GHANA – The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has commissioned the newly established Specialty Beers Ghana Limited (SBL), specializing in the production of ale using locally sourced raw materials.
SBL, registered as a company in 2012, commenced operations in 2020 and gained the needed support from the government’s One-District-One-Factory initiative in 2021, enabling it to set the turbines rolling at its manufacturing facility.
Following the completion of its factory with a processing capacity of 10,000 hectolitres per year, SBL, has launched a new beer brand in the West African market dubbed Tale coming in four distinct flavors i.e., Farmhouse Ale (5% abv), Hibiscus IPA (6% abv), Ginger Triple (7% abv), and Cocoa Stout (8% abv).
The new craft beer is mainly made using adjuncts such as maize and broken rice, partly replacing malted barley which is not locally available, reducing the country’s dependency on the importation of raw materials.
Speaking during the launch, the Managing Director of Specialty Beers Kristof Henot said, “The quality of Tale Beer and its African richness were crafted with the Ghanaian at heart.
“Brewing in Ghana invites us to do things differently. Apart from water, malt, and hops, we add locally grown rice and maize as a cereal base to our mash and use local botanicals alongside hops to create a unique taste and aroma profiles.”
“We are keen on telling our Ghanaian story through our beers, hence the use of Ghanaian symbols as the Tale logo, which contains an interpretation of the eagle’s talon, symbolizing power, strength, and unity. Every Tale comes in a different color i.e., green, yellow, red, and black Tales, a tribute to the national colors of Ghana,” Kristof added.
To ensure clarity of the beer without stripping any flavor or aroma, SBL leverages a high-end brewing technology that allows the usage of over 70% un-husked grains during the mashing process, while ensuring absolute clarity of the beer without stripping any flavor or aroma due to the centrifuge filtration system the beers go through.
The entire production process at the state-of-the-art production facility is environmentally friendly and utilizes only recyclable materials (no plastics).
In addition, the company uses cleaning chemicals that allow the wastewater (by-product) to be used as fertilizer and potassium acetate.
To ensure continued production, the company has partnered with a number of local suppliers of the utilized cereals, including Avnash Limited and Hila Farms Limited.
In addition, SBL has engaged 20 permanent staff who are involved in the pre-factory launch activities in specific areas of factory operations.
It is expected that once the company starts full operation, over 60 additional staff would be directly engaged whiles about 1500 indirect employment opportunities will be generated.
The second phase of the project is intended to develop exports to the wider ECOWAS region, the rest of Africa, and possibly the European market via specialized international distributors.
For this reason, Specialty Beers Ghana Limited has already acquired ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme Certification (ETLS) certification.
Thus far, the One-District-One-Factory initiative, targeting the construction of two hundred and ninety-six (296) factories across the country, has finalized the establishment of one hundred and twenty-five (125) factories.
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