Beer Drinking Nations. The Determinants of Global Beer Consumption.

In this paper we analyze the evolution of beer consumption between countries and over time. Historically, there have been major changes in beer consumption in the world. In recent times, per capita consumption has decreased in traditional " beer drinking nations" while it increased strongly in emerging economies. Recently, China has overtaken the US as the largest beer economy. A quantitative empirical analysis shows the relationship between income and beer consumption has an inverse U-shape. Beer consumption initially increases with rising incomes, but at higher levels of income beer consumption falls. Increased openness to trade and globalization has contributed to a convergence in alcohol consumption patterns across countries. In countries that were originally "beer drinking nations", the share of beer in total alcohol consumption reduced while this is not the case in countries which traditionally drank mostly wine or spirits. Climatic conditions, religion, and relative prices also influence beer consumption.

Why bean beer?

Beer can be a wholesome beverage, and the art of brewing beer has been intertwined with the development of civilised society for centuries. Today, the latest valuation of the economic value of beer (by accountants Ernst and Young in 2013), reported that Europe is the world’s biggest producer of beer with over 4,500 breweries delivering around 390 million hectolitres annually – which in plain English is 68,632,200,000 pints (since 1 hectolitre is a small spillage less than 176 imperial pints). The industry employs over 2 million people, and around 125,000 of these are employed in breweries themselves. It should also be no surprise then that sales generated 53 billion Euro, which is almost doubled again by the value added from the supply chain. Also, the EU brewing sector had a trade surplus (i.e. exports were greater than imports) to the value of 3 billion Euro in 2012. Beer is serious business

Anti-bacterial activity of lysozyme in pitching yeast and effect of lysozyme on yeast fermentation

Lysozyme has antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria and has no activity against yeast. As such, lysozyme can be used for the specific inhibition of beer spoilage bacteria. After all, the most frequently identified beer spoilage bacteria are lactic acid bacteria and brewers’ yeast is the culture used for the fermentation. Hen egg white lysozyme (300 mg/L) is tested for the antibacterial activity against four described Gram-positive beer spoilage bacteria in industrial pitching yeast and in industrial beer with refermentation in the bottle. The influence of industrial pitching yeast treated with lysozyme on the fermentation performance is also studied

Excise Tax Overshifting in the Hungarian Beer Market

We conduct this paper on excise tax shifting in the Hungarian beer market. Using a regression model we show that tax overshifting occurs in this market. We present a model with oligopolistic competition to explain how tax overshifting can occur because of the separated vertical structure. Our results suggests that Hungarian beer producers compete in Bertrand fashion and the hypothesis of collusion between beer producers can be rejected

Can Niche Agriculturalists Take Notes from the Craft Beer Industry?

This industry-level case study focuses on the growth cycles of craft brewing, a niche industry. The research case is defined as the craft beer industry evolution including the surrounding institutional and consumer environments. The research goal is to provide insight for niche agriculturalists by examining the case of the successful niche craft beer industry. First, the environment surrounding craft beer reemergence is analyzed. We examine the current state of the craft beer industry with a focus on competitive and logistical forces. We then highlight critical success factors of the craft beer industry and suggests how these factors can be applied to niche agriculture. Conclusions regarding the craft beer industry are drawn from both published documents and craft beer industry discussions. The primary craft beer industry “success†factors deemed transferable to niche agriculture include: 1) indentifying a consumer-driven niche opportunity; 2) engaging in marketing strategies leveraging consumer “hobby consumption†within the niche; 3) leveraging established industry logistics; and 4) participating in unified advocacy regarding both marketing and regulatory lobbies.Agribusiness, Marketing,

Precision of a Small Brew House by Determining the Repeatability of Different Brews to Guarantee the Product Stability of the Beer

The most important success factors of a brewery are to brew a high-standard beer and to sell this product successfully on the market. Especially, guaranteeing an objective product quality is a difficult task, in terms of beer quality, for craft brewers. Following these product stability parameters is not only necessary to secure the expiry date but also with regard to the repeatability of the brews (from batch to batch). To evaluate the precision of a small brew house (1 hL), three different beer types, lager beer (Pilsener), pale ale (Kölsch), and wheat beer (Weißbier) were repeatedly produced and analyzed. It was found that small fluctuations in the wort preparation, in terms of time or analysis, have no noticeable difference on the sensory characteristics of the final product. Nevertheless, strict adherence to the brew recipe and raw material monitoring are necessary in order to keep these deviations as minimal as possible. Finally, this study verified that microbrews can be repeated so that the consumers will not detect any differences with their five senses in the end

Faba bean as a novel brewing adjunct:consumer evaluation

The starch in the grains of legumes, such as faba bean (Vicia faba L.), offers an environmentally sustainable raw material for the brewing industry as their entire nitrogen fertiliser requirement can be provided by the natural process of biological nitrogen fixation. Faba bean is, therefore, distinguished from species such as spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), which require large amounts of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Consumer analysis of beer produced with faba bean as an adjunct compared with barley malt beers has not previously been assessed. This study evaluated the potential of beers brewed using 30% (w/w) dehulled bean (kernel) flour as an adjunct to malted barley, using a series of quantitative sensory tests. The first, a blind acceptance test with inferred preference, found no statistically significant difference in the taste score of the bean kernel flour adjunct beer when compared with conventional beer. In the second acceptance test, the knowledge that the beer was produced using beans did not affect the overall consumer impression of the beer, regardless of how this information was presented. These results suggest that the use of faba beans in brewing does not impact negatively on the taste or acceptability of the resultant bee

Seventy new non-eclipsing BEER binaries discovered in CoRoT lightcurves and confirmed by RVs from AAOmega

We applied the BEER algorithm to the CoRoT lightcurves from the first five LRc fields and identified $481$ non-eclipsing BEER candidates with periodic lightcurve modulations and amplitudes of $0.5-87$ mmag. Medium-resolution spectra of $281$ candidates were obtained in a seven-night AAOmega radial-velocity (RV) campaign, with a precision of $\sim1$ km/s. The RVs confirmed the binarity of $70$ of the BEER candidates, with periods of $0.3-10$ days.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the CoRoT Symposium 3, Kepler KASC-7 joint meeting, EPJ Web of Conference

Characterization of craft beer through flavour component analysis by GC-MS and multivariate statistical tools

Beer is a rather popular drink and represents the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world.The present research aims at characterizing the flavour profile of lager pilsner, the category of low fermentation beers most common in Europe. The largest portion of the global market is dominated by a few multinational companies, but in the last years the number of independent craft breweries has increased very rapidly also in countries where there weren’t an established craft brewing tradition. According to the Italian Brewers Association, in Italy there are eight brewing companies which operate 14 industrial breweries, which in the years have standardized the product to increase their slice of market. The craft-beer sector represents a niche market, about 3% of total production (1% in 2011) [EU Report, 2016]. Italy has a relatively young craft brewing tradition, but the data together with the new ways of consumption, can be considered promising for the sector development. In 2016, the “craft beer” has been defined for the first time in Italy with DDL 1328-B (art.35). Legislation does not consider the quality of the raw materials, but only the manufacturing processes: the artisanal beer-making is a beer obtained without microfiltration and pasteurization steps, unlike industrial products. In this contest, the aim of the study was to characterize the beers (all lager style) purchased on the market through the analysis of the aromatic profile of samples produced under different processes (craft methods or industrial processes). In fact, in addition to smaller production scale and independent, the main characteristic of craft beer is to put the emphasis on flavour and brewing techniques. Flavour, consisting of a large number of volatile compounds, has a great influence on consumer acceptability and, when safety and nutritional value are guaranteed, sensory parameters become the discriminating factor in the product quality assessment which determines the differentiation on the market. The identification of specific compounds, which confer a particular aroma, suitable to be used as potential quality/process markers in order to discriminate beer samples according to their production method. A headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was performed to evaluate the beer samples fingerprint. Multivariate statistical methods were then applied to the collected profiles to built model which could allow differentiating craft beers from all the others. Hence, the proposed method may represent an interesting tool to authenticate craft beer by verification of the compliance with their label description which, at the same time, can entail brand protection