With beer demand at all-time high, guess who’s the leading producer
Beer and bikinis will be on offer in the town formerly known as Bankersmith.
Turns out Bejing is getting the biggest bang from its beer-soaked buck when it comes to worldwide beer production, which has hit an all-time high, according to a new study cited by the Associated Press.
The report, released today by a top Japanese brewery unnamed by AP, said this is the 27th year in a row that beer demand has been on the rise, with 50.9 billion gallons of beer reportedly produced last year.
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China is the world leader, making a quarter of the world's beer supply, said the Kirin Holdings-comissioned report, according to AP. The US came in second, with Brazil and Russia also among top producers.
The news comes three days before the opening of China's Qingdao International Beer Festival as well as the launch of the country's first-ever craft beer joint venture, the "Yunnan Amber," according to China Radio International.
The new craft beer, produced by Beijing's Great Leap brewery and Shanghai's Boxing Cat, will hit the shelves next week, said the report.
That means it will come during "the closest thing to Oktoberfest in China," said CNN, with the 16-day beer festival kicking off soon in the city of Qingdoa, AKA "China's Munich" and once a German colony.
Last year, 3.8 million visitors drank almost 1.1 million liters beer during the event, reported CNN.
China's Global Times showed the city all decked out for the festival, ready to showcase 25 beers from 16 countries and regions starting August 11.
Meanwhile, the introduction of international brews to the Chinese drinking public has apparently paid off, with the export of US microbrews to China skyrocketing.
The US Department of Agriculture's 2010 figures show a record-breaking $546,000 in overall sales of microbrews to China, up five years from 2005, according to China Daily.