Confident that the global beer market would continue to grow unabatedly, the brewing industry placed long-term forward contracts, which led to an increase in hop acreage around the world. From 2007 to 2008 planted acreage increased by more than 12 percent, particularly in Germany and the United States.

Harvest of spring barley in Europe will be lower than 2009. Except for all the reduced areas, but Denmark, yield and quality will be very heterogen from the vantage point of the present. The wet spring in some regions and the heat during the last weeks stressed the plants.

In the meantime, Diageo, the world’s number one drinks company, is biding its time hoping that eventually it will be able to take full control of drinks company Moet-Hennessy, which is still majority-owned by LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault. Matrix thinks the 66 percent of Moet-Hennessy that Diageo doesn’t own is valued at around EUR 12.6 billion.

Mr Kronseder’s was the typical story of the self-made man, who rises to importance through sheer luck and hard work. Born into a family of craftsmen, he initially trained as an aircraft mechanic at the Messerschmitt company in Regensburg. Surviving both the war and a prisoner-of-war camp, he sought further education as an electrician before setting up his own workshop at the age of 27, producing bottle labelling machines. Why bottle labelling machines? Because this was Bavaria and beer enjoyed a comeback after years of post-war austerity. Success came quickly, first of all with Mr Kronseder’s new, semi-automatic labellers, and subsequently with his fully automatic models.

Yeast is an important ingredient in the production of various food products such as wine, beer, cheese and sausage. In the past many different species of yeast were used in food production, in a process known as spontaneous fermentation. However, nowadays only a small number of strains are used.

As we never tire of saying: Europe does not compare with other markets. That applies both to the on-premise sector and the off-premise sector. In particular the discount channel is evolving into a route to the consumers brewers can only ignore to their peril.

Needless to say, Heineken would not admit that it has failed to turn the struggling WTBS around. Instead Heineken said the sale would allow both it and WTBS to focus on their respective core businesses – with the Dutch brewer continuing to sell main brands such as Kronenbourg 1664, Foster’s, Heineken and Strongbow through WTBS.

The Welsh Assembly (the Welsh parliament), which has the power to make legislation in Wales, said in a statement: “Hospitals are visited by a very broad cross-section of society and, as such, the whole hospital environment should reflect the importance of healthy living.”

Single malts only account for just over 6 percent of 2009’s 94.4 million 12-bottle case scotch market by volume, but the malt industry has grown volumes by 23 percent in the 2005-2009 five-year period compared to 10 percent for the whole industry.

Belgium may deserve praise for being a beer lovers’ paradise. Still, there is no denying that many of its speciality beer breweries have been struggling for years to make ends meet. Their beers, typically consumed in cafés and restaurants, have been hit hard by the number of bars closing down in recent years.