ON SEPTEMBER 22nd the beer started flowing at the annual Oktoberfest in Munich. Last year, over the course of the 16-day event, visitors glugged 7.5m litres. For a half-litre (a trifle by Bavarian standards) an average German needs to work only seven minutes, according to analysts at UBS, a Swiss bank. For Czechs (who swig even more than Germans) the figure is similar. Only Americans need work less for their ale.

Indians, by contrast, must toil for nearly an hour before they have earned enough to quench their thirst (the world average is 20 minutes). But India will be the fastest-growing market by volume in coming years. Growing adult populations and rising living standards mean that beer consumption in emerging markets is booming. Drinkers there drank two-thirds of the world’s beer in 2011. By 2016, it will be 72%.