Israel’s national beer brewery monopoly yesterday started production of its locally-brewed Budweiser beer which, according to Samuel Dror, the brewery’s general manager, is identical to the 108-year-old American original.
Dror said that the new brand was being produced under license from Anheuser-Busch, of St. Louis, which produces Budweiser in the U.S. and which is providing the Israeli brewery with some of the raw materials and some of the secret ingredients they use. Anheuser-Busch experts visited the brewery in Netanya 15 times and it took five attempts to copy the America product until the St. Louis firm gave its final seal of approval for use of its brand name.
Dror said the Israeli brewery has decided to approach the American firm for production permission to forestall any attempt to import Budweiser from the U.S.
Israelis drink little beer in comparison to Americans and Europeans. Average consumption here is 20 quarts a year, compared to 120 quarts annually in the U.S. and 170 in beer-thirsty West Germany as a whole, with a record of 275 quarts in Bavaria where beer drinkers like to keep cool heads.
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