Society

The definition of beer in Brazil has just become looser than you might think

When talking about alcoholic beverages, it is cachaça that might be seen as the national tipple of Brazil. But the country’s favorite drink is a glass—or bottle—of beer. A recent study by the national information center on alcohol and health showed that, for 62 percent of Brazilians, no other alcoholic beverage beats a good, cold beer.

But is the beer Brazilians are drinking any good?

Well, until recently, the answer might well have been a firm ‘no’.

A 2012

study by the University of São Paulo showed that mainstream beer brands replace barley with corn (a non-malted cereal), at a 45 percent rate, as a cost-saving measure. “It’s because corn is cheaper,” said the coordinator of the research at the time, professor Luiz Antônio Martinelli. Some brands also use rice instead of barley.

“A good beer is made from pure barley malt—changing it for corn inevitably affects its quality,” said beer expert Sady Homrich at the time.

Then came the golden age...

Martha Castro

Martha Castro worked as an intern at The Brazilian Report in 2019. She is a Brazilian journalism and political science student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.