Overview of Top 10 International Beers

If you are a true beer buff, you think you have tasted all or most of the cream — or the foam — of the crop. Check out these top international beer brands – some are popular in the US and some are less well known. At least you will get to know varieties of beers from all over the world. Here is a list of the top 10 brands – enjoy!

Snow Beer

This Chinese lager beer has been consistent on many “elite” beer brands lists in recent years. This beverage is brewed by UK-based SABMiller and its Chinese partner CR Snow (China Resources Breweries, Ltd.), which is also the country’s largest brewing company. According to The Drinks Business (http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com) the Snow Beer is “the world’s top-selling beer is a pale, Budweiser-like brew that barely anyone in the West has ever heard of, let alone tatsted”. So it might be worth your try. As of 2011, SABMiller stated that CR Snow sales volume stretched to 100 million hectoliters (despite most of them are being marketed and sold in China only)

Bud Light

Bud Light

The best-selling beer brand in the US, Bud Light is Budweiser’s bellwether light beer. It was introduced as Budweiser Light in 1982. It has made major investments through sponsorship deals with National Hockey League and Major League Baseball. 45.4 million barrels of Bud Light were brewed as of 2011.

Budweiser

Budweiser

This is one of the brewery Anheuser-Busch InBev.’s major global brands, Budweiser seems to get a great cosmopolitan appeal and popularity, especially in China. First brewed in 1876, this pale lager had been the #1 brand in the US for much of 19th-20th century. Despite struggling in recent years in terms of its domestic market, Budweiser still performs in the beer game relatively well, rolling out 38.7 million barrels as of 2011 (up by about a million barrels in 2010).

Corona Extra

Brewed by Cervecera Modelo aka Grupo Modelo in Mexico, it’s one of the most popular and top-selling beers on a global scale. It is usually drunk with a wedge of lime stuck into the mouth of the bottle for that bitter-sour extra oomph. The beer has antioxidants (which some consider to be good for health) and levels of gluten. Anheuser-Busch InBev (the one that owns Budweiser) bought the half of the Grupo Modelo company, thus keeping other beer brands at bay in the global competition.

Skol

Skol is hugely popular in Africa and South America, especially in Brazil that it has come to be a Brazilian beer brand, although its roots lay elsewhere. Skol was created by breweries in the UK, Canada, Sweden and Belgium. Denmark-based Carlsberg owns the distributing license to Skol outside South America and Africa, while Belgium’s Unibra carries the license to Skol in Africa. Major brewery Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is also Skol’s manufacturer.

Heineken

Heineken

Heineken is such a popular beer brand in the US, so popular you one may believe that it’s made in America. But in truth, Heineken is a Dutch product (Heineken Pilsener), and first brewed in 1873 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The famously green-bottled Heineken has sold 24.8 million barrels (or 2.74 billion liters) as of 2011.

Coors Light

First manufactured by Coors Brewing Company in 1978, Coors Light is, of course, a light beer possessing an alcohol by volume of 4.2%. The beer is unique because it has a “Cold Certified” label on its cans and bottles which, as we all know from the commercials, turns blue when they’re placed on a bucket of ice, or chilled to about 4 degrees Celsius (or lower). Coors Light has surpassed Budweiser to emerge as the second-biggest brand in the States, and recently also taken the UK by storm.

Miller Lite

It’s Miller time! The fourth largest beer brand in the US, Miller Lite has long connections with motorsport racing, thanks to its sponsorship on NASCAR events since 1990. Recently, Miller introduced an altogether different marketing strategy wherein anyone who’s named Miller (first, middle, or last name) will be awarded a gift card worth a case of Miller Lite – an interesting strategy. The pale lager is manufactured by Miller Brewing Company, and has an alcohol content of 4.2%. Miller Lite has won many awards and citations for its quality.

Brahma

Brahma may well be part of a Brazilian culture – an icon. Originally created by Compnhia Cervejaria Brahma, Brahma is now acquired by leading global brewery AB InBev as well. Today, Brahma is the world’s fifth largest beer producer, thanks in part (perhaps) to its robust marketing campaign that focuses on the festive Brazilian culture.

Asahi Super Dry

Asahi Super Dry is the main brand of Asahi Breweries, Ltd., in Tokyo, Japan, and remains the company’s best seller. The lager was created to complement food and not just for the sake of sheer drinking. Of all the Japanese beer brands, it seems that only Asahi has started to gain a foothold in the international market, most especially in the UK where it’s really popular.

The fun of beer is the so many varieties and types. When you venture beyond the popular major US brands and popular micro-brews – the international beer scene provides for many new opportunities for the beer lover.