yankinoz
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- 16/2/12
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Small to medium-sized, privately-owned breweries shaped beer, first traditional styles, later new craft beers. The conglomerates? Your call.
Of government-owned breweries, two in the non-communist world have made good beer and profited. Reports vary on what happened in communist states.
The Bavarian state took over brewing from an abbey in 1805. The labels read Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan. The brewery competes in the market with topnotch beers and makes money that helps support brewing research at the Weihenstephan Institute.
In 1916, the British government nationalised a Carlisle brewery, along with its tied pubs, cut abv and raised prices, aiming to control drinking, not to make money, and yet postwar operations became profitable even as prices fell into line with those of private brewers. Alcohol contents in popular British draught beers fell to about the same levels as in Carlisle.
https://historicengland.org.uk/rese...ontrolBoardandtheStateManagementScheme1916-73
In the 1970s the Heath government privatised the brewery, claiming it was going to become unprofitable. The move was unpopular in Carlisle pubs. I was there. The beers weren't innovative but were excellent.
Communist states nationalised breweries, closed many small operations, and reprivatised in the 1980s and 1990s. Controversy surrounds what happened to quality, and when. Re the Pilsen brewery, see https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/Z78QwKUrib/https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/Z78QwKUrib/ I'll comment on China's Tsingtao, started by expat Germans. To my tastes the state-owned beer sold in the US in the 1980s had the bittering, hop and malt flavours of a good German pilsner. The private corporation that took over in the early 1990s has had Anheuser Inbev and Asahi as stockholders and consultants. The predictable result has been the use of adjuncts and a reduction in bittering and hop aroma.
Of government-owned breweries, two in the non-communist world have made good beer and profited. Reports vary on what happened in communist states.
The Bavarian state took over brewing from an abbey in 1805. The labels read Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan. The brewery competes in the market with topnotch beers and makes money that helps support brewing research at the Weihenstephan Institute.
In 1916, the British government nationalised a Carlisle brewery, along with its tied pubs, cut abv and raised prices, aiming to control drinking, not to make money, and yet postwar operations became profitable even as prices fell into line with those of private brewers. Alcohol contents in popular British draught beers fell to about the same levels as in Carlisle.
https://historicengland.org.uk/rese...ontrolBoardandtheStateManagementScheme1916-73
In the 1970s the Heath government privatised the brewery, claiming it was going to become unprofitable. The move was unpopular in Carlisle pubs. I was there. The beers weren't innovative but were excellent.
Communist states nationalised breweries, closed many small operations, and reprivatised in the 1980s and 1990s. Controversy surrounds what happened to quality, and when. Re the Pilsen brewery, see https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/Z78QwKUrib/https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/Z78QwKUrib/ I'll comment on China's Tsingtao, started by expat Germans. To my tastes the state-owned beer sold in the US in the 1980s had the bittering, hop and malt flavours of a good German pilsner. The private corporation that took over in the early 1990s has had Anheuser Inbev and Asahi as stockholders and consultants. The predictable result has been the use of adjuncts and a reduction in bittering and hop aroma.