With the Football World Cup fast approaching and the UK preparing (hoping) for a sizzling Samba summer, speciality beer importer World Beers Ltd is looking to take advantage with the launch of two unique beers from Brazil’s most successful craft brewery – Cervejaria Amazonia.
Founded in 2000 in Belem on the mouth of the Amazon River, the brewery has built a reputation for producing unique, high quality beers; many of which are made with exotic fruits hand-picked from the banks of the famous river and surrounding rainforest.
Voted Best Craft Brewery in Brazil 2013, the initial Amazon range available in the UK includes the Forest Pilsen and the Forest Bacuri, which both have abv’s of 4.1% and are colourfully presented in 33cl bottles.
The Forest Pilsen is brewed adhering to German brewing principles and utilises Mount Hood and Tettnanger hops to offer a distinctively smooth, full-bodied beer with a typical Germanic hopped-finish.
The Forest Bacuri is a fruit beer, brewed with Bacuri – a wild citrus fruit unique to the Amazon Rainforest. The beer was a gold medallist in the Brazil Beer Championships in 2013 and offers a vibrant, slightly herbal aroma on the nose with a flavour profile filled with refreshing lemon and lime notes.
The launch has been nearly two years in the making after award-winning English brewer Peter Scholey and the Amazon brewing team first spoke about a collaboration. Following much discussion, testing and an incident involving some exotic fruit at customs, the scheme finally started to move forward. To ensure consistent quality, availability and a longer shelf life it was decided that the beers would be craft brewed under Peter’s watchful eye in the UK, using the same authentic Brazilian ingredients and fruits where applicable.
To drive brand awareness at launch, Amazon is the official beer at the eleven events which make up the Brazil Pop Up Diner held at the Bedford and Strand, in London’s Covent Garden on Sundays until July. The events showcase the cuisine of a different Brazilian region each week in the lead up to the Football World Cup.
Explaining why World Beers have moved for the brand, the company’s Peter Karsten comments:
“The Amazon craft beers are premium quality, perfect for summer, beautifully packaged and tap into a real consumer trend for unique and creative brews. With the World Cup adding additional Latin flare to the summer followed by the Olympics in 2016, we are very excited about the brand’s prospects and feel it will see strong interest in the ON trade.”
Peter Scholey said:
“Brazil has a beer history dating back 200 years and a booming Craft Beer sector so it is great to be involved in a project like this. I have respected Amazon’s beers for a long time and it has been an amazing journey getting to this point so I am excited to see what the UK’s adventurous beer drinkers think.”
Arlindo Guimaraes from the Amazon Brewery said;
“With the success of our brand in our homeland we have been asked regularly about exporting, but due to our size, location and the distinctive ingredients we use, maintaining quality, shelf life and supply is problematic. To this end, we are delighted to be working with World Beers and Peter Scholey who have done an fantastic job to ensure the true taste of Amazon and we look forward to growing the brand in the UK market over the next few years.”
For more information on Amazon or for details about how to stock it, please contact World Beers on 01279 600044 or email sales@world-beers.co.uk
Sam Houston