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| Models pose with Oriental Brewery (OB)'s Alestone at a promotional event in Jongno-gu, Seoul, in April. / Courtesy of OB |
By Park Ji-won
The ale market is growing amid diversifying consumer tastes here.
While still less popular with Korean customers than traditional beer, ale is becoming popular thanks to imported and locally brewed brands.
The beer is brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. It has distinctive characteristics. It ferments quickly and tastes fruity, bitter and heavier than lagers. It also has higher alcohol content.
Oriental Brewery (OB), the nation's leading beer maker, is leading the domestic ale market.
It sold 79,000 "Alestone" boxes, or 1.58 million 500-milliliter bottles, since it was first released in April.
"Demand is far stronger than we've expected. We believe ale can make a huge trend change in the beer market," said an OB official.
The company already reached its ale sales goal for this year.
Market insiders attribute ale's popularity to diversified consumer tastes that have become more attuned to seeking out European beers.
The size of the ale market doubled in 2013, with 19.6 million boxes compared to 2010 when 987,500 boxes were sold.
That accounted for about 1 percent of the local beer market last year.
Following the rising popularity of OB's ale, it expanded distribution channels.
Alestone took the product concept and recipes from the United Kingdom. However, when it comes to the taste, it adjusted the beer ingredients in a way Koreans prefer.
OB makes two types of ale beers ― brown and black ale. Brown ale is made from noble hops and pale malt. Three times the quantity of noble hops is used than in other beers and a slow boiling method is used to enhance its aromatic taste and wine color. Noble hops have a strong aroma.
Black ale is made with British black malt and pellet hops so that customers can enjoy the beer's foamy texture and bitter taste. High temperatures are used during the production process, a traditional brewing method that originates in the United Kingdom.
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