alleged trade-marks, and also alters the claim of punitive damages. Brick Brewing continues to wage an aggressive information campaign to fend off the suit. Brick will file a Statement of Defence with Canada's Federal Court by September 30th.

"Bullies often change their tactics when the little guys fight back," said George Croft, President and CEO of Brick Brewing. "Such a drastic change in their suit calls into question the legitimacy of the claim and the carelessness taken when originally drafted and we believe this is a common pattern of conduct used in bull-dozing all competition regardless of the specific merits of the brand in question."

Brazil's antitrust regulator recently imposed a record fine of US$176 million on AB InBev's Brazilian subsidiary, AmBev for anti-competitive practices against small competitors. Brick Brewing, which launched its Red Baron Lime beer in ...More Info

Lion Nathan Limited (Sydney, Australia; CEO Rob Murray; hereafter, "Lion Nathan"), a 46.13%1 owned and affiliated company of Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (President and CEO Kazuyasu Kato; hereafter, "Kirin") announced on September 17th that its non-Kirin shareholders voted in favor of the scheme of arrangement ("Scheme") under which Kirin has offered to acquire the remaining issued shares in Lion Nathan that it does not already own.

1. Based on the number of issued shares in Lion Nathan as at the date of this announcement. Lion Nathan will apply to the Federal Court of Australia for approval of the Scheme at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, October 7, 2009. Subject to Court approval, implementation of the Scheme is scheduled to occur on October 21, 2009. Lion Nathan will be delisted upon implementation of the Scheme.

Since its initial investment in Lion Nathan in April 1998, Kirin and Lion Nathan have worked together in promoting Kirin's integrated beverages strategy in Oceania. The consolidation of Lion Nathan as a wholly owned subsidiary will further drive that process and also support Kirin's objective of strengthening its offshore earnings base.

Outline of the Scheme Meeting

1. Date: September 17, 2009 2. Agenda: To consider the Scheme under which ...More Info

Heineken Romania, one of the largest brewers in Romania said it would cast off barley-malting at its breweries in Romania, leaving 61 workers without jobs, in an effort to improve efficiency, Wall-Street.ro communicated on September 18th. The decision will take effect from October 19.

The company produces malt at its breweries in Hateg, Craiova, and Miercurea Ciuc. The decision to halt the malt production was made after a thorough assessment of its financial situation which found that barley production and malting requires high costs, due to high energy and water consumption.

Considering the existent standards, the current malting plant’s capacity is relatively low. Thus, the company will increase imports of malted barley from suppliers.

“Our objective is to run operations in Romania on a long term and in a lucrative and responsible manner. We are here to stay, to bring excellent quality to our consumers. This is why we permanently seek new solutions to improve quality and direct investments more efficiently. The shift to malted barley providers with cutting-edge production equipment will bring us closer to achieving this objective. Furthermore, it will allow us to focus on our basic operations, the art of brewing for which Heineken is famous both in Romania ...More Info

Malting barley germination will be lost if adequate airflow is not provided to barley being dried by natural air or low-temperature drying so that it is dried within the allowable storage time, according to Ken Hellevang, North Dakota State University Extension Service agricultural engineer and grain-drying expert cited by Farm & Ranch Guide.

Minimum recommended airflow rates and drying times to dry the barley within the allowable storage time are 1.25 cubic feet per minute per bushel (cfm/bu) to dry 18 percent moisture barley in about 20 days and 0.75 cfm/bu to dry up to 17 percent moisture barley in about 31 days, based on typical August weather conditions.

“Drying occurs in a zone that moves from the bottom of the bin to the top if the air is pushed up through the barley,” Hellevang says. “Grain at the top will stay near the initial moisture content until the drying zone reaches the top of the grain, so adequate airflow to dry the barley within its allowable storage time is critical.”

Both the time required to complete drying and the allowable storage time will be longer at cooler temperatures because the cooler air holds less moisture. Drying grain at 60 degrees will take ...More Info

Hans Christian ALLER, Jeppe KIELDSEN and Carsten Wijngaard JORGENSEN

This article has been published courtesy of the European Brewery Convention (EBC). Abstract:
Experience shows that in day-to-day brewery operation, improvements in fresh flavour and flavour stability are often the result of several minor process adjustments. Due to the large number of variables involved in producing beer it can be difficult to demonstrate the influence of individual adjustments in full-scale production, and it can be difficult to conclude what are the most relevant factors that cause variation in beer quality. A powerful method to overcome this problem is to use Multivariate Statistical Analysis (MVA) to analyse data with the purpose of taking qualified decisions regarding modifications in process and raw material specifications. In the method described, data from full scale trial and control beers are evaluated by multivariate analysis with the aim of finding the key process changes influencing flavour stability. Our results show an improvement in fresh and aged beer flavour and a reduction in concentration of several staling descriptors e.g. Trans-2-Nonenal (T2N). The outcome of such flavour improvement projects using MVA will to our experience enhance the potential for a stronger position in the market due to improved flavour stability and thereby drinkability. We propose that the method described is used as an active tool to support marketing in promoting premium brands. The following material is based on data from 9 flavour improvement projects carried out by ALECTIA Brew over the past 6 years. Load full article from site www.cerevisia.eu