Diageo found creative ways to trim the price, by using local barley and sorghum, by putting the beer in big kegs rather than costly bottles and by inventing a cheap hand-pump to serve it.
But after just one quarter of growth, perhaps it is too early to tap the kegs.
And there is plenty of scope for more efficient sales too: persuading retailers to use kegs, rather than bottles, and to sell beer from refrigerators.Baltika, the market leader, brews no fewer than eight kinds of beer, ranging from dark porter to light ale.
It also trained bar staff to understand the importance of rotating kegs to make sure the beer was fresh, and of washing glasses.
Beer distributors can sell cases of beer (24 cans) or kegs; but not six-packs.
The InBev machine uses mini kegs containing six litres (10.6 pints) of InBev's Jupiler or Stella Artois beers.InBev is now pushing Stella Artois and its premium German beer, Beck's, as global brands: Stella Artois was launched in Brazil in June.
Between a continued crisis of high unemployment around the rich world and lurking financial powder kegs, in Europe especially, we should all prepare to be uncomfortable.
The company reduced the cost of the beer by negotiating a tax waiver with the government and by distributing it in kegs rather than bottles.
It was filled with a compound of foul air, smoke, sea-chests, soap kegs, greasy pans, tainted meat".
Smaller versions, usually called kegs, long were used to contain heavy bulk products such as nails.
Beer is also packaged into metal kegs of 50-litre (in the United States, 15-gallon) capacity after pasteurization at 70 °C (160 °F) for 5 to 20 seconds.
