The Taedonggang Brewing Company (Taedonggang,

Chosongul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 대동강 맥주) is a state-owned

North Korean beer North Korea has at least ten major breweries and many microbreweries that supply a wide range of beer products. The top brand is the light lager Taedonggang by the state-owned Taedonggang Brewing Company. The country's problems with goods dist ...

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

company that brews the

Taedonggang beer Taedonggang is a brand of North Korean beer brewed by the state-owned Taedonggang Brewing Company based in Pyongyang. There are four brands of beer marketed as Taedonggang, though the brand known simply as "Taedonggang Beer" is that described b ...

. The brewery is located in East

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

and has facilities of tens of thousands of square meters.

History

In 2000, the North Korean Government decided to acquire a brewery. At that point having good relationships with the West, via connections to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

the Government of North Korea bought the intact and still in place brewery plant of the closed

Ushers of Trowbridge Ushers of Trowbridge was a brewery in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, between 1824 and 2000. History In 1824, Thomas Usher and his wife Hannah acquired a small brewery in Back Street, Trowbridge, renaming it Usher's Wiltshire Brewery. In 184 ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England for £1.5M via broker Uwe Oehms. Concerned it could be used for

chemical weapons A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized Ammunition, munition that uses chemicals chemical engineering, formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be an ...

production, after assurances, Peter Ward, of brewing company Thomas Hardy Brewing and Packaging bought the plant, and arranged for a team from North Korea to travel to

Trowbridge Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England, on the River Biss in the west of the county. It is near the border with Somerset and lies southeast of Bath, 31 miles (49 km) southwest of Swindon and 20 miles (32 km) southe ...

to dismantle it. Groundbreaking of the Taedonggang Beer Factory took place on 15 January 2000. The brewery is located in the

Sadong District Sadong-guyŏk, or Sadong District, is one of the 18 guyŏk, and one of the six, that constitute East Pyongyang, North Korea. It is on the eastern bank of the Taedong River, and the mouth of the Nam River. It is north of Ryŏkp'o-guyŏk (Ryokpho ...

of Pyongyang. Taedonggang beer is named after the

Taedong River The Taedong River (Chosŏn'gŭl: ) is a large river in North Korea. The river rises in the Rangrim Mountains of the country's north where it then flows southwest into Korea Bay at Namp'o.Suh, Dae-Sook (1987) "North Korea in 1986: Strengthening ...

, which runs through the center of

. On July 3, 2009, a commercial for the product was broadcast on state-run

Korean Central Television Korean Central Television (KCTV; ) is a television service operated by the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee, a state-owned broadcaster in North Korea. It is broadcast terrestrially via the Pyongyang TV Tower in Moranbong-guyok, Pyongy ...

in a rare move, as there are very few advertisements on North Korean television. It has been broadcast three times in all. Taedonggang DPKR Beer 640ml 5

Products

The Taedonggang Brewing Company is mostly known outside the DPRK as the producer of the beer known as

, which is the flagship beer of the companies. However the brewery also produces a brand of draught, a brand of

black beer , black beer, is a dark lager that originated in Germany. It has an opaque, black colour with hints of chocolate or coffee flavours, and is generally around 5% ABV. It is similar to stout in that it is made from roasted malt, which gives it its d ...

and a rice beer.

References

Works cited

*{{cite book, title=North Korea Handbook, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JIlh9nNeadMC&pg=PA264, year=2002, author=Yonhap, isbn=978-0-7656-3523-5

External links

Ratebeer: Taedonggang Brewery

Television advertisement for Taedonggang beer
archived a
Ghostarchive.org
on 29 April, 2022 Beer in North Korea Food and drink companies of North Korea

History

Products

See also

References

Works cited

External links