Beer sales figures remained negative by the end of September in the majority of countries, industry experts summed up in a research note on November, 2.

However, some countries registered at least better than the global figure of Jan/Sept.

In the EU, Germany reports 3.4 % lower sales for the year to-date, but a minus of 0.7% for September alone. Domestic sales in September declined by only 0.1%.

U.K. brewers sold 0.8% less beer in July/Sept than a year ago. Poland is affected badly by the economic crisis and expects sales of 33 mln hl in 2009, 8% less than in 2008. Latvia sold 0.8% less beer in July/Sept. Heineken announced a world minus of 4.1% in July/Sept.

Eastern European figures are extremely poor. Russia sold 83.8 mln hl in Jan/Sept, minus 7.9%. Malt production was even 17.6% down. Ukraine produced 24.2 mln hl in Jan/Sept, minus 14%; sales were down by 9%. Belarus reports sales of 2.66 mln hl in Jan/Sept, minus 7.2 %. September alone was up by 5.5%. Kazakhstan’s output was down by 4.1% in Jan/Sept.

Mexican numbers were positive: Modelo sold 3.2% more beer in July/Sept. FEMSA, the brewery to be taken over by SABMiller or Heineken, reported 1.5% better domestic ...More Info

Belgian specialty beer maker Duvel Moortgat said on November, 13 the growth in turnover realized in the first six months continues in the third quarter.

The losses in exchange rates which, as a result of the conversion of receivables, debts and credits in foreign currencies, are yet again increasing owing to the weakening dollar. Given the current economic climate, it is difficult to make specific prognoses; however, Duvel believes it possesses the key foundations to realize a further growth in turnover and results.

All brands are progressing globally. The launch of La Chouffe and Mac Chouffe in a 33cl bottle is successful. The Liefmans relaunch has little impact yet on the evolution of turnover, the Belgian brewer reported.

The Duvel Moortgat group, founded in 1871, is an independent producer of authentic specialty beers and premium brands. Around the world, the group is considered to be the leading producer of blond, bottle conditioned, high-fermentation beers, a dominant position owed largely to the success of its best-selling product Duvel.

A pioneer in fermentation and secondary fermentation techniques, Duvel Moortgat has not only grown into being the 5th largest brewery group in Belgium, but is above all market leader in terms of operating rate of return.

Since ...More Info

Russia’s beer output dropped by 4% in October as compared to September 2009, Rosstat communicated on November, 17.

In comparison with October 2008, the nation’s beer production grew by 6.5%.

In January – October 2009 the country produced 91.3 mln hl of beer, or 6.8% less than over the same period last year. First half beer production also decreased by 6.8% versus the first six months of 2008, to 54.3 mln hl this year.

Ukraine’s January – October 2009 beer production totalled 6.2 mln hl, the nation’s State Statistics Committee reported on November, 17.

The total volume, including non-alcoholic beer and beer with an alcohol content of less than 0.5%, dropped by 7.2% as compared to the same period last year.

According to official data, October beer production amounted to 2.06 mln hl, up 1.7% versus September 2009 and down 1.4% versus October, 2008.

Beijing Yanjing Beer Group Corp, the parent of Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co Ltd, recently announced that it will invest RMB 600 million in a new beer production base in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, China Knowledge cited unnamed sources on November, 17.

The new base, which will cover a land area of 15 hectares, will start construction by the end of this year. At the end of the first phase of construction, which will cost RMB 300 million, the plant will be able to produce 200,000 tons beer annually.

The plant will have an annual production capacity of 400,000 tons of beer when it is fully operational.

Expansion in Yunnan will help the firm consolidate the market in southwestern China. The firm has already expanded production in Sichuan Province and in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

However, the expansion prompted worries of excess capacity in the beer industry in Yunnan Province. The southwestern province produced about 300,000 tons in 2008, and its output capacity was 1 million tons.

Yanjing Brewery's net profit for the first three quarters of this year was RMB 564 million, up 26.04% year on year. Its beer sales were 3.99 million tons during the period.

San Miguel Brewery Inc. hopes to complete the acquisition of its $700-million international beer business from parent company San Miguel Corp. before the end of the year, The Manila Standard Today reported on November, 18.

The company is in the “middle to later part” of evaluating the international beer business, San Miguel Brewery president Roberto Huang said.

San Miguel president Ramon Ang earlier said the prospects for San Miguel Brewery would further improve with the company’s proposed acquisition of the international beer business.

Ang said the prospects for the international beer business were better as the company continued to expand to more markets.

The acquisition is part of a deal involving Kirin Holdings Co. of Japan’s agreement to acquire 43 percent of the domestic beer unit.

San Miguel has beer plants in North China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Thailand. Under the agreement, San Miguel, Kirin, and San Miguel Brewery will negotiate exclusively for the latter’s potential purchase of shares in its parent company’s overseas beer business.

Huang declined to specify how much the company was budgeting for the acquisition but said San Miguel Brewery would need to conduct a new round of borrowings to finance the purchase.

Proceeds from the offering were used to purchase the domestic ...More Info

Switzerland’s beer market remained stable in the 2008/09 brewing year ended September, 30, the Union of Swiss Breweries reported on November, 16.

The Union’s beer sales over the period were a little more than 4.48 mln hl, which represents a 0.1% decline versus the previous brewing year. A long and cold winter has been named as the main reason for the decline.

The Swiss beer production (without exports) declined by 1.7% yoy to 3.57 mln hl. Exports, accounting for 1.4% of the nation’s total beer output, dropped by 25.4% to 51,594 hl (69,169 hl in the previous brewing year). Beer imports increased by 6.4% to 917,384 hl in BY2008/09, the Union said.

Europe's third-largest malting company Greencore Malt has confirmed it is exploring a number of "unsolicited approaches" made in the "recent past", The Independent reported on November, 17.

The company stressed, however, that there was "no certainty" about any sale, while well-placed sources rubbished the prospect of an impending announcement in next week's interim management statement.

Greencore said “the approaches” had come from international ingredients companies with large-scale malting businesses. "However, at this stage there can be no certainty that a transaction will be forthcoming," the company added.

Greencore’s malt business contributed about 20pc to its €545.4 mln turnover in the first half.

Greencore declined to comment on potential suitors, but market sources mooted the possibility of interest from Australian giant Graincorp, which turned international last month with its A$757 mln (€473 mln) purchase of United Malt's operations across the US, Canada, Britain and Australia.

"Greencore have made no secret of the fact that malt is not core, and there's been a fair bit of consolidation in the sector so in that sense it's not a surprise they've had approaches," said Bloxham's food analyst Joe Gill, adding that €120 mln "sounds like a starting price".

News of the malt developments came as the market ...More Info

Due to larger than expected crops in the EU, Russia, Canada, the United States and Algeria, the world barley production forecast is increased by 2.3 mln tons, to 147.4 mln in 2009/10 (153.9 mln in the previous crop year), IGC communicated on October, 29.

The EU crop estimate is increased by a further 0.4 mln tons, to 61.6 mln, 3.6 mln below last year’s record. Quality is reported as excellent, with the proportion of the crop rated as malting barley higher than last year. Good growing conditions boosted output in France to 12.9 mln tons (12.3 mln), 0.2 mln higher than previously. Crops in Finland and Sweden were similar to last year’s, at 2.1 mln tons and 1.7 mln, respectively.

In Russia, the crop estimate is lifted by 0.5 mln. tons, to 18.0 mln (23.1 mln) as the impact of this season’s dry conditions was not as great as expected. Yields matched the five-year average of 1.9 tons/ha, but are almost 25% below last year’s record. Production in Ukraine is estimated at 11.5 mln tons (12.6 mln), unchanged from before.

Rain, snow and cold temperatures hampered harvesting in western Canada. However, average yields are slightly better than expected and the production estimate is ...More Info

The barley harvest comes to a close in the northern hemisphere. About 10 % of the barley acres in Canada and in Russia must still be combined. Overall results were good, quality (protein) and condition problems were rare, industry observers communicated at the beginning of November.

The U.S. reports a crop of 4.95 mln tons (last year 5.2 mln) thanks to an average yield of 72.8 bushels per acre (3.9 tons/ha), which is 15 – 20% higher than in the past two years.

The Canadian crop will be 9.1 mln tons including 2.0 mln tons of malting barley. Private estimates put domestic needs at 800,000 tons, exports to the U.S. and off-shore at 800,000 to one mln tons.

Russia’s crop is estimated at 18.4 mln tons vs. 24 mln in 2008, the Ukrainian crop at 11.4 vs. 12 mln tons. Yields in both countries were sharply lower than in 2008, but in the Ukraine acreage was up by 15%.

IGC expects Black Sea barley exports of 7.5 mln of a total world trade of 17.4 mln tons. Ukraine and South Russia report dry conditions affecting seeding and emergence of new crop (2010) winter grains.

China imported 1.4 mln tons of malting barley in Jan/Sept 2009 and will not reach the 2 mln tons mark in this calendar year, analysts said earlier this month.

Of the total quantity imported, Australia delivered 744,000, and France - 277,000 tons.

Forecasts are that imports will be higher in the second half of the crop year, analysts said.

CIF China prices of Australian and Canadian barley have declined to a range between US$ 220,- and 230,-, rendering offers of French barley uncompetitive.

Sanna Taskila, Peter Neubauer, Mika Tuomola, Antje Breitenstein, Jukka Kronlöf5 and Tomi Hillukkala

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 115(3), 177–182, 2009 Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are known as predominant beer spoilers. They cause turbidity, acidity, gas formation and offflavors in beer by formation of side metabolites. Beer spoiling LAB have a substantial financial impact in the brewing industry making their rapid detection and identification essential. Despite the developed rapid diagnostic methods, the bottleneck in detection remains the lengthy enrichment cultivation step. This paper describes the applicability of a novel glucose auto delivery system, EnBase™, for the improved enrichment cultivation of beer spoiling LAB in MRS medium. By means of the applied system, glucose is slowly released into the culture during growth, which results in faster enrichment. Growth of Lactobacillus brevis DSM 20054^T and several beer spoiling LAB was accelerated resulting in up to a 300% increase in the cell density after 48 h of cultivation compared to the commonly used MRS medium. A test of naturally contaminated beer samples indicated that the addition of glucose by means of EnBase allows faster detection of LAB in breweries.
Key words: beer spoilage, contaminant detection, enrichment cultivation, lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus.
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