Harbin Brewery
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Harbin Brewery is a Chinese brewery founded in 1900 by a Russian, Ulubulevskij, in Harbin, China.
Harbin has increased its annual beer production capacity to over 1 million tons and has become a giant in China's beer industry after its successful reform and listing on the Hong Kong stock market. The brewery is owned by Anheuser-Busch, which has helped to export Harbin beer to European and North American markets, but in comparison to Tsingtao Beer or Zhujiang Beer the market share of Harbin beer in these export markets is minor. In the North American market, Harbin beer was first sold in ethnic Chinese supermarkets (which still are its primary point of sales today), and gradually begun to expand to other Asian supermarkets, such as ethnic Korean supermarkets like Market World and Freshia.
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[edit] Brief details
Harbin is China's fourth largest brewery. Harbin is one of the oldest brewers in China, has a leading position in Northeast China and produces the Hapi beer brand.
The history of Harbin dates back to 1900, when Ulubulevskij, a Russian national, founded a brewery in Northeast China (called Manchuria then), which he named after himself - 'Ulubulevskij Brewery.' The initial objective of the Brewery, considered the first in China, was to supply beer to Russians working on the Trans-Manchurian Railway Project5 started in 1898. In 1908, the company was renamed Gulunia. In 1932, the brewery got one more new name - 'Harbin Brewery Factory', when it went into joint control of Chinese and Czech nationals. Later, with the Soviet Red army capturing Manchuria in 1946, the company was controlled by Soviet nationals, who called it Quilin Stock Company Limited. This situation prevailed until 1950. In 1950, when Stalin, ordered the return of Chinese assets, the ownership of the company was returned to the Chinese government. The Chinese renamed it Harbin Brewery and operated it as a state-owned entity. Driven by the famine the company became the first to brew beer with corn instead of rice, in China in 1959. Through the 1960s, the company focused on investing resources to improve its brewing technology, as part of which, in 1973, it installed its first sterilization machine in Heilongjiang Province. In June 2003, SABMiller acquired a 29.6% equity stake in Harbin. In 2004 it was taken over by Anheuser-Busch after a bitterly fought takeover bid battle with SABMiller.
[edit] Harbin Beer
Harbin Beer (Chinese: 哈尔滨啤酒 [traditional 哈爾濱啤酒], pinyin: Hā'ěrbīn Píjiǔ) is a "bland", "thin" 4.8% abv pale lager.[1] Brewed since 1900, it uses European and Chinese “Qindao Dahua” hops, two-row malt, and German yeast.[2][3]
[edit] Beers
Hapi and Golden Hapi. Harbin Heart and Harbin Premium Lager. One of Harbin's beers is a wheat beer.
