In a highly unusual move, the leading speciality beer producer Duvel Moortgat plans to appoint Alain Beyens, 49, to its board. Mr Beyens is currently CEO of StarBev, which is the central European beer unit AB-InBev sold to private equity outfit CVC in 2009 for close to USD 3 billion. Before that Mr Beyens served in various roles for AB-InBev. He was General Manager for Belgium and Germany and later Zone President for Central Europe and Zone President for Western Europe. As a matter of fact, Mr Beyens was one of Duvel Moortgat’s major competitors in a number of markets.

Brewers know only too well that governments like to bite the hand that feeds them. Skyrocketing taxes on beer in some European countries is a case in point. The Brewers of Europe, fortunately, never tire of telling politicians that by providing over EUR 57 billion in taxes to European governments and directly and indirectly employing over 2.5 million people, the brewing sector is a large contributor to the European economy and that any tinkering with taxation will put lots of companies and jobs at risk.

The Irish are feeling bitter. Only hours after U.S. president Barak Obama did a publicity stunt for Guinness when he ordered a pint of the black stuff in a Moneygall pub on 23 May 2011, the drinks group was telling 400 of its 1,700 Irish staff to brace themselves for job losses. The Irish are not alone. The brunt of the job cuts is expected to be borne by workers in countries that have underperformed in recent years, including Spain.

You have to give it to AB-InBev: they are reassuringly predictable. If they spot a category that’s growing, they will have a product for it in no time. Viz Stella Artois Cidre. Not a cider, but a cidre. Already in February 2011 the brewer of Stella Artois beer unveiled Cidre, a “premium, crisp and refreshing” attempt to cash in on booming sales of the drink. Supported by a “double-digit” million-pound marketing spend Cidre hit the supermarket shelves at Easter. A premium Belgian cider allegedly made from apples fresh from the orchard, fermented in Belgium and imported to the UK, Stella Artois Cidre has a crisp and refreshing taste at 4.5 percent abv. The cidre is available in 568 ml bottles and 440 ml cans and since May it is sold in the on-trade too, although not in draught form.

It may be the dawn of a new era at SABMiller with SABMiller’s Chief Financial Officer Malcolm Wyman retiring at the end of August to be replaced by internal candidate James Wilson, 51, who currently works as finance director at SABMiller Europe. Not only does the personnel change announced on 4 May 2011 throw the spotlight on when Chief Executive Graham Mackay decides to retire. The London Financial Times says that that Mr Mackay, 61, is widely expected to retire in the next year or two.

Many raised an eyebrow when AB-InBev reported its first quarter 2011 figures. While in the U.S. the world’s number one brewer lost about one million hl in beer output compared to the same quarter last year, beer sales in Western Europe were up 0.4 percent. In Germany, sales rose almost one percent.

Now that Carlsberg’s exit from the German market seems imminent – the Danes are rumoured to be in finishing talks with Radeberger Group over the sale of their Holsten unit – it’s time to ponder Carlsberg’s motives for entering and leaving.

Each time us lesser mortals receive our annual tax statements and can see for ourselves how many of our hard-earned dollars or euros end up in the taxman’s grubby hands, who does not feel like going over to the taxman’s office and turning Viking? You know: burn, ransack and pillage.

Huhu, so Russia’s legislators are thinking of banning the sale of beer in plastic bottles from January 2013. Could this ban hurt brewers’ sales? You bet it will. Russian brewers sell nearly half their beer – over 45 million hl – in plastic bottles, it was reported. Should brewers have seen this coming? Of course. Selling beer in multi-litre plastic bottles has always been risky, if not to say insidiously obscene. Beer is not a soft drink. Hence it should not be packaged like one.

On the beer front, the Czech Republic seems to be in a stalemate. No news in public about Budvar and any eventual privatisation. Or about Staropramen and how it is faring under the private equity regime of StarBev. Instead, there are worrying signs that the Czech beer export boom is over.