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Beer And NationalityWhat follows is a list of beers by the country within which they originate, and the beer drinking and brewing practices within those countries: Albania's most famous beer is Birra Tirana, which accounts for roughly 30% of the beer consumed in the country. Armenia is more famous by its cognac, vodka and also wine. Three local beer brands are available throughout the country: Kilikia (named after a historic Armenian kingdom at the Mediterranean coast), Kotayk (named after Armenian province east of Yerevan) and Erebuni (historical settlement in southeastern part of present day Yerevan). Russian beers, especially Baltika, are also widely available throughout the country. People usually drink beer that is brewed locally, like Mohrenbru or Fohrenburger in Vorarlberg, Gsser or Puntigamer in Styria or Schwechater and Ottakringer in Vienna. The Zipfer brewery is found in Salzburg. There still are some smaller breweries in existence. Contrary to popular belief, the so-called original Australian beer, Foster's Lager, has declined in popularity, and the popularity of various beers differs by state. XXXX is popular in Queensland, Coopers in South Australia, Tooheys in New South Wales, Swan in Western Australia, Boags in northern Tasmania, Cascade in southern Tasmania, and Carlton Draught and Victoria Bitter are popular in Victoria. With the exception of Coopers, these are all mild-tasting commercial lagers. Though Australians usually prefer the beer of their home state (with only Victoria Bitter having a strong presence outside of its native state), other popular brews are Hahn and Crown. Particularly in the trendier areas of the major cities, specialty brews produced by major brewers and by microbreweries, including a wide variety of ales, are increasing in popularity, as are some foreign beers. Even more so than other nationalities, Belgians pride themselves on their rich beer culture. Naturally, Belgians claim that theirs are the best beers in the world. This view is supported by beer experts such as Michael Jackson (not to be confused with the pop star of the same name). Although beer production in Belgium is now dominated by Interbrew (the world's largest brewer by volume), there remain 115 breweries in the country, producing about 500 standard beers. When special beers are included, the total number of types of Belgian beer exceeds 1000. Each brand of Belgian beer is served in a specific glass. Although mainly a marketing ploy, the different shape and size of each glass is designed to enhance the flavor of the particular beer. The principal categories of Belgian beer are: - Pils - although Belgium is best known internationally for its unique top-fermented beers, it is the common pilsner which heads the lists of both domestic consumption and exports. The most well-known brand internationally is Stella Artois, while Jupiler is the most popular in Belgium. Both are owned by Interbrew.
- Trappist Beers - now unique to Belgium, this category consists of top-fermented ales brewed in one of only six Trappist monasteries. For a beer to qualify for this category, the entire production process must be carried out by, or supervised by, Trappist monks on the site on the monastery. Perhaps the best know brand of Trappist beer is Chimay.
- Abbey Beers - these are top-fermented ales, made in the Trappist style, which are associated in some way with an abbey. Some of these beers are still produced in abbey breweries to centuries-old recipes, while others are merely licensed by an abbey. The most internationally well-known brand of Abbey beer is Interbrew's Leffe. Others include Delirium Tremens, Duvel, Kwak, Grimbergen, Tripel Karmeliet, Maredsous and Mort Subite.
- Lambic Beers (including Gueuze and Fruit Lambics) - Unique to Belgium and distinguished by their tart taste, Lambics are neither top-fermented nor bottom-fermented, being prepared through spontaneous fermentation by wild yeasts endemic to the vicinity of Brussels. There are various types of Lambics. In its most natural form, Lambic is a draught beer which is rarely bottled, and thus only available only in its area of production and one or two cafes in Brussels. Gueuze, also known informally as Brussels Champagne, is a sparkling beer produced by combining a young Lambic with more mature vintages. Fruit beers are made by adding fruit or fruit concentrate to Lambic beer. The most common type is Kriek (made with cherries), while other fruits used are rasberry, peach and blackcurrant. The most well-known brand of fruit beer is Interbrew's Belle Vue.
Bulgaria, while being quite a small country in Eastern Europe, has quite a number of beer brands. The most popular breweries (all producing namesake lagers) are Kamenitza (produced in the city of Plovdiv), Zagorka (produced mainly in Stara Zagora) and AstikA (Produced in city of Haskovo). Other remarkable brands are Stolichno (bock beer produced by Zagorka), Shumensko (both lager and red ale, produced in the city of Shumen), Burgasko (produced in the city of Burgas), MM (produced in the city of Varna), Pirinsko (brewed in the city of Blagoevgrad), and Plevensko (produced in the city of Pleven). Most of the Bulgarian breweries are currently owned by foreign breweries, such as Heineken (Zagorka) and Interbrew (AstikA and Kamenitza). - Main article: Canadian beer
Canada has a long history of beer production as the cold winter climate provided ideal conditions for brewing before artificial refrigeration was invented. It is well known for its two large commercial breweries, Molson, Labatt (owners of Halifax, Nova Scotia's Alexander Keith's Brewery and Kokanee). However, there are numerous mid-sized companies brewing premium beers. Among these regional/micro breweries are Guelph, Ontario's Sleeman Breweries Ltd.; Saint John, New Brunswick's Moosehead Brewery; Calgary, Alberta based Big Rock Brewery; Vancouver, British Columbia's Granville Island Brewery; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan's Great Western Brewing; and Unibroue from Montral, Qubec. Finally, Canada has a proud tradition of pubs and microbreweries and within any city you can generally find at least a few pubs which brew their own beer (often from scratch). SCTV characters Bob & Doug McKenzie are two world-renowned Canadian icons that are closely associated with beer. Tsingtao beer is the most famous beer made in China. It, along with China Blue Ribbon, is one of the major brewing groups in the country. There are a few brewpubs in major cities, fueled with brewing talent from the national brewing school, which is a Sino-German joint venture. The most well-known craft brewer in China is Kaiwei Beer House, a brewpub chain based out of Wuhan. Most Chinese beer, however, is light pale lager (ranging from 3.3 - 4.0%) The Pilsener style of beer originated in the town of Plzen in Bohemia, and the Czechs make many well known and well regarded beers of this style, including the original Budweiser that recently obtained the PDO/PGI/TSG in the EU. The Czechs consume the highest per capita amount of beer. Danish industrialist J. C. Jacobsen revolutionized the world of brewing when his brewery, Carlsberg, bred a pure strain of lager yeast, Saccharomyces carlsbergensis. This enabled the breweries to achieve a large and consistent output, and lager has been the most popular style of beer in Denmark since Carlsberg started selling it in 1847. Smaller breweries in Denmark suffered greatly under the Carlsberg market dominance, especially during the middle of the 20th century, and this led to a large reduction in available beer quality and styles. In recent years the interest in higher quality beer has risen sharply, and the Danish beer landscape is now dotted with several microbreweries and brewpubs, producing a wide range of beers. The local brand is called Stella, not to be confused with the Belgian Stella Artois. It is primarily sold to foreign, non-Muslim, tourists. Both of these countries are known for their traditional juniper beers. In Finland, this is known as Sahti and in Estonia it is called Koduolu. This beer is made from rye or oat malts that are filtered through straws and juniper twigs. According to beerhunter Michael Jackson, it is by far the oldest continuous living tradition of beer making, representing nothing less than a direct link with Babylonian beer-making methods. Although the French market is dominated by industrial breweries, the Nord/Pas-de-Calais possesses strong brewing traditions and breweries (Pelforth, for example), which it shares with its Belgian neighbor across the border. Alsace, also has a strong tradition of brewing beer with bottom fermenting yeasts in the German style. Bretagne has experienced a significant revival of its brewing traditions in the past couple of decades and is home to a score or more of microbreweries. With an extremely strong beer-oriented culture, the German market is a bit sheltered from the rest of the world beer market by the German brewers' adherence to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot (purity requirement) dating from 1516, according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are "Wasser (water), Hopfen (hops) und (Gersten-)Malz (barley-malt)". After the invention of cultured yeast it entered the deal as the fourth legal ingredient. Through this agreement (which was law up to 1988 but it still adhered to by virtually all German brewers), beers from Germany tend to have a good reputation for their quality. The Germans are slightly behind the Czechs in their per capita consumption of beer. There are a variety of different styles of German beer, such as Helles (lager from Bavaria), Weizen (fermented wheat beer), Klsch (top-fermented beer from the Cologne region), Alt (a dark beer drunk around Dsseldorf and Dortmund), the most popular kind Pilsner, Export (a milder version of Pilsner, more suited to "international" tastes) and Bock beer (a dark, very strong beer). While the beer market is more centralized in northern Germany, but weaker, the biggest brands Krombacher, Warsteiner and Bitburger each selling about 400 million liters), the south has lots of very small, local breweries which add up to a total of 1350 breweries in Germany producing over 5000 brands of beer. One of these breweries, the Benedictine abbey Weihenstephan (established in 725) is reputedly the oldest existing brewery in the world. The alcohol content usually is between 4.7% and 5.4% for most traditional brews. Bockbier or Doppelbock (double Bockbier) however can have an alcohol content of up to 12%, beating many Wines. Bockbier season is during June and July and a lot of local Bockbier festivals are typically held in the south of Germany. The Munich Oktoberfest is well known for the quantity of beer drunk as well as the friendly, social atmosphere created by the massive marqees with long tables and bench seating. Almost 6,000,000 litres of beer is served every year at the festival. Although Hungary is better known as a wine-producing country, beer has been made there for around a thousand years and the country has a significant history of commercial beer production. The first commercial brewery in Hungary was established in Budapest in 1845 by Peter Schmidt. During the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the Kőbnya district of Budapest became the centre of Hungary's brewing industry. The Dreher brewery, named after Anton Dreher (creator of the Vienna style of lager) who started a brewery in Budapest in 1862, came to dominate the Hungarian market before the Second World War. Today, Hungary has only five large commercial brewers which produce mainly lagers (Hungarian: Vilgos) and German-style dark beers (Hungarian: Barna): - The Dreher (Kőbnya) Brewery in Budapest is now owned by SABMiller. Its main products are the Dreher Classic and Arany szok pilsener-style lagers but it also brews Kőbnyai Vilgos, Dreher Lager and Dreher Bak (a double bock).
- The Borsod Brewery is 60% owned by Interbrew. In addition to the local brands of Borsodi Vilgos, Borsodi Barna, Borsodi Bivaly and Borostyn, it brews under licence Stella Artois and Rolling Rock.
- The Pcs Brewery is majority owned by the Ottokringer Group. Its brands are Pcsi Szalon, Szalon Barna, Tavaszi Sr ("Spring Beer"), Hrom Kirlyok ("Three Kings") and (under licence) Gold Fassl.
- Brau Union Hungria Breweries is majority owned by Brau AG of Austria and has breweries in Sopron, Martfű and Komrom. Its brands include Soproni szok, Tallros, Arany Hord ("Golden Barrel"), Soproni Kinizsi, Srkny Sr ("Dragon Beer") and (under licence) Amstel, Gsser, Heineken, Kaiser and Zlaty Bazant.
- The Nagykanizsa Brewery produces beer under the brands of Kanizsai Vilgos, Kanizsai Kinizsi, Balatoni Vilgos and Paracelsus.
A number of small and microbreweries have also emerged in Hungary over the past few years including Ilzer and Blonder. Modern brewing began for India in the early days of the British Empire — the mid-1700s. The demand for beer in the hot Indian climate by the British administrators and the troops was so great that it led to the creation of a completely new style of beer by George Hodgson in his London brewery — India Pale Ale. IPA is a strong, highly hopped ale designed to survive the five month ocean voyage to India without spoiling. India Pale Ale was shipped with every voyage for over a century and became very popular in Britain and North America. In the late 1820s Edward Dyer moved from England to set up the first brewery in India at Kasauli (later incorporated as Dyer Breweries in 1855) in the Himalaya near Shimla, producing Asia's first beer called Lion. The brewery was soon shifted to nearby Solan (close to the British summer capital Shimla), as there was an abundant supply of fresh springwater there. The Kasauli brewery site was converted to a distillery which Mohan Meakin Ltd. still operates. Dyer set up more breweries at Shimla, Murree, Rawalpindi and Mandalay. Another entrepreneur, H G Meakin, moved to India and bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from Edward Dyer and added more at Ranikhet, Dalhousie, Chakrata, Darjeeling and Kirkee. In 1935, when Burma was separated from India, the company was restructured with its Indian assets as Dyer Meakin Breweries, a public company on the London Stock Exchange. Following independence in 1949, N.N. Mohan took over management of the company and the name was changed to Mohan Meakin. The company continues to produce beer across India to this day and Lion is still available in northern India. Today however, no brewer in India makes India Pale Ale. All Indian beers are either lagers (5 per cent alcohol — such as Australian lager) or strong lagers (8 per cent alcohol - such as the popular MAX super strong beer). International Breweries have recently announced an intention to work with Mohan Meakin to produce and launch an India Pale Ale called Indian IPA from India's first brewery at Solan. In various parts of north-eastern India, traditional rice beer is quite popular. Several festivals feature this nutritious, quite intoxicating, drink as part of the celebrations. The rice is fermented in vats that are sometimes buried underground. It is quite popular, and not only with humans. Elephants have been known to attack villages and raid these vats. Ireland is best known for stout, of which Guinness is the largest selling and most widely distributed brand. Guinness also make the most widely distributed Irish lager: Harp. It is recommended that Guinness be served after being poured, waiting for three minutes and then topped-up. Along with Guinness there are also Murphy's, Caffrey's and Beamish. Nastro Azzurro is a local Italian lager-style beer of around 5% strength. Birra Moretti is a cheap but refreshing lager sold in 66cl bottles, it has a premium version, Baffo d'Oro (Golden Moustache). Another historical brand is Peroni. Menabrea is a famous award-winning lager from Piedmont. Sardinia has its own beer, Ichnusa. Red Stripe is Jamaica's best-known beer. It is considered to be a blonde lager. Beer is the most favoured alcoholic drink in Japan. It was introduced in the early Meiji Era from Germany. Major makers are Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo while small local breweries supply distinct tasting beers. Lager beers are most common but beers made with lower grain contents called "Happoushu" (low malt beer, sparkling alcoholic drink) have captured a large part of the market as tax is lower on these products. Drinking beer with salted boiled beans, edamame, is known as a favourite summer pastime for adults. The most popular beer by far is "Birra e Pejes" as it is known to locals or Peja Beer as known by internationals. While traditional Kyrgyz drinks like bozo and kymyz retain popularity, and Soviet-style beer lives on in the form of Nashe, Kyrgyzstan does have good beer. The brewpubs Steinbrau and Kellersbier in Bishkek bring German-style lagers to the land, while microbreweries exist in Osh and Jalal-Abad. Many of the big local names are Russian (Baltika, Sibirskoe Koronna, Bagbier, Klinskoe) or Kazak (Tian-Shan, Karagandinskoe). Beer is a historic traditions in Latvia and is known to have been made before the Northern Crusades in the thirteenth century. Today, the most popular brand in Latvia is Aldaris. This Baltic state has a major beer scene in the northern part of the country, centred around the towns of Pasvalys, Pakruojis, Kupiskis and Birzai. The farmhouse brews of the region are highly distinctive, using local ingredients and techniques from pre-Soviet times. The bigest commercial breweries are located in towns Utena (Utenos beer), Panevezys (Dvaro, Karcemos beer), Klapeda - "Svyturys" brewery (several varieties of Baltijos beer), Kaunas - "Ragutis" brewery and Vilnius - "Tauras" brewery. As in most early societies, Mayas and Aztecs were brewing grain-based alcoholic beverages (primarily from corn) long before the Europeans arrived - in addition to pulque, an indigenous Mexican beer made from the fermented sap of the agave plant; and the precursor of distilled tequila. But it was the influx of German immigrants and the influence of a brief Austrian rule over the country in the middle of the 19th century that helped cement the art of brewing as an all-Mexican endeavor. Mexico spent four years under Austro-German emperor Maximilian, who apparently never traveled without his brewmasters. As a result, two of the more popular brands of Mexican beer -- Negra Modelo and Dos Equis -- come from the darker, more malty subset of German lagers known as Vienna style. While not as weighty as most British ales, the Mexican Viennas are fuller bodied with more malt sweetness and character than the pale pilsners. While at first, most modern brewers were small operations, by 1890, the first substantial, industrial brewing facility in the country was built in Monterrey. Four years later another large brewery opened in Orizaba. The industrialization of the Mexican beer business was on. Most Mexican beers are produced by the two beer giants, FEMSA and Grupo Modelo. FEMSA is a general beverage corporation whose roots date to back to 1890 and the first large Mexican brewery, Cervecera Cuauhtmoc in Monterrey. With their brands Tecate, Sol, Dos Equis, Carta Blanca, Superior, Indio, Bohemia and Noche Buena - FEMSA is a major international brewer. Labatt's of Canada (a subsidiary of the Belgian brewer Interbrew) owns 30 percent of FEMSA. Grupo Modelo has fewer brands but a larger part of the Mexican beer export market with Corona, Corona Light, Negra Modelo, Modelo Especial, and Pacifico their five export brands. (In Mexico, they also brew Victoria, Estrella, Leon and Montejo.) Grupo Modelo is 51 per cent owned by Anheuser-Busch but, in accordance with Mexican law, control of the company remains with Modelo. Corona is the flagship beer of Grupo Modelo. It is a very light lager, and the number one imported beer in the world. Corona is the best-selling non-domestic beer in both the U.S. and U.K. Many say the brand's marketing and easy drinkability account for its success, as most beer aficionados agree that other Mexican lagers such as Dos Equis, Bohemia, and Negra Modelo are far superior. No discussion of Mexican beer or Corona would be complete without mentioning the lime. Serving Mexican beers, especially the light lagers, with a slice of lime, is mostly a marketing gimmick and has no real basis in tradition. In Mexico, the only people who drink beer with a lime are tourists. Outside the tourist areas among native Mexicans, it's not prevalent at all. The indigenous people of New Zealand (Maori) did not brew beer. Major ingredients of beer were not introduced to New Zealand until Europeans arrived in the mid 1800s. The first beer brewed in New Zealand was by Captain Cook while anchored in Ship Cove in the outer reachs of Queen Charlotte Sound in January 1770. Here he experimented with the use beer brewed with young Rimu branches as a treatment against scurvy. The late European history is characterised by the dominance of about three large breweries. The dominance of these was helped by the buying of some of the small local breweries. From the mid 1980s small boutique or microbreweries started to emerge. Consequently, the range of beer styles increased. Some pubs operate their own small breweries, often housed within the pub itself. Wine and ready mixed alcoholic drink consumption is increasing and is lessening the quantity of beer being sold. Among the most popular beers in the Netherlands are Grolsch, Bavaria, Heineken, and Amstel. Most large breweries in the Netherlands are owned by Heineken. The amount of breweries in the Netherlands has grown from 14 in 1980 to 70 in 2002. Heineken is the world's second-largest brewer of beer, after Anheuser-Busch in the United States, it is also the largest export brewery in the world, with sales to 150 countries. The Netherlands is home to a large number of microbreweries making Belgian-influenced and traditional Dutch beers. The Amsterdam pub 't Arendsnest attempts to stock as many of these beers as it can. A ban on imports of barley malt imposed in 1990 forced brewers to find ways to produce beer with locally-available sorghum and maize. Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is an intriguing brew with a unique flavour. The Nigerian version is distinct from other Guinness FES's found around the world. High taxation and stringent rules governing when and where alcoholic beverages may be sold have made Norway somewhat of a harsh climate for beer drinkers. Nevertheless, in common with many European countries, there is a rich tradition of brewing in Norway. Currently, the Norwegian beer market is dominated by two large brewers: Carlsberg-Ringnes and Hansa-Borg. Most of their output is in the form of lager-style beers such as Pilsner and Fatl which are widely (and to some extent exclusively) available and heavily consumed. Bayerl, a kind of dark lager, slightly sweeter than German dark lagers, is also readily available. Frydenlund Bayerl, brewed by Ringnes, is the most ubiquitous example of this style. Bokkl is a stronger style of beer, typically 6-7% ABV, dark, with a sweet, complex flavour. A good example is Mack Bok-l, produced by the Mack brewery in the arctic city of Troms. Due to government restrictions, beers above 5% ABV are only available from licensed premises or the state-run Vinmonopol chain of shops. This rule has had a rather drastic impact upon the market, hence the production of strong beers, yet it is well worth the effort of locating them. Good locally produced beer can also be found at the small number of Norwegian brewpubs: for example the Trondhjem Microbryggeri in Trondheim and Oslo Mikrobryggeri in Oslo. The Philippines produces one of the most popular beers in the region, San Miguel, which has been brewed there since 1892. Spain also has San Miguel beer, but this was brought over from the Philippines by its German brewmaster, and did not originate in Spain. San Miguel Pale Pilsen is the most popular variety, and enjoys widespread recognition in Hong Kong and China as a cheap but well-crafted, refreshing beer. San Miguel also produces a kind of stout-porter (Cerveza Negra or Black Beer). Several competing brands from Asia Brewery such as Beer na Beer and Lone Star are also available but hardly widespread. The beer is also fondly remembered by American GI's from WWII who were stationed or fought in the Philippines. Sadly, harsh economic times have led to a drop in beer sales as customers switch to the "quick fix" of distilled spirits to wash away their woes. Beer has always been extremely important for Poles. One Polish ruler, encouraged by the Pope to take part in a crusade, refused because, as he wrote to the Pope, the holy land has no beer. Traditional Polish beer is usually pilsener, lager or porter. The most popular Polish brands are Żywiec, Okocim, EB, Lech, Lezajsk, Tyskie and Warka. In Portugal there are several brands of beer, the two most famous ones are Superbock and Sagres. Portuguese beer is considered very good, and a lot of barrels are drunk every day by young and old persons. Romanian beer is known in Central and Eastern Europe for its taste and low price. Ursus (from Cluj) is the king of the Romanian beer from 1879 (a brand of South African Breweries). Other traditional Romanian beer brands are Timisoreana, Bucegi and Neumarkt. Russians have always been known as heavy drinkers and beer (Russian пиво – Pivo) is probably the nation's number two alcoholic drink after Vodka. Unlike the rest of the world, Russians categorize beer by color, not by fermentation process: Light, Red or Semi-Dark, and Dark. Light is a more or less equivalent to Lager and the last two are close to Ales. There are also super-strong beers (6-10% of alcohol) which are very popular in Russia. The most known brands of Russian beer are Baltika and Stary Melnik, however almost every region of Russia is proud to have its own brewery. By Russian laws, beer is not categorized as an alcoholic drink so it can be bought anywhere. There are a few microbreweries and brewpubs to be found, in major cities like St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan'. see Beer in Serbia and Montenegro The most famous brands in Slovakia are ?ari?, Smdn mnch (Thirsty Monk) and Zlat ba?ant (Golden pheasant). There are 15 breweries in Slovakia: - Pivovar Bytča (K. K. Company) - Martiner, Popper, Palatn
- Pivovar Corgoň (Heineken Slovensko a.s.) - Corgoň, Maurus, Stup
- Pivovar a sladovňa Gemer a.s. (Heineken Slovensko a.s.) - Gemer, Zuzana
- Pivovar Horden (Esperia a.s.) - Horden
- Pivovar Ilava (K. K. Company) - Richtr, Vart?
- Pivovar Martiner (Heineken Slovensko a.s.) - Martiner, Martinsk zdroj
- Minipivovar M.K. Unipol Trnava
- Steiger (Eduard Rada s.r.o.) - Steiger, Sitňan, Hell, Kachelmann
- Pivovar Stein a.s. - Stein, Pressburger, Premium Pils
- Minipivovar Svt Jur
- Pivovar ?ari? a.s. (South African Breweries) - Smdn Mnch, ?ari?, Gold Fassl
- Tatran a.s. - Baltazr, Goral, Kamzk, Patria, Tatran
- Topvar a.s. - Samaritn, ?ochr, Koruna, Marna, Brigita
- Urpn s.r.o. - Urpn, Herkules
- Zlat Ba?ant a.s. (Heineken Slovensko a.s.) - Zlat Ba?ant, Gambrinus, Kelt
Useful links Slovenia is situated somewhere between Mediterranean wine loving area and Alpine beer loving area, so both, beer and wine, are very important to most Slovenians. There are two breweries in Slovenia, brewing various kinds of beer and trying to take as much control over nonalcoholic drinks industry as possible: Laško in a town with the same name (situated south of Celje) was established in 1825, Union in Ljubljana has been brewing beer since 1864. Thare are holy wars among drinkers of both brands, esp. to some people from eastern Slovenia Laško is a sort of their local pride. The most fanatic "supporters" of any brand often say "We drink insert one brand and piss insert the other one". In 2001 Laško announced their plans about merging with Union and thus create a drinks holding. The management of Union immediately asked Belgian Interbrew to buy the brewery. A so called "breweries' war" arose, and somebody quoted that "it is a national interest that Slovenian breweries are owned by Slovenians" (there were no such quotes a year later when Novartis purchased entire pharmaceutical blue chip Lek.). Laško managed to obtain a slightly higher share than Interbrew but still a bit less than 50%. Interbrew's advocates still try to "convince" courts that Laško obtained a portion of their shares illegally so the "war" is not over yet. Beside two major players there are several small breweries that (with the exception of Adam Ravbar in Domžale) only sell their products in beer halls attached to them. As far as the author's knowledge is concerned, there are three major brands of beer available throughout Spain which are San Miguel (brewed in Madrid and being the most famous), Estrella Damm (originated in Barcelona, making it the favourite in all of Catalonia) and Cruzcampo (made in Andalucia). San Miguel (which is nowadays also produced in a variant called "1516" referring to the German Purity Law) has quite a general lager taste which supposedly makes it suitable for the "gusto" of not only the Spanish population. Estrella Damm is probably the most cosmopolitain beer in Spain and according to the name must have been invented by Spaniards of German origin as the brew has a taste distinctive for German Pils beers. Cruzcampo's taste fails to please the gusto of most of the foreign lovers of beer as it tends to have a mouldy notion to it. The invention of a 0,33l-PET-bottle didn't really help much. The South African Breweries (SAB) company controls the vast majority of the South African beer market. With the notable exception of imported brands such as Heineken, Guinness and others, SAB owns and produces all the major brands in the republic. South African beer has three main influences or origins. The first is the Dutch influence, brought to the Republic by Dutch settlers, now known as Afrikaners. The second influence is English, brought to South Africa by the British. The third, and perhaps most important, influence to the local breweries comes from the black or native population, including groups as the Sotho and Zulu, as these groups of people traditionally brewed a form of beer with sorghum and maize long before any Europeans arrived. The most popular and valuable brand is Castle Lager, an SAB brand, which has a warm and heady taste. The taste of the brand is often disputed in popular magazines. Jo'burg beer, an independent and low-priced beverage, is dominant with groups of lower income, and incorporates the traditional tastes around before the arrival of the Europeans. Taiwanese Aborigines have consumed millet beer for centuries. In the modern era, Taiwan Beer is by far the most popular brand. Initially produced by a state monopoly during Japanese rule in the early twentieth century, the beer is now produced by a privatized company and is drank cold along with snacks or appetizers. Beer games – played both in private and in restaurants, to the chagrin of some customers – are popular among working-class men. One common stereotype of the British (and indeed most residents of the British Isles) concerns their love of "warm beer". In fact, their beer is usually served around 12 degrees Celsius — not as cool as most cold drinks, but still cool enough to be refreshing. Modern-day pubs keep their beer constantly at this temperature, but originally beer would be served at the temperature of the cellar in which it was stored. Proponents of British beer say that it relies on subtler flavours than that of other nations, and these are brought out by serving it at a temperature that would make other beers seem harsh. Where harsher flavours do exist in beer (most notably in those brewed in Yorkshire), these are traditionally mitigated by serving the beer through a hand pump fitted with a sparkler, a device that mixes air with the beer, oxidising it slightly and softening the flavour. Nowadays, only real ale tends to be served via a hand pump, not a typical way for mass-produced beers to be served; it is common to find the latter sold in bottles or drawn from a carbon dioxide-driven tap. Real Ale is championed by the Campaign for Real Ale. With the growing of hops being characteristic of southern counties in particular Kent, traditional southern beers, such as London Pride, south of a line that can been drawn from the Bristol channel to the Wash (on the east coast of England) typically contain more hops than those found north of this line such as Boddingtons. The USA has always been a beer-drinking nation. The diary of William Bradford records that the Mayflower made landfall at Plymouth Rock under duress: "We could not now take much time for further search...our victuals being much spent, especially our beer." http://www.4literature.net/William_Bradford/Bradford_s_and_Winslow_s_Journal/4.html The brewing traditions of England and the Netherlands (as brought to New York) ensured that the colonies would be dominated by beer drinking and not the imbibing of wine. Up until the middle of the 19th century, ales dominated American brewing. This changed as the lager styles, brought by German immigrants, turned out to be more profitable for large-scale manufacturing and shipping. Names such as Miller, Pabst, and Schlitz became known through the breweries they founded or acquired, and many others followed. Czech immigrants also made their contributions to US beer. The lager brewed by these companies was not the extremely weak and mild lager now associated with modern US megabreweries. This American pilsner was a significantly stronger beer, both in flavour and alcohol, that was designed to meet the appetites of both native Americans and central European immigrants. All of this came to a halt when Prohibition was imposed. Only a few of the largest breweries were able to stay in business — by manufacturing near beer, malt syrup, or other non-alcohol grain products. Production and shipping of alcohol was largely confined to illegal operations, which could deliver potent liquors — smuggled rum and domestic moonshine — more efficiently and safely than bulkier products such as beer. For more than fifty years after the end of Prohibition, the United States beer market was heavily dominated by large commercial breweries, producing beers more noted for their uniformity than for any particular flavour. Beers such as those made by Anheuser-Busch and Coors followed a restricted pilsner style, with large-scale industrial processes and the use of low-cost ingredients (such as rice and corn). The dominance of the so-called "macrobrew" led to an international stereotype of "American beer" as poor in quality and flavour. However, since the resurgence of the commercial craft brewing industry in the 1980s, the United States now features many beers, offered by over 1500 brewpubs, microbreweries, and regional brewers such as Anchor Brewing Company (San Francisco) and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (Chico, CA), and contract brewed brands such as Samuel Adams. In much of eastern Pennsylvania including Philadelphia, the word "lager" is synonymous with Yuengling Traditional Lager, a flavorful beer from a regional brewery in Pottsville founded in 1829, making it the oldest continuously operating brewery in America. While in volume, the macrobrews still dominate, smaller producers brew in a variety of styles influenced by local sources of hops and other ingredients as well as by various European traditions. The Association of Brewers has identified the following styles of North American origin: The success of the commercial craft brewing industry has led the large breweries to invest in smaller breweries such as Widmer, and to develop more complex beers of their own. The Uzbeks are not huge beer drinkers, and many of their beers are vile relics of the deplorable Soviet brewing tradition, but there are microbrewries and brewpubs in Tashkent producing German-style beer.
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