The University is helping 20 micro-brewers across the East Midlands to develop bottle-conditioned beers for sale in China and South East Asia.

Experts from the Brewing Science department joined the Food and Drink iNet (Innovation Network) to help the microbrewers develop bottle-conditioned beers for export.

In 2004, China became the world’s largest beer market. Competition is fierce but there is niche demand for prestige ales from microbrewers, a significant number of which are based in the Midlands.

When the conditioning of beer takes place in the bottle, quality can vary. The University team is working with the microbrewers to achieve consistency, stability and quality and identify best practice.

Anthony Hughes, Managing Director of the Lincoln Green Brewing Company, in Hucknall, said: “The Routes to Market initiative came at just the right time for us, as we had just started looking at bottling with a view to exporting in the future. As a result of the University’s support, we have been reseeding the beer with an additional yeast strain, to stabilise the beer. An expert from the University even came out to help us reseed the first batch of beer so that we could see how it should be done.”

The University’s Asia Business Centre will also be providing analysis of the Asia market for the microbrewers.

Dr Jerry Avis, who is managing the project, said: “The microbrewers we are working with are extremely enthusiastic about the Routes to Market programme. They recognise that we are able to help them improve the consistency of their products, reduce their costs and find new, innovative ways of offering their products to customers.”

Mike Carr, Director of Business Engagement at the University, said: “With the technical expertise we have in the brewing sector and our unrivalled links and knowledge of China and South East Asia, we really can help to give microbrewers in the Midlands a massive competitive advantage.”

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Food and Drink iNet provided £19,750 for the Routes to Market project. Based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, the iNet is a consortium including the University that co-ordinates innovation support for the food and drink sector in the East Midlands.

Food and Drink iNet Director Richard Worrall said: “There is a growing appetite for prestige ales in areas like China and South East Asia, and we hope this project that we are funding will help East Midlands brewers to compete more effectively in this highly competitive market by not only tackling the product and packaging issues, but also considering market understanding and distribution with the support of UKTI.”