The fighters raped, tortured and killed and enjoyed a sundowner Primus beer afterwards. Did Heineken’s subsidiary Bralima pay taxes and toll to rebel troupes during the Congolese war to sell its beer? The political scientist Peer Schouten thinks it did. He was in the country to explore the role of the Dutch brewer Heineken in the war. His report “Fluid markets” was published in the September 2013 issue of the journal Foreign Policy. Strangely, it took until 9 November 2013 for the German magazine Der Spiegel to pick it up.

Fortunately, reason prevailed. After a five week-long battle over wages turned violent with more than 72 incidents of violence and intimidation, both sides in the dispute resolved on 5 November 2013 to call off the first strike to hit the brewer in 16 years.

A ban on alcohol advertising has been in the political pipeline for so many years now that many wondered if it would ever become law. But in September the

Is SABMiller using its dominant position in South Africa to squeeze a local competitor out of the market? In September 2013, United National Breweries (UNB), which has just completed a transaction in which global drinks group Diageo acquired a 50 percent stake from India’s Vijay Mallya, lodged a complaint against SABMiller with South Africa’s Competition Commission, alleging that SABMiller is engaging in predatory pricing and “springboarding” to restrict sales of UNB’s Chibuku sorghum beer.

Why have all the country's established brewers and upstarts asked Ethiopia's state-owned bank CBE for multi-billion loans, in the local currency birr (ETB), that is? This interesting – but perhaps minor – detail was brought to light recently by Ethiopia's lively blogosphere. Among the loan-seekers, Ethiopian sources say, are Heineken (which owns two breweries and builds a third), Diageo, Habesha, Raya, Zebidar and BGI.

If the blogosphere is right, an alcoholic bitter by the name of Alomo has been biting into brewers' sales. Originally from Ghana, the Jägermeister-clone was only introduced into Nigeria in 2010. Yet, it posted a booming 56 percent volume growth in 2012 according to Euromonitor because the herbal bitter allegedly "promotes vitality in men". I am sure readers will get the drift.

Kenyans rubbed their eyes when East African Breweries (EABL), in which Diageo owns a 51 percent stake, released its full year results (end June 2013) in August and posted a 38 percent drop in profit. That was worse than many had expected. And it came despite volume growth of 3 percent, net sales growth of 6 percent and 0.2 percent growth in operating profit before finance costs and exceptional items.

SABMiller, the world’s number two brewer, has come under fire from South Africa’s Competition Commission for discriminatory wholesale prices.

How will SABMiller fare without a political fixer par excellence like Cyril Ramaphosa, who decided not to seek re-election to SABMiller’s board of directors at the brewer’s up-coming Annual General Meeting on 25 July 2013?

That’s a new one to us: comparing a Radler to champagne. But this is Heineken’s marketing twist in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). At the end of April 2013, the country’s beer market leader Bralima launched Primus Radler in the capital of Kinshasa. The 2 percent ABV Primus Radler made with lemon juice has been likened to a “véritable champagne congolais” – albeit packaged in what looks suspiciously like a 0.62 litre beer bottle.