[Weekender] Beer diversity accelerates evolution of drinkers’ flavor

Big brewers’ brands such as Miller, Michelob, Bud Ice and Corona gained great popularity among South Korean “X-generation” twenty-somethings in the early and mid-1990s.

The import beers in a 330 (or 355)-milliliter bottle -- served at bars and Korea’s typical, alcohol sales-permitted cafes -- even attracted a large portion of female college students. The products were actively penetrating a niche in the domestic brewery-dominated market through cafes or convenience stores.

But the import beer boom was blown out in the aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis. A large number of the retailers, which had sold the import beers around universities and X-generation crowded districts, had to shutter their lucrative businesses.

Though pubs selling German and Czech draft beers based on top-fermented brewery method or bottled import beer-oriented bars drew wide interest in the mid-2000s, their popularity was not believed to have exceeded the nationwide boom in the 1990s.

A main barrier for brisk sales was the high consumer price. Drinkers had to pay approximately 8,000 won to 10,000 won ($7.30-$9.20) or more per 330 cc bottle or draft of import beer.

It was large discount chains that revived import beer’s popularity. Three major players -- Homeplus, E-Mart and Lotte Mart -- have been in a heated competition to sell products from a variety of countries and brewers directly to households, not via retailers.

Judging by sales numbers, local consumers’ taste have evolved over the past three or four years as more beers have flowed into the Korean market.

Among the highly marketable products are Spain’s 1906, Italy’s Birra Moretti, Germany’s Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, the U.S.’ Samuel Adams, the U.K.’s Newcastle Brown Ale, Brazil’s Xingu and Estonia’s Viru.

“The situation is different from the past when Koreans were only familiar with the mass-produced brands (including Heineken, Budweiser, Guinness and Hoegaarden),” said an official in the consumer discount chain industry.

He said more consumers are becoming big fans of beers produced by small and mid-sized, regional breweries, adding that consumers are acquiring more diverse tastes.

The diversity is about to be linked to sales growth of bottled craft beer of microbrewers worldwide at Korea’s discount chains across major cities. The craft brand included Hawaii’s Kona Longboard Island Lager, Denmark’s Mikkeller and Japan’s Hitachino Nest.

Price tags of ordinary import beers range between 2,000 won and 4,000 won per 330 (some products are 300 or 355) ml bottle, while craft beers are priced at least 50 percent higher at discount chains.

Data from a discount chain showed that the ratio of import brands to its total beer sales reached 30 percent last year. The figure climbed more than 15 percentage points, compared with 13.3 percent in 2010.

By nationality, German brands topped the list among import beers with 30.9 percent, followed by Japan with 22 percent and the Netherlands with 11.5 percent in 2014.

Meanwhile, an industry source said it seemed that a growing number of consumers are attracted to the tastes of beers from Southern Europe, including Italy and Spain. The two are producers of widely known Peroni and Estrella Damm, respectively.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)