First imbibed at least 7000 years ago, beer is one of humanity's most enduring and popular quaffs, coming in behind only water and tea in annual consumption.
The globe produces an estimated 190 million kiloliters of the hoppy, barley-based beverage each year. How much is that? Well, conveniently, a kiloliter (1000 liters) equates to a cube measuring 1 meter on each side. So that's 190 million cubic meters of beer. If that's still hard to picture, try this: 190 glasses of beer—each roughly the size of the Empire State Building.
So whether you like ales or lagers, whether you prefer something with a bite or something light, whether you prefer a traditional flavour profile or something that's infused with raspberry and hints of...pretty much anything you might imagine, the world's beer producers have something for you. Or more accurately, they have something different for you to try every night from now until the end of the world as we know it. (What beer pairs well with the apocalypse?)
Asia, by the way, consumes more beer than any other region. But what brands do most people in APAC choose to whet their whistle when they want to raise a glass (or seven)? That's what we're here to find out.
The following facts about Asia's favourite beers are derived from the 2021 edition of Campaign Asia-Pacific's exclusive Asia's Top 1000 Brands research, done in partnership with Nielsen IQ. The region's most comprehensive research on consumer brand perception, Asia's Top 1000 Brands asks consumers in 14 Asia-Pacific markets to name the brands they consider the best in 15 major product and service categories. From this, we compile the overall Asia's Top 1000 Brands ranking, a list of the top 100 brands in each market, and a variety of features and category-based reports like this one.
Now, without further ado, belly up to the bar and get served a tankard full of delicious beer facts.
ASIA's TOP 10 BEER BRANDS
| Brand | 2021 | 2020 | Change |
| Heineken | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Budweiser | 2 | 3 | +1 |
| Carlsberg | 3 | 2 | -1 |
| Asahi | 4 | 5 | +1 |
| Tiger Beer | 5 | 4 | -1 |
| Tsingtao* | 6 | 19 | +13 |
| Kirin | 7 | 8 | +1 |
| Guinness | 8 | 7 | -1 |
| San Miguel | 9 | 6 | -3 |
| Kingfisher* | 10 | 20 | +10 |
| * These two brands likely benefitted from a methodology change this year that gave more weight to the responses of consumers in China and India. For more, see here. | |||
HEADY KNOWLEDGE
Still thirsty for intelligence about the beer market? Sip on these additional facts from our survey.
Specific APAC markets where Heineken is No. 1:
- Australia
- Indonesia
- New Zealand
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Vietnam
Other market-specific No. 1s:
- Carlsberg (Hong Kong, Malaysia)
- Cass (Korea)
- Kingfisher (India)
- Kirin (Japan)
- San Miguel (Philippines)
- Taiwan Beer (Taiwan)
- Tsingtao (China)
Markets where Budweiser is No. 1:
- None (highest market-specific ranking is second place, in China and India)
Singular appeal: Brands that crack the top 10 in only one market:
- Anker (No. 4 in Indonesia)
- Beck's (No. 6 in Vietnam)
- Bira (No. 5 in India)
- Cass (No. 1 in Korea)
- DB (No. 9 in New Zealand)
- Harbin (No. 4 in China
- Hite (No. 3 in Korea)
- Kingfisher (No. 1 in India)
- Leo (No. 3 in Thailand)
- Mac's Beer (No. 5 in New Zealand)
- Singha (No. 2 in Thailand)
- Snow Beer (No. 3 in China)
- Taiwan Beer (No. 1 in Taiwan)
- Tsingtao (No. 1 in China)
- Tui (No. 2 in New Zealand)
- Yanjing (No. 7 in China)
Brands 11-20 across the region (alphabetical order):
- Blue Moon
- Bud Light
- Harbin
- Hoegaarden
- Red Horse
- Sapporo
- Singha
- Snow Beer
- Suntory
- Taiwan Beer
Cheers!
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This article is filed under... Top 10: Asia-Pacific's favourite brands in specific product and service categories |
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