# Paraguay

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country/py/info

- Official name: Republic of Paraguay
- Local name: República del Paraguay
- Caps in the collection: 19 (https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country_caps/104)
- Brands: 9

## Beer in Paraguay

Beer came to Paraguay with the immigrants of the years of rebuilding after the War of the Triple Alliance. The first brewery is placed at San Bernardino, on Lake Ypacaraí, around 1881, a small shop of German settlers where Pedro Herken served the beer he brewed himself. In the early 1880s José Carbonel and Leopoldo Wesner were licensed to open breweries, and in 1896 the Creydt brothers started the first brewery in Asunción on the old calle San Miguel. In 1898 two of its employees, Juan and Pedro Bosio, took the business over and moved it, first to Benjamín Constant and then to calle Palma. A brewery called La Paraguaya, founded at Puerto Sajonia in 1907 by a group led by Eduardo Schaerer, burned down two years later and its plant went to the Bosios.

In 1910 the Bosios' firm became a joint-stock company, the Cervecería Nacional, settled for good on calle Hernandarias, and in 1912 it launched Pilsen, still the best-known beer of the country. It also made the ice of Asunción and kept that trade to itself until the late 1960s. A rival, the Cervecería Americana of 1917, was absorbed by the Nacional in 1923. The firm joined the Bemberg group of Quilmes in 1928. In 1932, when the Chaco War began, it put its plant and lorries at the army's service and took ice and water to the front. In 1938 Decree 14.023 reserved the word "Nacional" for the state, and the firm became the Cervecería Paraguaya S.A., Cervepar. Under Quinsa, which AmBev entered in January 2003, its brewery held 94 per cent of the national market; it now belongs to AB InBev.

Cervepar moved from Asunción to a new plant at Ypané, on the Villeta road, in 1995. It put US$40 million into a returnable-bottle line there in December 2017, raising bottling from 11,000 to 14,000 hectolitres a day, and US$60 million into new can and bottle halls in November 2018. Besides Pilsen its portfolio holds Brahma, Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona, Michelob Ultra and Patagonia. By 2024 Pilsen was on sale in Spain, with ten gold medals from Monde Selection. In February 2026 Guillermo Martínez became the first Paraguayan to head the company, and in June 2026 Pilsen, the official beer of the national team, and Michelob Ultra ran a World Cup campaign with watch parties in more than 300 bars.

The other industrial brewer is the Compañía Cervecera Asunción of the Riquelme group, begun by the businessman Blas Riquelme and dated by the group to 3 November 1978. Its Munich was the first canned beer in Paraguay, in 1980; it also brews Polar and Victoria, had 15 per cent of the market in 2015, and after a new line in 2016 and an expansion of more than US$10 million in 2019 can make 1 million hectolitres a year. Munich won gold at Monde Selection in 2018 and 2020. A second Riquelme brewery, in Itapúa, ran for some years and was shut.

Paraguayans drank 395 million litres of beer between June 2020 and June 2021, about 60 litres a head. Craft beer is a young trade: its pioneers, Sajonia Brewing and Herken among them, began about a decade before 2022, and Sajonia has since become part of the Cartes group. In May 2022 the brewers' association AcervaPy had 25 member firms and craft beer made 500,000 litres a year; in August 2025 Sacramento Brewing Co. expected 20 per cent growth.

Sources:
- [ABC Revista: Pasión cervecera, cómo nació la cerveza y llegó al Paraguay (2024)](https://www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/suplementos/abc-revista/2024/07/28/pasion-cervecera-como-nacio-la-cerveza-y-llego-al-paraguay/)
- [ABC Color: La cerveza de los paraguayos (2024)](https://www.abc.com.py/empresariales/2024/08/01/la-cerveza-de-los-paraguayos/)
- [Cervepar: Nuestra historia](https://cervepar.com.py/index.php/quienes-somos/cervepar/)
- [Cervepar: Más de 130 años de una historia (2026)](https://cervepar.com.py/cervepar-mas-de-130-anos-de-una-historia-que-convirtio-la-calidad-paraguaya-en-orgullo-nacional/)
- [Funding Universe: Quilmes Industrial (QUINSA) S.A. History](https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/quilmes-industrial-quinsa-s-a-history/)
- [Infonegocios: Cervepar habilitó su moderna línea de envasado (2017)](https://infonegocios.com.py/y-ademas/cervepar-habilito-su-moderna-linea-de-envasado)
- [Infonegocios: Cervepar invierte US$ 60 millones en su nueva planta de envasados (2018)](https://infonegocios.com.py/amp/y-ademas/cervepar-invierte-us-60-millones-en-su-nueva-planta-de-envasados)
- [Grupo Riquelme: Compañía Cervecera Asunción S.A. (CCA)](https://www.gruporiquelme.com/unidades-de-negocios/compania-cervecera-asuncion-s-a-cca)
- [Munich: Fabricación](https://www.munich.com.py/)
- [Infonegocios: La Compañía Cervecera Asunción produce oro mundial con Munich (2020)](https://infonegocios.com.py/nota-principal/la-compania-cervecera-asuncion-produce-oro-mundial-con-munich-y-llega-a-los-1-millon-de-hectolitros-de-cerveza-por-ano)
- [La Nación: Munich fue premiada con una medalla de oro de Monde Selection (2020)](https://www.lanacion.com.py/negocios/2020/11/07/munich-fue-premiada-con-una-medalla-de-oro-de-monde-selection/)
- [ABC Color: Innovar para crecer (2015)](https://www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/suplementos/empresas-y-negocios/innovar-para-crecer-1424863.html)
- [ABC Color: Día Internacional de la Cerveza, Paraguay consume casi 400 millones de litros al año (2021)](https://www.abc.com.py/nacionales/2021/08/06/dia-internacional-de-la-cerveza-paraguay-consume-casi-400-millones-de-litros-al-ano/)
- [Infonegocios: Cerveza artesanal, de dos marcas a 25 (2022)](https://infonegocios.com.py/y-ademas/cerveza-artesanal-un-rubro-que-en-cuatro-anos-paso-de-dos-marcas-a-25-hoy-produce-500-000-litros-ano)
- [Infonegocios: Negocio que fermenta, el consumo de cerveza artesanal va en aumento (2025)](https://infonegocios.com.py/default/negocio-que-fermenta-el-consumo-de-cerveza-artesanales-va-en-aumento-proyectan-crecimiento-del-20-para-este-ano)
- [Good Beer Hunting: Mother of Cities, subtropical wanderings in Asunción (2022)](https://goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2022/1/25/mother-of-cities-subtropical-wanderings-in-asuncin-paraguay)
- [ABC Color: Cervepar lleva la emoción de la Copa del Mundo a todo el país (2026)](https://www.abc.com.py/empresariales/2026/06/11/cervepar-lleva-la-emocion-de-la-copa-del-mundo-a-todo-el-pais-con-un-brindis-por-los-bares/)
- [Archontology: Paraguay, Polity Style 1813-2026](https://archontology.org/nations/paraguay/01_polity.php)
- [Wikipedia: History of Paraguay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Paraguay)
- [Wikipedia: Flag of Paraguay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Paraguay)

## Breweries (2)

- [Compania Cervecera Asuncion S.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3185.md) — 5 caps, 1978–
- [Cerveceria Paraguaya S.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2490.md) — 14 caps, 1910–