Australia’s small and independent brewers voted on 18 May 2017 to bar corporate brewers from membership of their trade body. What was the Craft Beer Industry Association will be renamed as the Independent Brewers Association.

India’s beer and spirits tycoon VJ Mallya may enjoy the spring in London, but back home the Enforcement Directorate (ED), India’s investigating agency for economic crimes, has taken possession of his stake in United Breweries (UB) and also stakes in other listed companies, media said on 22 May 2017.

With craft brewers these days garnering all the laurels for being creative, experimental, in short close to geniuses when it comes to designing beers, it’s easily forgotten that the much disparaged Big Brewers have only managed to stay big because their R&D folks too have come up with new beers which sync with consumers.

Brewing Conference Bangkok

For the 4th time the Thailand Beer Industry Guild (TBIG) and the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin (VLB) [EV], Germany, are jointly organising the Brewing Conference Bangkok. This premium event takes place at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC) in Bangkok, Thailand, from 11 to 13 June 2017.

That’s a clever workaround plan, literally. Following the ban on alcohol sales on and nearby highways as of 1 April 2017 in an effort to reduce road accidents, India’s hoteliers and restaurateurs ingeniously are trying various ways to increase the actual distance one would have to traverse to reach their premises. The methods involve changing entrances and building veritable mazes or zigzag passages to circumvent the ban.

Will this become the next must-have? The former Australian prime minister and world-record beer drinker had his own Hawke's Lager introduced in Sydney on 6 April 2017.

That’s an ambitious debt load. Following its purchases of SABMiller’s businesses in western and eastern Europe, Asahi will take on EUR 7.4 billion (USD 7.8 billion) in bank loans to fund the transactions, it was reported on 29 March 2017.

Seems like civilized political debate has gone down the drain together with 10,000 cases of Coopers beer. When Dr Tim Cooper, the Managing Director of Adelaide-based Coopers Brewery gave a joint news conference with the Bible Society Australia on 9 March 2017 to announce a limited edition, co-branded run of 10,000 cartons (900 hl) of its light beer carrying various biblical verses, he could not have been prepared for the backlash to the partnership.

When the Australian anti-immigrant hothead politician Pauline Hanson announced in early March 2017 that she wants to have her own craft beer, the ensuing media outcry was deafening.

Although a new constitution for the Craft Beer Industry Association (CBIA) has not yet been finalised, proposed changes in criteria for membership eligibility have already caused the resignation of Lion’s craft beer breweries – Little Creatures, Malt Shovel and White Rabbit.