There will be changes for the local operations of Japanese beverage giant Asahi as its new Asahi Premium Beverages division absorbs the business of its subsidiary Independent Distillers at Laverton, Victoria, and the new division combines with Schweppes (also owned by Asahi) to offer a one-stop supply option for the licensed trade, as was announced in early October 2013.

They don’t mince words down under. “The decision to pour AUD 35 million of wine down the sink was the catalyst for David Dearie’s career at Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) also going down the gurgler,” Australian media commented when TWE announced on 23 September that its CEO was to leave with immediate effect.

Sounds like an interesting taste experience. Coca-Cola Japan announced in September 2013 that it is planning to launch a fizzy beverage that remains carbonated even when warmed up. The Canada Dry Hot Ginger Ale, in four flavour varieties, will be sold in October, it was reported.

Indian Gatsby Vijay Mallya, probably the most flamboyant of the business tycoons in the country, has been in deep problems for a long time now, and the flow of bad news from his group companies doesn’t seem to abate.

The answer is probably yes, provided maltsters dare invest in India. After two months of India-bashing by global financial media, this seems however increasingly unlikely. Still, Rabobank, in a recent report ("Mind the gap: Can India bridge the gap between beer and barley", published August 2013), anticipates malt production will increasingly move to these new markets in emerging regions, with India a likely candidate as a regional hub.

So this is the announcement we have awaited for two years: Coca-Cola Amatil’s (CCA) return to the Australian beer industry with a line-up of aspirational international beer brands.

Is it their beers or the fact that they are family-owned? The South Australian-based Coopers, the nation’s largest locally owned brewer, has again bucked the trend that has seen beer drinkers abandon their pints for wine and alcopops for several years now, to post record beer sales of 697,000 hl in the 2012/2013 financial year, ending 30 June 2013.

The parallels between Lion, Australia’s major brewer, and the former Foster’s are becoming harder to ignore. As many will remember, it was Foster’s ill-fated decision to build up an international wine company that proved its eventual downfall. For years, Foster’s beer division provided the profits that went into the bottomless barrel which was its wine division. Following rising criticism from investors, Foster’s in 2011 spun off its wine business and offered itself up for sale to SABMiller.

Not all consumers are over-achievers. Quite a few are obviously a few coins short of a roll. Otherwise they would not have been buying bottled tap water marked as “organic”.

SABMiller will invest INR 4.4 billion ( Euro 62 million) in its unlisted Indian arm to expand capacity and its portfolio, and gain back market share in the country, which has slipped below 25 percent from a healthy 33 percent a few years ago. In a general meeting of the company, SABMiller India decided to allot 78 million shares to its UK-based parent @ INR 56 each, according to a filing by the company with the Indian Registrar of Companies.