The largest brewpub in Asia is open for business

At the beginning of January 2008, another brewpub officially opened in South-East Asia – “Holland Beer” in the south of the city of Bangkok. This report gives an overview of planning, construction time and construction details.

Thai microbrewery hosts brewers’ get-together

The 20-something guests were being served a beer with a perfect two-fingers head. The waiters, all of them brewers of the microbrewery, worked incredibly fast – due to the personal training by brewmaster Karl Josef Eden himself. The undisputable highlight of the evening was a show by the „Country Place Show Girls“ – quite a national legend consiting of six dancing beauties.

In 2007 the global beer market had risen to just under 1.8 billion hectolitres (hl), mainly due to increased sales in the newly industrialized countries. Just under half of the total increase of 91 million hl at that time was accounted for by China, the nation that has produced the most beer every year since 2002, and this took its share of global beer production to 22 percent. Other countries with high rates of increase in production were Russia, Ukraine, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Suntory, Asahi and Kirin: These three companies are quite similar to one another and share a common heritage. Each of them has total sales of about USD 15 billion (or less); each of them has a top three brewing business in Japan; and each of them has diversified into other alcohol drinks, soft beverages and food products, in an effort to cope with Japan’s declining beer market (15% over the past decade).

But first things first. What do you call Kirin and Suntory?

This is the second reduction in alcohol in two years, presumably aimed at keeping retail price levels.

The two majors, along with Lion Nathan and Australian Vintage, report significant decreases in winery assets. Lion Nathan said its wine operations, which were much smaller than the beer operations, had profitability affected by the economic environment in the U.S., Britain and Australia. For the six months to 31 March 2009 the wine division’s EBIT fell 55.7 percent to AUD 3.5 million.

Cricket Australia and Foster’ s as the owner of the VB brand maintained that wearing the cap was “standard practice” and part of the sponsorship deal. The VB logo will be prominent on Aussie shirts and training uniforms for the Ashes tour and other matches in what is being officially promoted as the “VB Tour of England” which sees its first test match in Cardiff on 8 July.

According to media reports, there are more than AUD 450 million worth of wineries and land on the market. Such a fire sale would not have been imaginable ten years ago but there is a tidal wave of departures, from both small lifestyle dreams gone sour and big corporate investments now short of friendly bankers and cash.

A recent increase in the number of mid-strength drinkers is seen mainly in the state of northern New South Wales as the popularity of the style extends south from the Queensland border.