Anadolu Efes Brewery - Efes Pilsener

The name Efes has been synonymous with beer in Turkey since their Pilsener hit the scene in 1969. Made with malts produced in Efes’s own malteries, this brew presents a quintessential German-style pilsner appearance in the glass: pure golden in color with nice clarity, capped by a bright white head of foam that drops some lace as it recedes. On the nose, expect a lightly sweet pils malt aroma, while the noble hops offer up a fairly grassy and somewhat floral character with just a touch of fruitiness tending toward lemon. As it opens on the palate, it’s all about the crackery pils malt, with its typical lightly sweet, papery, and grainy personality. We found the mild residual sweetness quite pleasant, and balanced well by the Hallertau hops which firm up and come in to dry out the finish. Light in body, but very smooth and creamy on the palate, it closes crisp, per the style. Try this Turkish classic with pan-seared scallops served with garlic-butter and topped with fresh parsley. Cheers!

Every now and again we get mail from our readers describing their visits to the breweries we've featured. We're going to wager that we won’t get a letter describing a trip to Anadolu Efes Brewery, which is in Turkey, in the historic city of Istanbul to be exact. Not that this wouldn't be a desirable brewery to visit—state of the art and always in operation, the Anadolu Efes Brewery might be a popular tourist spot for the ‘überest’ of über beer geeks, but for most of us, the remarkable historic sites of Istanbul will consume the majority of one's visit time.

Not well known for its brewing trade, Turkey has a relatively young beer industry as far as private enterprises are concerned. Beer production in Turkey began in 1890 through a brewery founded in Istanbul by two Swiss entrepreneurs. This brewery was later nationalized along with another in Ankara in 1939, during which time Tekel, a state enterprise, was the only beer producer in Turkey. Following a change in the brewing regulations in 1955 that permitted private enterprises to produce beer, the first breweries of Efes Beverage Group, Erciyas Biracilik and Ege Biracilik, started their operations in 1969. Since then, the Turkish beer market has shown significant growth. At the end of 2005, annual per capita beer consumption in Turkey reached 12 liters, a three-fold increase from 4 liters in 1986. Even after this significant growth, per capita consumption in Turkey is still low compared to the averages of Europe or the USA. However, a growing tourism industry, changing consumption patterns and a developing economy are all contributing to an upswing of beer consumption in Turkey.

Today, the young and dynamic Anadolu Efes group has five breweries, two malteries and one hop processing facility located within the Turkish borders. Additionally, they control ten more breweries and two more malteries across a network that spans six nearby nations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, making them the fastest growing brewer in these, the fastest growing beer markets in the world. It would seem that as many civilizations before them have done, they too are using their strategic location in Istanbul, a city long recognized and fought over for its ideal position between the European and Asian continents, to their full advantage.