Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Korean Beer
The Korean beer market is dominated by the three major brands; Cass, Hite, and OB. Most restaurants and bars will only have one on tap, as they are largely regarded as similar in taste and price. Foreign beers are available but are generally expensive - figure on paying at least W10,000 ($10) and as much as W15,000 ($15) for a pint of Guinness in downtown Seoul. Microbreweries are starting to appear and the market as a whole is showing increasing signs of sophistication.Cass Lager:
Cass Lager
A pale-golden pale lager with an A.B.V. of 5%; one of the three best selling beers in the South Korea. Originally brewed by the Cass Brewery, the brand had been taken over by Jinro-Coors, one of the country's leading brewers. After having around 70% of the Korean lager market in the 1980's, by 1994 Cass had fallen behind Hite as Korea's top selling lager. Oriental Brewery bought the Cass brand from Jinro-Coors in 1999 and built it up again, with OB declaring a 51% market share in 2000.
Non-alcoholic look-alikes of Cass can be found with brandnames such as "Cars" and "Cdss". Some norae-bang (karaoke parlour) establishments have been known to try and pass off these imitations as the real thing, as Korean law prohibits noraebangs marked as such from selling alcoholic drinks within its premises (as opposed to noraejujeom establishments which are allowed to sell alcohol).
OB Lager:
OB Lager is a pale, 4.4% A.B.V. pale lager available in cans and bottles, and served on draft in Korea. Originally brewed in 1948; the name was changed from OB Lager simply to OB in 2003 when InBev purchased the company; the recipe was altered to include rice. The name changed to OB Blue in June 2006 with another slight recipe tweak.
OB Pale Ale:
OB Pale Ale is mostly know for being served on draft and is popular for its dark bitter taste. It contains a dark amber color. Unlike its lager counterpart, OB Pale Ale contains 7.2% alcohol.
Cafri:
Cafri (A.B.V. 4%) is perhaps the lightest of all mainstream Korean beers and is bears a closer resemblance to Mexican beers such as Corona and Sol than the typical European lagers. It is widely available in clear 330ml long-neck bottles but falls behind OB, Cass and Hite in terms of popularity.
Oriental Brewery or OB is a Korean brewery established by the Doosan Group in 1952. It was purchased by InBev in 2003. Today OB produces several of Korea's most popular beverages including the OB, Cass and Cafri lager brands.
Hite Brewery Company Limited: (hangul:하이트맥주) is a South Korean brewery company headquartered in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Its main products are beer, rice wine, and mineral water. The company was established as Chosun Breweries in 1933. In 2001 the company had three factories, and in 2002 its share of the domestic beer market was some 55%, up from 30% in 1992.
Hite Breweries is listed on the Korea Stock Exchange, code HITE BREW.
Hite Lager:
Hite lager is golden in colour and is styled upon traditional European and American lagers. Along with OB and Cass, Hite is often found on draft in Korean bars and pubs. Most drinkers consider the draft versions of Hite, OB and Cass to be more or less interchangeable in taste and price.
Hite Prime:
Prime is slightly more expensive than regular Hite. It has a more complex, wheaty flavour.
Hite Prime Max:
Hite Stout:
Based on Original Guinness (not to be confused with the creamy Draft Guinness), Hite Stout is a dark bitter beer. Stout has lost popularity and market share in recent years.
Riku-Shi was barefoot on 9:41 AM.
