Why the recent interest in small brewers? Is it because the big multinational brewers have realised that their brands are often more vibrant than their own mega-brands? Or because they have found out to their distress that they depend on the smaller guys to keep consumer interest in the beer category alive?

First the U.S., then Australia and now Sweden. As BRAUWELT International will argue in an upcoming report on “Craft Brewing in Europe”, micro brewers currently find themselves embroiled in a hot debate over what constitutes an authentic craft beer. With craft beer becoming more popular in several markets, we see more and more crafty-looking me-too launches by the big operators. However, all too often the multinational brewers feel compelled to disguise the origins of their craft beers, probably knowing all too well that ownership is a sore issue in the definition of craft beers.

Getting your timing right is everything in politics. So why did the issue of obesity dominate the UK’s media during the last week in January? Was it because the Public Health Minister, Anna Soubry, had persuaded eight new companies to sign up to the UK government’s Calorie Reduction Pledge, with leading soft drinks brands Lucozade and Ribena joining the likes of Britvic, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in reducing the amount of sugar and calories in some of their products?

The days of seemingly endless growth in the central and eastern European beer markets are definitely over. Russia, Poland, the Ukraine are all in decline, albeit for different reasons. In Russia government interventions threw a spanner into brewers’ spokes, while in the Ukraine the sorry state of the economy helped dampen consumer spending. Poland, on the other hand, did not witness any of the above. It is the only country in the EU to have avoided a recession. Its economy is still growing, albeit at a slower rate – 2.1 percent in 2012 – than in previous years. But there is no doubt about it: Poland has become a highly mature beer market with per capita consumption standing at 94 litres in 2011.

It’s probably small consolation to Efes executive suite that its Ukrainian unit in 2012 managed to grow its beer sales volume by 14 percent over 2011, although beer production in this eastern European country as a whole declined 1.6 percent over 2011 to 30 million hl.

In 2012, German beer output is believed to have fallen 2 percent. That may not seem much given that sales spectacularly dropped 8 percent in April, 10 percent in September and 5 percent in December 2012 year-on-year. But if you bear in mind that beer consumption has declined for almost 20 years now at an annual rate of give or take 2 percent, then you will immediately understand how bad the situation really is.

Germany’s major brewer Radeberger suffered a defeat in court over its dodgy bottle deposit dealings with its Mexican import Corona Extra. On 19 December 2012 a Frankfurt court told Radeberger it had to pay the claimant, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (German Environmental Aid DUH), the cease-and-desist fee of EUR 243,43 (USD 323). As the fine is so small, Radeberger has no right to appeal against the ruling.

It’s probably more a case of piqued national pride than a real loss that has caused an outcry in Austrian media, following Heineken’s decision on 13 January 2013 to relocate its central and eastern european (CEE) headquarters from Vienna to Amsterdam.

It seems the UK taxpayer has taken yet another massive hit. On 4 January 2013 Admiral Taverns, one of the UK’s biggest pub groups, has been bought by U.S. based private equity group Cerberus in a fire sale. The Lloyds Banking Group, which had to be bailed out by the UK government to the tune of a 40 percent stake, reportedly received about GBP 50 million in cash for its pubs. Add to that the GBP 150 million that Cerberus took on in debt, the transaction is valued at GBP 200 million (USD 323 million) or a little over GBP 180,000 (USD 290,000) per pub.

Beer sales in Germany in November 2012 dropped 2.8 percent year-on-year and reached 7.26 million hl. In the January to November period, 89.4 million hl beer were sold. That’s a loss of one percent over the same period in 2011.