Chilean beer
Encyclopedia
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
is mainly pale lager
Pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...
, though the country does have a tradition of brewing corn beer, known as chicha
Chicha
For the musical genre, see Peruvian cumbiaChicha is a term used in some regions of Latin America for several varieties of fermented and non-fermented beverages, rather often to those derived from maize and similar non-alcoholic beverages...
.
History
There is long tradition of brewing a drink called chichaChicha
For the musical genre, see Peruvian cumbiaChicha is a term used in some regions of Latin America for several varieties of fermented and non-fermented beverages, rather often to those derived from maize and similar non-alcoholic beverages...
that might be classified as corn beer by modern standards, but is not considered as such in South America. The South Americans view this as their own kind of brewerage. While chicha was originally brewed from corn after influence from the Andean cultures of north, during colonial times apple and grape chicha stated to be brewed across the country as a cheaper alternative to wine. There were at least four major alcoholic drinks during colonial times in Chile; wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
, pisco
Pisco
Pisco is a colorless or yellowish-to-amber colored grape brandy produced in winemaking regions of Chile and Peru. Pisco was developed by Spanish settlers in the 16th century as an alternative to orujo, a pomace brandy that was being imported from Spain...
-aguardiente
Aguardiente
Aguardiente , aiguardent , aguardente , and augardente are generic terms for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume...
, apple chicha and grape chicha.
Modern beer (Spanish, cerveza chilena) history in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
began in the 19th century when European beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
was first introduced in the years after Chile gained independence. With the arrival of Germans immigrants
German-Chilean
German Chileans are an important ethnic group in Chile; they are Chileans of German descent deriving their German ethnicity from one or both parents – they also include a minority of German citizens holding permanent residency in Chile...
around 1850, massive production began. By the end of the 19th century beer was consumed all over the country. Beer consumption and culture then spread across the country from cities such as Valdivia
Valdivia, Chile
Valdivia is a city and commune in southern Chile administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia and Cau-Cau Rivers, approximately east of the coastal towns of Corral and Niebla...
and Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
that hosted a lot of immigrants. In the year of 1907 20 million litres of beer were produced in Valdivia. As of 1997 Chile has a consumption of 28 liters per year per capita.
Economy
PiscoPisco
Pisco is a colorless or yellowish-to-amber colored grape brandy produced in winemaking regions of Chile and Peru. Pisco was developed by Spanish settlers in the 16th century as an alternative to orujo, a pomace brandy that was being imported from Spain...
and rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
are popular alcoholic drinks in Chile, however there has been a slow increase in the sales of pale ale from local microbreweries and imported pale lager
Pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...
. Cía Cervecerías Unidas SA, a local company, is the dominant beer company.
Compañía Cervecera Araucanía
- Cerveza Grassau
- Lager
- Pale Ale
- Weizen
- Bock
Kunstmann-owned
- KunstmannKunstmannKunstmann is a Chilean beer produced in Torobayo, Valdivia. The production begun when the German-Chilean family Kunstmann started to brew for personal use in the 1960s, after Valdivia's main brewery Anwandter was destroyed by the 1960 Valdivia earthquake...
- Bock
- Lager
- Torobayo Ale
- HonigAle (Ale honey flavored)
- Unfiltriert (Unfiltered lager)