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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Uganda is a terrible place to live - but the beer is good. |
| 2004-02-13 |
| EFL Just about every month, there are horror stories in the African press about locally-produced alcohol which has poisoned some unfortunate drinkers. There’s a public outcry about the health risks of home-brew, and governments are called to ban the offending substances. Hey, this is serious. The problem is that home-brewed alcohol is so widespread that it would be virtually impossible to stamp it out. Phew, I was worried. A new global study has shown that it outsells commercially produced alcohol by as much as four times in some countries. And surprisingly, its quality is generally much better than expected. Marcus Grant from the International Centre for Alcohol Policies in Washington took part in the research. I wish I would have thought of founding that think tank. "There certainly are examples of very dangerous home brews out there. For instance, in Swaziland I sampled a brew that had fertilizer and human faeces added to it," he told the BBC’s World Business Report. I guess it was a dark beer. "But we found that these (brews) exist as the exception - either you have a bad batch, or you have unscrupulous producers. I wouldn’t want to in any way diminish the public health importance of that, but there is a perception that that’s what it’s all like, and it clearly isn’t." One company which has seen the commercial benefits of tapping into the market for home brews is SABMiller. Its operation in Uganda has produced a cross between sorghum beer, made from a locally-produced cereal, and conventional lager. It’s being marketed as Eagle Lager. Is beer with no fecal material considered Lite? Ian Mackintosh, technical director at Uganda’s Nile Breweries, explains how his product differs from the traditional brew. "The traditional African sorghum beer is generally opaque. It’s a fairly thick, chewy product, like a thin porridge," he says. "Our sorghum beer which we have developed - Eagle Lager - looks exactly like any standard lager from Europe or America. It’s golden in colour, completely crystal clear - profoundly different from the traditional sorghum brew." Economic difficulties in Uganda have caused a sharp drop in disposable income, and the idea behind Eagle Lager was the need to produce a low-cost beer. Eagle Lager currently sells at a 30% discount to mainstream lagers, largely because it is eligible for a reduced rate of excise tax. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #5 oh crap, thanks Ed |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-2-13 7:33:24 PM |
| #4 in Swaziland I sampled a brew that had fertilizer and human faeces added to it Instead of a head, it comes with a floater. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-2-13 5:00:39 PM |
| #3 LOL OP... Maybe not politics, but I've found that a country that makes a good beer is usually industrious, if they drink wine they can usually make pretty things, if they favor distilled products they're usually insane. In order the UK, Italy, Russia. Japan makes excellent beer.... OTOH so does Mexico... never mind. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-2-13 4:12:37 PM |
| #2 Ship - Germany has the best beer in the world, but TGA can give you chapter and verse about the problems there. Beer-making and politics do not proceed from the same mental mix, and the two together usually lead to trouble. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-2-13 3:52:46 PM |
| #1 How can it be a terrible place to live if the beer is good? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-2-13 1:49:18 PM |