In a minor miracle, there is a LOT more info out there about North Korean beer than there is about Paraguayan beer! It turns out North Korea does have its own "independent" brewery. Independent in this case meaning no ties to the large beer conglomerates that dominate the rest of the world market. In this case, the brewery is state-owned. It's actually a pretty interesting story!
Apparently Kim Jong Il, who you might remember from the movie 'Team America: World Police' decided that his beloved Democratic People's Republic of Korea needed their own beer. Rather than build a brewery from the ground up, they bought one that had recently closed down. The only problem was that this recently closed down brewery was located in Wiltshire, England. After assurances were made that the equipment couldn't be used to make chemical weapons, the brewery was dismantled and shipped to North Korea, where it was reconstructed and became the Taedonggang Brewing Company! Hooray, communist beer!
The brewery brews one beer that is widely known, called simply Taedonggang Beer. There are rumors of 3 other brands produced by the brewery but no beer rating sites have any reviews of the supposed other brands. The Taedonggang beer itself appears to be a mediocre brew... a typical pale lager, or adjunct lager maybe. Reviews are mostly poor and on par with the pale lagers of Paraguay unfortunately. The brewery did lead to the first ever beer advertisement on Korean TV, though! And that's kinda cool. I'll add a youtube link to it once I can access YouTube.
So, congrats to North Korea for having their own brewery... maybe one day I'll get to try some of this stuff, but until then, good luck against Brazil, Portugal, and The Ivory Coast. You're going to need it!
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