Has Carlsberg become a risky investment? Shares in Carlsberg dropped 4.3 percent on 3 March 2014 after investors deserted the Danish brewer due to its exposure to the Russian market as the Ukraine crisis escalated, media reported.

They did not wait for the Brewers of Europe ’s generic beer campaign to get off the ground. Instead, they decided to go alone with their own to boost domestic beer consumption. And not too soon. While beer exports from Belgium are up, consumers back home are drinking less and less local beer.

More than 100 exhibitors and over 7,800 visitors (+45 percent over 2013) attended the Munich beer festival Braukunst Live! which was held at the weekend of 21 to 23 February 2014. Beer lovers, who on average had splashed out EUR 50 for a ticket and beer samples, were enthusiastic about this year ’s wealth of innovations, special brews, lectures and master classes offered at the fair.

These are interesting figures: Sales of Budweiser in the U.S. declined 29 percent between 2007 and 2012, says Beer Marketers’ Insights. Budweiser Select was down 61 percent over the same period, Michelob Light a staggering 70 percent. AB-InBev cannot be too pleased. However, rival MillerCoors was not spared either: sales of Miller Genuine Draft dropped 56 percent and Milwaukee’s Best Light 40 percent.

Is flat the new high? Reporting full year 2013 results, brewer Carlsberg said that net sales were flat at DKK 66.55 billion (USD 12.3 billion), while operating profits also came in flat at DKK 9.85 billion (USD 1.8 billion). However, Carlsberg on 19 February 2014 posted a drop in full-year profits as volumes and sales declines in Eastern Europe outpaced growth in Asia.

Where do they take their courage from? At the end of 2014 there will be between 430 and 440 breweries in Switzerland, an increase of 6 percent over 2013. There were 409 breweries in 2013, up from 32 in 1990 when the Swiss beer cartel was dismantled. However, 96 percent of all breweries produce less than 15,000 hl beer annually, Swiss authorities say.

That’s Russian hubris for you. In three years’ time, Russian Standard vodka’s owner, the billionaire Roustam Tariko, hopes to sell more vodka than Diageo.

Would you buy a beer from a band of wrinklies? Or a greasy burger from Mick Jagger? Rock stars are not exactly the types to endorse the, um, more folksy delights, are they? Yet, the British rock band Status Quo, led by sixtysomethings Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi, have rolled out their own ale brand in February 2014 into the UK pub chain JD Wetherspoon.

With the Scottish referendum on secession from the UK scheduled for 18 September 2014, many commentators wonder how the 4 million Scottish voters will decide, considering that for months the campaign to keep Scotland British has been able to offer little more than dire warnings should those north of the border say yes to the Sexit (short for Scottish secession).

Everybody in the alcohol industry should be worried. Food crusaders have found a new target: sugar. A new and vociferous health lobby, the UK’s Action on Sugar, claims that sugar is “the new tobacco” and that its threat to health has been underestimated for years.