Beer is still planned to be off the serious drinkers' agenda by 2010...

I am grateful to Stephen D'Arcy of CAMRA Brussels for passing on this gem from the Economist of 11th July 2003. Judge for yourselves what this tale has to tell us of our futures:

UGANDAN AFFAIRS
"IN UGANDA, a cold lager after work is an expensive luxury. Until recently, the main alternative was a cloudy, foul-smelling and sour brew made by local families. But now an innovative new local lager is challenging these rivals - leading some to wonder if it will change the way that beer is made everywhere.

"Since last December, Uganda's Nile Breweries, which is owned by SAB Miller, the world's second-largest brewer, has been selling a new kind of clear lager called Eagle. This has been "wildly successful", says Mitch Ramsey of SAB Miller. It has already become Uganda's second-favourite beer, with a 30% market share, despite not being available in Kampala, the capital, because the brewery cannot produce enough of it yet.

"Its appeal, explains Mr Ramsey, is that it is an aspirational product, which both looks and tastes like a rich man's beer, yet is closer in price to the traditional local brews.

"There are two main reasons for its affordable high quality. It is made of locally grown grain called sorghum, instead of imported barley. Barley does not grow well in much of Africa and is now particularly expensive due to a weak Ugandan shilling and high excise duties.

"But the real breakthrough is a pioneering method of brewing that avoids the long and costly malting process.

"Malting ... is the traditional way of turning the starches found in grains such as barley into the sugars that are then converted into alcohol. But, in a practice that many beer drinkers may see as treason, Nile Breweries converts the starches in sorghum by adding cheap industrial enzymes to the mash.

"Enzymes ... are already used to convert, say, corn starch into corn syrup. Using enzymes to convert starch to sugar in Eagle beer gives the brewery a cost saving of 10%. With cheaper local ingredients, Eagle can sell for two-thirds the price of other local lagers, around 1,200 Ugandan shillings (roughly 60 US / Euro cents or 40 pence).

"Even brewers in rich countries may one day be tempted to abandon malting for a 10% saving on manufacturing.

"But how does it taste? The Economist assembled some highly trained in-house lager experts ... in a blind tasting against Stella Artois, a premium lager brewed in Britain. Most tasters correctly identified the "Eurolager". Eagle was judged to be "intriguing", "distinctive", "alien" and more "bitter". Several drinkers remarked that there was an unpleasant chemical bouquet. But their trained euro-palates may not be good judges. The extra bitterness is deliberate-it is something market research found a taste for in Uganda.

"Certainly, Ugandans have no trouble getting it down..