Pioneer of Chinese brewing industry

On 9 March 2011, the Zhujiang Beer International Research Center was opened in a ceremony attended by leading figures from politics and academia at Zhujiang brewery, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.

The opening ceremony marks an important step in the history of Zhujiang brewery, as Technical Director Li Huipeng said in her welcome address. The brewery founded in 1985 has emerged as one of the world’s largest breweries during the last 25 years. It is also one of the largest companies, tax payers and one of the ten largest producers of alcoholic beverages in China. The beer brand Pearl River produced by this ecology-minded company enjoys a very good reputation as a top quality product in China. Already before the opening day, the brewery had worked together with the Institute of Brewing and Beverage Technology at the Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan / Technische Universität München in a first coordination period. The opening of the International Research Center will help strengthen this cooperation. The first teamwork will be a joint three-year research project on “rapid analysis of microorganisms and quality control”, which will examine typical characteristics of beer-spoiling microorganisms, rapid and efficient identification methods, efficient inspection of incoming goods and production control as well as methods for improving the quality of the beers produced at Zhujiang brewery, among them a very successful wheat beer.

PD Dr Martin Krottenthaler, who attended the opening ceremony as a representative of the Institute of Brewing and Beverage Technology of Technische Universität München was impressed by the rapid development the brewery had undergone between his first and second visit: “In my experience, this brewery is state-of-the-art and innovative, and the atmosphere is open and friendly. Today’s ceremony marks a successful start into the second state of the cooperation between Zhujiang brewery and the Institute of Brewing and Beverage Technology. Through this cooperation we can transfer the latest research results to our industry partners first-hand, and in return receive an invaluable feedback from the industry, which again helps us constantly re-defining our research objectives and subjects.” Dr. Krottenthaler hopes that the cooperation will also help in the education and training of qualified early stage researchers, who will be highly sought after in an emergent Chinese brewing industry.

Before the memorial plaque for the opening of the International Research Center was unveiled, Wang Yancai, President of the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association acknowledged the Zhujiang brewery as a pioneer of the Chinese brewing industry in his address. The company had always strived to work highly efficiently and had often achieved this by breaking new ground. The close cooperation with the prestigious German brewing institute showed the brewery’s objective to become the leading innovator of the brewing industry in China.

Before Li Huipeng and Dr. Krottenthaler answered the questions from the attendant journalists, Fang Gui Quan, CEO Zhujiang Group nominated Dr. Martin Krottenthaler and Qian Fei, also Institute of Brewing and Beverage Technology, as members of the expert committee that is to supervise the research work at the International Research Center.