North Korean Taedonggang Beer will be launched on Saturday in Miami. The beer, which will be produced at Lincoln's Beard Brewing Co., has no official ties to the namesake state-owned Taedonggang Beer Factory from Pyongyang, North Korea. Adrian Irias, a Miami based attorney, has recently registered the brand rights for the US and Francisco Siman, a local real estate agent, acts as the company's manager according to business records. However, the owners of the new company were not revealed.
The company is "starting from the ground up," says Michael Campos, responsible for marketing and social media of the new company and will be kept "as far from the little rocket man as possible," referring to US President Donald Trump'sinsult to North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un.
The beer, a German-style lager, will resemble the original beer from North Korea but the recipe was slightly altered to facilitate the brewing process and to adapt to the local taste: Rice was replaced with grain, the alcohol percentage was slightly decreased, and the color was matched.
As it looks, the new product is designed to take profit from the increased attention around North Korea after US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un had a rhetorical exchange of blows.
In an effort to exert pressure against North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Trump promised “fire and fury” for North Korea if their nuclear program and missile tests continued. He insulted Kim as “little rocket man” and said his own nuclear button is “bigger and more powerful” than Kim’s.
The provoked North Korean leader replied that "reckless remarks by an old lunatic like Trump will never scare us or stop our advance." In direct response Trump answered "Why would Kim Jong-Un insult me by calling me 'old,' when I would NEVER call him 'short and fat?'"
Today Trump took a step back and said he ‘probably’ has a good relationship with Kim Jong-Un, but he declined to say whether the two have talked or not.
State-owned Taedonggang Beer Factory started operations in 2002. The brewery uses German equipment of the closed Ushers of Trowbridge brewery from Wiltshire, England. It was bought for £1.5 million ($1.95 million) at the behest of then-leader of North Korea Kim Jong-Il, father of Kim Jong-Un, dismantled and shipped to Pyongyang. Since then, North Korea has had a steady supply of beer. (inside.beer, 25.7.2017).
