Lotte Chilsung Beverage Hosts Craft Beer Audition... Supports Can Production and Distribution Channel Entry

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Lotte Chilsung Beverage announced on the 29th that it will hold a craft beer audition called ‘Craft Beer Becomes a Can’ to revitalize small and medium-sized craft beer companies.

This audition is part of Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s ongoing ‘Craft Beer Cluster Project’ and was planned to establish a business foundation for small and medium-sized craft beer breweries that have innovative and competitive brewing methods but face practical difficulties in production and distribution. Lotte Chilsung Beverage expects that this audition will create a channel for communication between breweries and consumers while satisfying consumer demand for a variety of beers.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage will select the final 10 craft beers through about three weeks of online consumer voting starting at the end of next month. The selected 10 craft beers will undergo a blind tasting test by experts including distribution MDs, brewers, and the Korea Craft Beer Association, as well as consumers, to choose the best work. The best work will receive prize money and priority support for production and store placement, and prize money will also be awarded to the other nine brands, with a total prize pool of 70 million KRW distributed differentially. The final 10 selected craft beers will receive full support from can product production to distribution channel store placement.

Small and medium-sized craft beer companies wishing to participate in the ‘Craft Beer Becomes a Can’ audition can apply on the event page for about two weeks starting in early August. Multiple entries per company by beer type are allowed. However, only breweries holding a small-scale manufacturing license can participate, and existing canned beer products are excluded.

A Lotte Chilsung Beverage official said, “The craft beer cluster project, which has been prepared since last year, is being launched in earnest through this audition. We expect that competitive craft beer companies will be able to introduce high-quality craft beers to the market without the burden of facility investment and have the opportunity to be evaluated by more consumers.” He added, “We hope for the interest and participation of many craft beer companies with good ideas and recipes.”