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．Organizational structure

Once I stepped into the factory and walked down the corridor with ancient white tiles on the walls, even though the factory was at its annual maintenance shut-down, the subtle scent of beer was still present in the air. This is the scent of history, and the vital sign of this 88 years old beer factory.

The Era When Beer Cost More Than Pork

Located on Ba-Deh Road in Taipei, Taipei Brewery was formerly, Jen-Kuo Beer Factory and the birth place of the first bottle of Taiwan Beer. Taipei Brewery evolved from “Takasago Malted Beer Company” of the Japanese Occupation, which was established in 1919. It was the only beer manufacturer in Taiwan during the Occupation, and was equally famed as Hokkaid's Sapporo Beer Factory.

Taiwan adopted tobacco and liquor monopoly in 1992 under the Occupation. But at the beginning, beer was not included in the monopoly since before it was adopted; the Japanese invested “Takasago Malted Beer Company” had already started its production in Taiwan. Under the pressure of many imported Japanese beer to Taiwan, the beer competition became even more brutal. With the lobby of the importers, beer was spared from the monopoly. But not for long until this golden goose was put on the chopping board. Beer was finally included to the monopoly program; but only for the sales and revenue part, the manufacturing process was still owned by the private investors as a production of Japanese invested business.

Judging from the labels collected from bottles of that time, there were already light and dark variations of Taiwan beer back then. However, the price of beer was not cheap; a bottle of dark beer's asked price was 45“chen” (a currency used at that time) which exceeded the price of pork. At that time, drinking beer was a far-shot fantasy for most of the Taiwanese people who had to scramble for food every day.

The Beer with a Taste of Taiwan

After the Restitution in 1945, the beer factory was taken over by Taiwan's Monopoly Bureau, which was reorganized two years later into Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Board; since then the beer factory was renamed several times as “Taipei Second Brewery,” Jen-Kuo Brewery,” and finally “Taipei Brewery.” Through the time, the brewery technique has been improved, the equipment has been renovated, the factory has been expanded; as a result, more beers are being rolled out year after year.

The most significant change taken place during the evolution process was the change of the beer brewing recipe. Since the brewery inherited the equipment and technique from the Japanese administration; the technique seemed to be outdated and the ingredient, lackluster. Therefore, the brewery could only render tasteless beer. But in the 60s, as the equipment and process went through major renovation, due to the mass production of rice, Taiwan's special grain, Pong-Lai rice, was added to the ingredient, and finally, the Taiwan Beer with the genuine local taste was born. During that time, the demand of beer had also sky-rocketed and the supply could barely keep up with the demand; the market pressure was finally relieved later with the completion of the other breweries.