San Miguel Beer

For the basketball teams, see San Miguel Beermen and San Miguel Beermen (ABL).
San Miguel Beer
Type Pale lager
Manufacturer San Miguel Corporation (1890-July 25, 2007)
San Miguel Brewery (July 26, 2007-present)
Country of origin Philippines
Introduced 1890
Alcohol by volume 5%
Variants San Miguel Premium All-Malt Beer, San Miguel Super Dry, San Miguel Flavored Beer, Cerveza Negra (San Miguel Dark Beer)
Website San Miguel Pale Pilsen

San Miguel Beer refers to San Miguel Pale Pilsen, a Filipino pale lager produced by San Miguel Brewery (a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation). Established in 1890 by the original San Miguel Brewery (renamed San Miguel Corporation in 1964), it is the largest selling beer in the Philippines and Hong Kong. It is known in Chinese as 生力啤酒. It was introduced in Spain by San Miguel in 1946. In 1953, its Spanish rights were spun-off by the San Miguel group, and it became an independent entity.

Relation with San Miguel Beer (Spain)

As part of its overseas expansion, San Miguel began its foray into the Spanish market in 1953, setting up the company which would later become San Miguel Spain. Since 1946, there has been a company engaged in the production of malt for medicinal purposes known as La Segarra. In the early 1950s, its key shareholders Enrique Suárez Rezona, Ramón Vidal and Jaime Muñiz made contact with Andres Soriano, then president of San Miguel Brewery, to allow them to produce beer under the San Miguel name in Spain. In 1953, San Miguel Brewery, Inc. signed the “Manila Agreement”, with the Philippine brewer setting up a new Spanish brewery, La Segarra, S.A.. The company would later be renamed San Miguel Fabricas de Cerveza y Malta, S.A. in 1957, an affiliate of San Miguel Brewery, Inc. which initially held 20% equity share via its Hong Kong subsidiary.

The company was acquired by Mahou, S.A. from Groupe Danone in 2000, combining to form Spain’s largest brewer, the Mahou-San Miguel Group.[14] On 26 February 2014, San Miguel Brewing International and Mahou-San Miguel signed a co-operation agreement to promote jointly San Miguel Beer and expand its global footprint.

History of the Spanish leader in beer

The history of San Miguel traces back to 1890, when a group of Spaniards decided to open the first brewery in Southeast Asia, specifically in Manila. The factory produced diverse types of beers and derivative products under the name “San Miguel”. In the colonial capital no one knew beer until then. For this reason the inauguration of the brewery was a historic event and became known as “The day of San Miguel”.

Success in Spain

The aspirations of the brewer were high, on top of gaining a name for the brand beyond its borders, San Miguel wanted to settle into the Spanish market. In February 1946 the corporation La Segarra S.A. was formed in Lerida with the purpose of making beer, although the bureaucratic process caused production to be delayed until 1953. So, in 1954 the Group returned to Spain in a vessel stocked with Asian yeasts that made a 45-day journey across the ocean. In 1957 the Manila Agreement was signed with the president of the San Miguel Corporation, Andres Soriano, and San Miguel, Beers and Malts Factory S.A. was born, independent from the Manila company. From that moment on, the two companies have followed different paths.

Expansion to Africa

In 1965 San Miguel arrived to Africa, and by 1967 it spread to other capitals in Europe like London, Paris and Berlin. In 1970 it bought the Spanish- Dutch beer brand GULDER and its factory in Burgos. The three factories had a capacity of 600,000 hl, achieving a share of 7% of the national market. Thanks to the progressive opening in Spain and the work of the exports department, the 70s were a time of growth in exports of the beer both in Western and Eastern Europe and Northern Africa, reaching an annual figure of 125,000 hl.

Mahou-San Miguel Group

The formation of the Mahou-San Miguel Group traces its origin to Danone stocks. In 1994 the French multinational acquired 18% of San Miguel, Beers and Malts Factory. In 1997 Danone grew its share to 82% and also owned a large part of Mahou. In the following years, Danone lost interest in the company and therefore the beer maker took advantage of the synergy with Mahou, merging the two and becoming Mahou-San Miguel. Later on it also absorbed the beer maker Alhambra of Granada.

Since the creation of the Mahou-San Miguel Group, at the hands of the Herraiz and Gervas families, the reputation of the beers has grown, solidifying its position as the foremost beer brands in Spain as well as internationally. The group owns seven production facilities in Spain, one in India, two springs and a portfolio of 43 brands and 57 product varieties.

Varieties

The use of French barley and hops during the production process in the Lleida factory in 1957 generated the first specialty beer in Spain: San Miguel Especial. Since that date it has gone down in history for its characteristic brilliant yellow color and its refreshing and light bitter taste. In 1958, a year after creating the beer, San Miguel received three awards for excellence at worldwide competitions. It is the Spanish beer brand with the largest exports and it yields international success for its great taste.

In 1993 San Miguel 1516 hit the market, a special Spanish beer that is produced following strict German purity standards that were decreed in 1516 by William IV of Bavaria; this means using only water, malt, barley and hops. It was chosen as the best European pilsner lager in the World Beer Awards of 2011.

In 2001, the brewery released the first non-alcoholic Spanish beer: San Miguel 0.0%. To this date all Spanish beers that formed part of this category had some alcohol content, therefore it was the first to be able to achieve this while conserving the aroman and quality the brand is known for. In 2003, committed to the environment and the development of sustainability, the brewery created its first ecological beer: San Miguel Eco, produced only with ecologically grown malts and hops. In the range of San Miguel beers, San Miguel Selecta XV is known for being selected as ‘Taste of the Year’ in the 2010 and 2011 editions. It’s characterized mainly for its aging in cellars during the production and the resulting intense taste from the combination of hop varieties from Central Europe and three different types of malts.

Branded as "San Miguel"
Branded as "San Mig"

The escudo

The San Miguel Beer escudo logo.

The San Miguel escudo (seal) used as the brand logo of all San Miguel branded beer products is based on the original Spanish-era coat of arms of Manila. It is also the corporate logo of San Miguel Corporation and the San Miguel Brewery companies.

The Mahou-San Miguel Group does not use this logo for its San Miguel branded beer products. Instead, it uses an image of a galleon as its brand logo.

San Miguel Beermen

Main article: San Miguel Beermen

The San Miguel Beermen are a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The franchise is owned by the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) since 1975. It is one of three PBA ball clubs owned by the SMC group of companies along with the Star Hotshots and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. It is the only remaining original franchise in the PBA and leads the league with the most number of PBA titles - 21 to date. It is also the only team ever to have won at least one title in each of the five numerical decades of the PBA's existence so far.

See also

References

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.