Let the Beer War Begin in South Africa

Heineken is challenging SABMiller’s dominance in South Africa. Heineken (75% ownership) and Diageo holdings (25% ownership) officially opened up Sedibeng Brewery  today. The Brewery will brew premium beers for the growing black middle class, including: Amstel, Heineken and Windhoek Lager.

The brewery is located just south of Johannesburg and is slated to produce three million hectoliters. That means it can produce about 120 million 66 centiliter (~24 oz)bottles! Three million hectoliters not enough? Don’t worry, the capacity can be expanded to produce six million hectoliters when de...

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ABInBev Goes Green

Did you enjoy a green beer or two on St. Patty's Day? ABInBev, the world's biggest beer conglomerate, is hoping to make ALL its beer green by 2012 - of course, we're not talking about green-colored beer, but environmentally conscious beer. The company plans to reduce the amount of water used in the production process by 30% in the next two years.

Water is a decisive issue these days - due to an exploding world population and climate change, water is becoming scarce, and what's available is often of poor quality in developing areas. As water becomes scarcer, it will become much more expensive, and more tightly regulated. Many water-heavy industries - the beverage, power, and mining...

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MillerCoors Goes Retro

Look out, Beer Universe readers, for a blast from the past. The giant beer conglomerate MillerCoors recently announced that it will be testing a new beer, termed Batch 19, in several market regions across the country including Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco and Washington. The beer is based on an old recipe discovered by MillerCoors master brewer Keith Villa from deep within the Coors archives. The recipe was used to make Coors beer before Prohibition (hence the term Batch 19, referring to 1919, the year before the US ban on alcohol production and consumption began). MillerCoors is looking to market this new (old?) brew as an authentic, original beer, appealing to a sense of 1920s Amer...

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Iowa Lifts Restrictions on High-Alcohol Beer

We recently wrote about alcohol laws in Pennsylvania and their detrimental effect on the beer industry there. But on the opposite side of the spectrum, new legislation has just been passed in Iowa that will hopefully do great things for the state's beer production and sales; plus, it gives us beer lovers here at Beer Universe something to cheer about! The Iowa Senate File 2088, a massive government restructuring bill, was passed just last week, and signed into law by the governor effective immediately. While it addresses a number of government structures, the part we care most about is the Iowa Beer Equality Bill.

Up until now, breweries have only been able to make beer that is 6%...

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14th Annual ‘Beerdrinker of the Year’ Competition Ends

Readers, crack open a bottle of your favorite craft beer, and toast the new hero of the Beer Universe! Bill Howell, from Kenai, Alaska, was recently crowned the 2010 Beerdrinker of the Year.

Howell, the Director of Student Services at Kenai Peninsula College, has loved beer since his childhood, when his mother used to pour out a shot glass of beer for him every once in a while. Upon tasting his first craft beer, he realized that there were worlds of possibility in this marvelous beverage. Since then, he has become a well-known player in the local brewing scene, and devotes much of his energy to bringing his love of craft beer to Alaska and the rest of the world. Howell teaches a c...

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