King Car Group, a local producer of non-alcoholic beverages and whisky, has started its first brewery in Taiwan. The plant in Taoyuan, northwestern Taiwan, has an annual capacity of 100,000 hl and will produce German style beer in different varieties with no preservatives or additives added.
Albert Lee, chief executive officer of the King Car Group, has hired a German brewer as head consultant. Georg Rittmayer, who runs his centuries old 25,000 hl family owned Rittmayer Brewery in Hallerndorf, about 50 km north of Nürnberg, Germany also organized the launch party at the group's newly constructed brewery with traditional Bavarian music and folk dance
The brewing equipment as well as hops, malt and yeast are also imported from Germany to produce authentic Helles and Hefeweizen under the Buckskin brand name. The beer should not be confused with beer from the namesake brewery from Indianapolis, Indiana , which started in 2015.
The Taiwan brewery also operates a "Buckskin Beerhouse", which will open in Xinyi Distict, Taipei City on June 15 and is prototype of a chain of restaurants in the whole country.
King Car tries to differentiate the brewery and its beers in this respect from state owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. (TTL), which dominates the domestic beer market with a market share of about 60%. TTL is followed by Heineken, with a domestic market share of about 15 percent, and Kirin, with about 10 percent.
King Car Group, was founded in 1979 and is despite its name and logo not involved in car manufacturing. The first commercial success was Mr. Brown Coffee, launched in1982, which has become the leading brand in the market of ready-to-drink coffee. Thereafter, various healthy and functional beverages produced by King Car Chung Li Plant were launched to different markets.
Kavalan Whisky was first produced in March 2006, sold to the market in 2008 and has since then won many prizes in international competitions.
