THỪA THIÊN-HUẾ — There’s no Olympics for beer, but Việt Nam is nevertheless home to brews that brought home three gold medals this year.

Carlsberg Việt Nam’s Huda and Huda Gold beer products have won three gold medals in beer competitions in Europe in 2017.

It’s the only beer trademark in Việt Nam that has won gold medals at international beverage competition series, including the Berlin International Beer Competition (BIBC) in Germany; the World Beer Awards (WBA) in the UK and Monde Selection in Belgium.

The company announced the victories in a statement on August 22nd

The golds come after a few years of steadily-growing recognition for the company’s beers. In 2013, the Huda Gold product (a sub-premium brand of Huda) won the silver medal at the World Beer Championships in the US for the first time, a feat it repeated in 2015.

The made-in Huế Huda Gold also won the Superior Taste Award from the Brussels-based International Taste and Quality Institute (iTQi) in Belgium in 2014.

In 2011, Thừa Thiên-Huế Province sold its 50 per cent stake (worth VNĐ1.875 trillion or US$93 million) in the Huế Brewery Company to Carlsberg, helping the Danish beer giant to acquire full ownership of the brewery.

Since gaining full ownership, Carlsberg increased the brewery’s production capacity from 240 million litres of beer to 360 million litres by July 2014.

In 2016, Carlsberg Việt Nam put into operation its new canning line at Huế Brewery, located in Phú Bài Industry Zone in Huế City. The line has a total investment of US$6.93 million and a capacity of 60,000 cans per hour.

The Huế-based factory, which was launched in the 1990s with the modest production of three million litres of beer annually, exports its products to England, France, Spain, Australia, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia. — VNS