World beer festival kicks off in Rio, craft beers take center stage

World Today

World beer festival kicks off in Rio, craft beers take center stage

One of the world’s largest beer festivals is underway in Rio de Janeiro this week. It’s called “Le Mondial de la Biere”–the World Beer Festival. It’s a Canadian idea to promote craft brewing worldwide.

CCTV’s Lucrecia Franco has more.

If there is anything to toast in Brazil these days, it’s the craft beer business. It’s small: less than one percent of the third largest beer market in the world. But it’s growing and fast.

A good reason to host the fourth edition of “Le Mondial de la Biere”: the 20-year-old successful artisan beer festival. It was conceived in Montreux, Canada-aiming to promote what has become multibillion-dollar business worldwide.

The average cost of a Brazilian craft beer is around $4 U.S. dollars for a 250 millilitres glass-around twice the price of regular brews. Despite the recession, it’s a price Brazilians are willing to pay.

So many Brazilians are now raising glasses of craft beer-premium varieties of this tropical nation’s favorite drink.