The annual consumption ofbeer in Argentina is about 33 litres per person.[1]
There had been German immigrants in Argentina, since before 1871, but a change of immigration policies along the Volga and the imposition of military service caused amass exodus of ethnic Germans to Catholic Argentina. In the 1881 census they were the fourth largest ethnic group in the country. There was money to be made from land purchase and parcelling, and the families were expecting home comforts. All the early breweries had owners with ethnic German names.[2]
The predominant brewery in Argentina isAB InBev with a 65% of the market, with brands such asQuilmes,Brahma,Budweiser,Corona andStella Artois. The second largest brewery isCompañía de las Cervecerías Unidas with a 33% share, which producesHeineken,Schneider, Imperial and Isenbeck. The best selling brands are Brahma, Quilmes, Schneider and Imperial.[3]
This was the first beer to be brewed in Argentina.Emilio Bieckert (1837-1913) was ofAlsatian origin, the border region betweenGermany andFrance, both countries with a strong beer tradition.Photographic evidence shows he was sellingBock beer, a strong beer developed by the monasteries inBavaria, andPilsner a lighter beer ofCzech origin. Pilsner needs low temperatures to ferment correctly. A few years earlier Bieckert had opened the firstice manufacturing plant in the country.
Compañía de las Cervecerías Unidas bought the brewery in 2008.
Quilmes is an Argentine brewery founded in 1888 in Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province, by Otto Bemberg, a German immigrant in the early 1880s. By the 1920s it was the iconic Argentinian beer. Quilmes was the largest beer maker in Argentina in 1993.[4]
In 2002, Brazilian companyAmbev bought 37.5% of Quilmes. Later, Ambev became part ofInBev and eventuallyAnheuser-Busch InBev.[5]
There has been a considerable boom in microbrewing in Argentina since the start of the 21st century. As of 2019, there were 4,000 microbreweries in Argentina.[6] Some of the most notable Argentine craft breweries have their roots in the wave of German and Swiss immigration to the southern provinces ofRío Negro andNeuquén in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The city ofBariloche is a particular hotspot for craft brewing.
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