Craft brewers seem to pose a serious challenge to the country’s two Big Brewers, Kirin-owned Lion and Heineken-owned DB. New Zealand's largest brewer Lion, with a market share of 46 percent, had to post a 21 percent decline in full-year earnings for the year ending 30 September 2015, as the industry adjusts to a rise in craft beers and people choose to drink less.

Never mind the low price, analysts on the whole welcomed the termination of the SABMiller and China Resources Beer joint venture, announced on 2 March 2016. China Resources Beer (CR Beer) agreed to buy SABMiller's 49 percent stake in the Beijing-based CR Snow brewing company for USD 1.6 billion. The sale clears the way for the completion of AB-InBev's takeover of SABMiller.

What a mess. British drinks group Diageo has agreed to pay USD 75 million and provide other incentives to replace the chairman of its India business, Vijay Mallya, in exchange for his resignation from United Spirits, media reported at the end of February 2016.

That’s a blow to AB-InBev. The Chinese government not only prevented them from obtaining SABMiller’s 49 percent stake in CR Snow, the country’s major brewer. It also forced AB-InBev to accept a price which is far below analysts’ original valuation.

It’s so blatantly obvious. How to raise your profits? Answer: lower the excise. In late February 2016 and only a few days after announcing a 3 percent decline in volume sales for fiscal 2015, Australia’s major brewer Lion advised reductions in alcohol content for three of its major beers: XXXX Bitter, Tooheys Extra Dry and James Boag’s Premium Light.

After decades of rising sales, brewers in China have to adjust to a new reality: beer sales in China fell 7.3 percent in the January to September period last year. Beer sales dropped for the first time in 2014 and the downtrend continued into 2015.

Call it frontier spirit. A company owned by Western Australian grain growers and the Indonesian billionaire Anthony Salim is currently constructing an AUD 90 million (USD 64 million) malting plant in Vietnam that is likely to change the face of the local brewing industry.

The Brewers Association may boast that craft beer exports are growing by double digits, but on close inspection one can see which brands are actually benefitting from foreign markets’ pull: they are AB-InBev’s “crafty brands”. Last year already its Goose Island beers were sitting prominently on Dutch and Belgian supermarket shelves.

The 40th anniversary of the introduction of the Jacob’s Creek range by Orlando Wines in 1976 was marked by a feature in the Adelaide press which related the history of this now very popular Australian brand.

In 2016, Lehui celebrates its 25th anniversary. Over the last 25 years, the company has become one of Asia’s leading brewing and beverage equipment manufacturers, supplying their customers with high quality equipment and turn key solutions. It provides the full life cycle services to the industry, including planning, consulting, design, civil works, manufacturing, systems integration, project management, installation, commissioning, training, commercial production and more.