Looks like Lion’s cider portfolio is getting rather bloated. Australia’s number one brewer Lion, owned by Japan’s Kirin, has quite a few cider brands under its belt. Its first cider brand was launched in Australia in 2009: Tooheys Extra Dry 5 Seeds. Its craft trademark, James Squire, has also innovated in cider with the James Squire Orchard Crush range. With the full takeover of the Little Creatures brewers, Lion inherited their Pipsqueak Cider range.

Carlsberg Asia has celebrated two of its biggest expansion programs ever, with ceremonies to mark the construction of two new breweries in Dali, China and Bago, Myanmar.

So has Tycoon Baroque replaced Dictator Chic? When opening their third Johnnie Walker house in Seoul in September 2013, Diageo allowed the photographers in to provide us, the hoi polloi, with a one-off peek into the rarefied ambience of the superrich. Not that Diageo’s “whisky embassies” are for the likes of you and me. No way.

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.