Beer is the most popular industrial alcoholic beverage in Ethiopia with lager being the most consumed type of beer. In the rural sector, the home-brew talla or siwa is still dominant.
Beer is the most popular industrial alcoholic beverage in Ethiopia with lager being the most consumed type of beer. In the rural sector, the home-brew talla or siwa is still dominant.
The first brewery in Ethiopia was established in 1922 by St. George Beer (named after the patron saint of Ethiopia). Brands like Meta and Bedele are also older in Ethiopia but have since been acquired by foreign companies and re-branded.
Ethiopia's beer industry has grown tremendously in the last two decades. It transformed into one of the most competitive industries in Ethiopia, with millions of birr spent on advertisements alone. The industry's competitiveness has led to more investment in farming, such as in malt production. [1]
Top 15 beer brands in Ethiopia according to RateBeer.com (as of 2017) [2]
| Rank | Name | Score | Count | Style |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garden Bräu Ebony | 2.82 | 4 | Dunkel/Tmavý |
| 2 | Garden Bräu Blondy | 2.77 | 4 | Dortmunder/Helles |
| 3 | St George Amber Beer (Ethiopia) | 2.72 | 61 | Amber Lager/Vienna |
| 4 | Hakim Stout | 2.72 | 193 | Foreign Stout |
| 5 | Raya Beer | 2.69 | 5 | Pale Lager |
| 6 | Bedele Beer | 2.60 | 22 | Pale Lager |
| 7 | Habesha Cold Gold | 2.51 | 11 | Pale Lager |
| 8 | Walia | 2.48 | 10 | Pale Lager |
| 9 | Harar | 2.38 | 128 | Pale Lager |
| 10 | Meta Premium | 2.25 | 63 | Premium Lager |
| 11 | Bedele Special Beer | 2.24 | 65 | Pale Lager |
| 12 | Castel Beer (Ethiopia) | 2.18 | 60 | Pale Lager |
| 13 | Meta Beer Export Lager | 2.18 | 71 | Pale Lager |
| 14 | St. George Beer | 2.16 | 208 | Pale Lager |
| 15 | Dashen Beer | 2.04 | 28 | Pale Lager |
As living standards increase, the more affluent segment of rural society frequently shifts from home-brewed beer to lager beer. Industrial breweries have seen this emerging market and prepared specific brands targeted at farmers: Balageru (meaning: the rural people) and Azmera beers (meaning: "good cropping season"). [3]
Beer is one of the oldest types of alcoholic drinks in the world, and the most widely consumed. It is the third most popular drink overall after potable water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley, though wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. During the brewing process, fermentation of the starch sugars in the wort produces ethanol and carbonation in the resulting beer. Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilising agent. Other flavouring agents such as gruit, herbs, or fruits may be included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, the natural carbonation effect is often removed during processing and replaced with forced carbonation.
Pilsner is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň, where the world's first pale lager was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewery.
Pale lager is a very pale-to-golden-colored lager beer with a well-attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.
Märzen or Märzenbier is a lager that originated in Bavaria. It has a medium to full body and may vary in colour from pale through amber to dark brown. It was the beer traditionally served at the Munich Oktoberfest. The geographical indication Oktoberfestbier is protected in the EU and can only be used for Märzen that is brewed in Munich.
Tyskie is a Polish brand of beer. Its name comes from the brewery located in the Upper Silesian town of Tychy. It is brewed by the Tychy Princely Brewery, part of the Kompania Piwowarska brewery group, which was acquired by Asahi Group Holdings in 2017.
Nigerian Breweries Plc, is the largest brewing company in Nigeria. It serves the Nigerian market and West Africa.
Castle Lager is a South African pale lager. It is the flagship product of South African Breweries and has been recognised as the National Beer of South Africa, based on the fact that it is 100% grown and produced in the country.
Beer in Norway has a long history, stretching back more than a millennium. Until some 200 years ago, most farms where it was possible to grow grain south of the Arctic Circle, brewed their own beer. From the early 20th century brewing was industrialized and home brewing was restricted. Significant consolidation in the brewing sector reduced the number of major breweries to just a handful. With the exception of the farmhouse ales, most beer styles brewed in Norway trace their ancestry to central Europe.
Beer in South Africa has a long history, with a corporate history dating back to the early 20th century.
Beer in Africa, especially lager, is produced commercially in most African countries, and indigenous people also make varieties of beer. Beer is served in various locales, from neighbourhood shebeens to upscale bars. Many countries have standardized beer bottle sizes, which are cleaned and re-used, so when buying beer at a store, people often must pay a deposit on the bottle and the price of the beer. An alternative to glass-bottle beers is local beer sold in tetra-pak style paper cartons.
Augustiner-Bräu is a brewery in Munich, Germany. Established in 1328, it is Munich's oldest independent brewery. The company is owned by the Edith Haberland Wagner Trust 51% and the Inselkammer-Family 49%.
Beer in Japan mostly comes from the country's four major breweries, Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory, which mainly produce pale lagers around 5% ABV. Beer is immensely popular, far ahead of sake consumption.
Plzeňský Prazdroj, a. s. is a Czech brewery which opened in 1842 in Plzeň, Bohemia. It was the first brewery to produce a pale lager, branded as Pilsner Urquell, which became so popular and was so much copied that more than two-thirds of the beer produced in the world today is pale lager, sometimes named pils, pilsner and pilsener after Pilsner Urquell. The brewery name, Pilsner Urquell, which can be roughly translated into English as "the original source at Pilsen", was adopted as a trademark in 1898. Pilsner Urquell is the largest producer and exporter of beer in the Czech Republic.
Beer, called maekju in Korean, was first introduced to Korea in the early 20th century. Seoul's first brewery opened in 1908. Two current major breweries date back to the 1930s. The third brewery established in Korea, Jinro Coors Brewery, was founded in the 1990s. It was later acquired by Oriental Breweries (OB). Hite Breweries's former name was Chosun Breweries, which was established in 1933. The company changed its name to Hite Breweries in 1998. OB Breweries established as Showa Kirin Breweries in 1933. The company changed its name to OB Breweries in 1995.
East African Breweries Limited, commonly referred to as EABL, is a Kenyan-based holding company that manufactures branded beer, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages.
Oriental Brewery or OB is a South Korean brewery currently owned by AB InBev, and initially founded by Doosan Group.
The G. Heileman Brewing Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States, was a brewer that operated from 1858 to 1996. It was ultimately acquired by Stroh's. From 1872 until its acquisition, the brewery bore the family name of its co-founder and brewer Gottlieb Heileman.
Heineken N.V. is a Dutch brewer which owns a worldwide portfolio of over 170 beer brands, mainly pale lager, though some other beer styles are produced. The two largest brands are Heineken and Tecate; though the portfolio includes Amstel, Fosters, Sagres, Cruzcampo, Skopsko, Affligem, Żywiec, Starobrno, Zagorka, Zlatý Bažant, Laško and Birra Moretti.
Tusker is a beer brand owned by East African Breweries, with over 700,000 hectolitres being sold in Kenya per year. It is also the largest African beer brand in the Diageo group. It is a 4.2% ABV pale lager. The beer's slogan "Bia yangu, Nchi yangu" means "My beer, My country" in Kiswahili.
Siwa, Amharic: ጠላ, is a beer originating from Tigray. Traditionally home-brewed, siwa remains locally popular during social events, after (manual) work, and as an incentive for farmers and labourers. Thousands of traditional beer houses straddle the Tigrayan urban and rural landscapes.
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