Neue Welt and Bergen Bräu Are No More

Looks like Daiei’s store-brand new genre “Neue Welt” is no more. I went to Daiei’s Imaike branch in Nagoya in mid-May 2014, but Neue Welt was nowhere to be found. Instead, the supermarket was filled with Aeon’s store-brand beer TopValu Lager and new genre TopValu Barreal. Too bad, I really wanted to give it a try before it goes into oblivion.

The low-priced Korean import was probably phased out after Aeon acquired top stake in Daiei, making the smaller rival retailer a subsidiary. Aeon succeeded in raising its stake in Daiei to 44.24 percent from 19.89 percent in August 2013.

Neue Welt was launched by Daiei in October 2006, becoming the first new genre to be developed and released by a major retail store.

Along with Neue Welt, Daiei’s other brew Bergen bräu was pulled from the shelves as well. Bergen bräu was the only store-brand happoshu on the market and what’s more it wasn’t a Korean import, but came from Belgium. It hit the market in December 1993, becoming the very first happoshu on the market. In fact, the term “happoshu” wasn’t even in use at that time. Since it could not be called beer, the industry called it “hops” until the word happoshu came along.