#RTW Wednesday Challenge ~ Beer and there: Drinking around the world.

You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Frank Zappa. 

If the world were to have some kind of global drink, a beverage that says something about us as Earthlings to the other worlds of the universe, it would be beer. Returning from Belgium after a weekend of sampling their particularly fine passion for a cold one, I got to thinking of the internationality of beer. Let’s face it. It’s drunk by all bar a very few countries in the world. Every country seems to have their own varieties (as well as a healthy appetite for the global beer brands). Not only that, but beer seems to facilitate the encounters that travellers have with local people in the destinations that they visit. The local pub or bar is a focal point for a community and stepping inside the ‘local’ can expose the true personalities, ideas and way of life of the local people – or at least that’s what travel writers argue!

Planning a RTW trip based on beer is probably the easiest theme to work with. Pretty much every country is open to a visit. Wherever you go you’re going to find a bar, a local brew and barman who is willing to talk about his culture with you. So in constructing this RTW trip, I have little in the way of a challenge and more trouble with choice. Where are the best places in the world to clink a glass or drown your sorrows? Here are my ideas based partly on experience and a little research along with reputation. Feel free to comment your suggestions below!

Start: London, UK . ‘One beer, please’. 

“For a quart of ale is a dish for a king”. England’s most celebrated wordsmith wrote these words in ‘A Winter’s Tale’ and countless other great British writers have written about the country’s border-line obsession with beer. Brewing was popular in Britain before the Romans invaded and has remained so until the present day. Although you may only see the major global beer brands in many pubs, regional varieties and beers from microbreweries are popular and can be found if you look far enough.

Stop 1. Prague, Czech Republic. British Airways. ‘Ještě jedno pivo, prosím’.

‘The home of beer’ as my Bruges brewery tour guide informed me and having visited Prague last year I’m inclined to believe him. The Czechs drink more beer per capita than anybody else in the world and it is generally cheaper than water in the shops. Pilsener and Budvar are the main types here and the country has a long history of growing hops which are still transported across the world today.

Stop 2. Munich, Germany. ‘Noch ein Bier, bitte’.

Home to the world’s biggest beer festival, Oktoberfest, Munich is also one of Europe’s capitals of beer. Only beers that are brewed with the city of Munich are allowed to be sold. Paulaner is Munich’s best selling beer but Beck’s is probably the best known in Britain. Almost half of the beers in Germany are brewed in Bavaria.

Stop 3. Johannesburg, South Africa. Emirates. ‘Nog ‘n bier, asseblief’. (Afrikaans)

You may think that South African’s long beer heritage started with the European colonisation but actually beer has been brewed by the Sotho, Zulu and Xhosa groups for many centuries before the Europeans arrived. Outside of South Africa, beer is a popular beverage, especially with people in Swaziland who were found in a World Health Organisation report to have the world’s fourth highest beer consumption rate per capita. However in a later report they seemed to have given up their love for beer and have dropped out of the rankings entirely. Still hungover maybe?!

Stop 4. Mumbai, India. South African Airways. ‘Ek aur biyara chahiye’. (Hindi)

Indian beer may tend to just mean Cobra in Britain but actually there is a fast growing alcoholic beverage industry in India and a quality one at that. Australian Max beer which is produced in India has won a ‘Best in the World’ award at the Oscars of the beer world (yes, these exist!) recently.

Stop 5. Bangkok, Thailand. IndiGo. ‘Kho beer eek kaew krab’. 

Think Thai beer and you think Singha. Chang has also gained popularity and both have become popular in the UK as well as on the beaches of Koh Phangan. With the average pint at £1.26 around the country, it’s no wonder that Thailand has become a favourite drinking destination for thirsty British travellers.

Stop 6. Bali, Indonesia. AirAsia. ‘Tolong, satu/dua bir’.

Bali is another SE Asia destination that has become synonymous with boozy backpackers and its most popular beer brand Bintang. The beer’s similarity to Heineken is no coincidence as they both come under the same company, Asia Pacific Breweries.

Stop 7. Melbourne, Australia. Virgin Australia. ‘G’day mate, one tinny please’. 

Beer takes up around half of the country’s $16.8 billion alcoholic drinks market and was brought to Australia in the 18th century by none other than Captain James Cook who used it to preserve water. It wasn’t popular though, rum was the main tipple, and so to curb drunkeness, beer was offered as an alternative to liquors. Nowadays, Australians like beer just a bit more than their ancestors and their most popular brands include XXXX and VB. 95% of the beer drunk in Australia is lager. And no, nobody drinks Fosters in Australia…

Stop 8. Los Angeles, USA. Qantas. 

The reputation of beer in America is pretty poor but actually they can brew some decent stuff, helped by the influx of new microbreweries. Prohibition in the early 20th century meant that all breweries closed. During the second world war, beer consumption in the country increased by 40% and in the 1970s President Nixon legalised home brewing. America is hardly renowned for its beer or its consumption as many of its most popular beers are low in alcohol and gassy.

Stop 9. Mexico City, Mexico, United. ‘Una cerveza por favor’.

Just two corporations own 90% of Mexico’s beers but their products are exported widely across 150 countries, especially to the USA. The Mexican beer that we all know is of course Corona which is made by Grupo Modelo. It is the fifth most popular beer in the world and is sold in 150 different countries. Sol is a similar beer and is also well known in the UK and abroad.

Stop 11. Rio de Janiero, Brazil. TAM. ‘Mais uma cerveja, por favor’. 

The world’s fourth largest beer market is dominated by Pilsener which accounts for 98% of this huge market. Beer was brought over by the German immigrants in the 1800s and Bohemia is Brazil’s oldest beer which is still under production. Over 400 million litres of beer is drunk during the four days of Carnival in Rio.

Stop 12. London, UK. 

And back home! Not sure you’d be taking up the offer of a beer on the flight home after exploring some of the world’s best beers during your RTW trip. If you haven’t had enough though, London has over 7000 pubs. Just saying…