Mr Nusmeier defended Heineken’s decision to instantly pass on to customers in the first half the burden of a 200 percent increase of Russian excise duty. The price increases cost Heineken a loss of volume that exceeded the overall 9 percent market-volume decline resulting from the duty increase.

It’s amazing how much a brief fling can cost … even if it only lasts five seconds.

The weather conditions this year had a substantial effect on the spring barley throughout Europe. The harvest is going to be smaller than it was expected. There are going to be problems with the crops that were harvested late. One will probably expect a shortage with malting barley in Europe next year at the latest.

Once viewed as a poor substitute for its intoxicating rivals, lower strength beers have shrugged off their party-pooper image to become a stellar performer in a declining beer market.

Carolans is an Irish cream liqueur with a total volume above 600,000 nine-litre cases sold in more than 60 markets. 60 percent of the brand’s sales are in the United States. The same could be said for Frangelico, a premium Italian hazelnut liqueur. The U.S. accounts for 50 percent of the brand’s sales.

In case you ever wondered how beer supply works in these huge tents which seat over 8000 people each – well, this is what Paulaner has come up with. Its new tent is the first with a central beer supply. Beer is stored in only three tanks (total capacity 840 hl) which feed an underground beer line, which supplies five tapping stations. The circular line is 240 metres long and has a diameter of 10 cm. The pressure is 1.5 bar. The new line allows 15 litres of beer per minute to be served at each of the 11 taps. That’s 9,900 mass beer per hour and hopefully enough to keep thirsty visitors happy during peak times.

When it comes to doing politics, Bavaria’s anti-smoking legislation can only be called a blunder. Without warning or public pressure, the Bavarian coalition government in January 2008 introduced a blanket ban on smoking in public buildings, hospitals and pubs. Yet to mitigate its effects, the new law temporarily exempted beer fests like the Oktoberfest from it. As could be expected, media commentators accused the government of weasel politics and called critics into action, who immediately set out to organise a plebiscite on the issue. Although on 4 July this year only a minority of Bavarians cast their vote in favour of a strict ban of smoking, the anti-smokers’ lobby won, which meant that as of 1 August 2010 the exemptions for the Oktoberfest had to be scrapped.

The minority Scottish Government, on 2 September 2010, proposed a minimum price of GBP 0.45 (EUR 0.55) for one alcohol unit in an effort to curb excessive alcohol consumption. The proposed price would see the cost of a two-litre bottle of supermarket own-brand cider soar from GBP 1.32 to GBP 3.80 (EUR 4.60), while the price of a bottle of private label vodka would rise from GBP 7.97 to GBP 11.80 (EUR 14.40). Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health Secretary, said a minimum price was essential to help tackle the high death toll and health burden from alcohol abuse. Scots drink 25 percent more per head of population than the rest of the UK. Her proposal will be added to an alcohol bill going through the Scottish Parliament this month. Opposition parties have already vowed to throw out the proposal. The Scottish Labour Health spokesman argued that minimum unit pricing is effectively a tax on the poor paid directly to the shareholders of the big supermarkets. The Scotch Whisky Association, which represents the producers of Scotland’s most valuable single export, said the measure fails to meet the basic tests of EU law and will do little to address alcohol misuse. It would only cut total alcohol consumption by 4.3 percent. Read on

Carlsberg pitched Beo as a “bio refreshment” (in other parts of the world this translates as “organic refreshment” with “purely natural ingredients”). However, the soda contained only 5.5 percent of bio-stuff, namely sugar and malt extract, the German consumer watchdog Foodwatch.org noted with glee. For extra taste Carlsberg had added flavours plus citric acid (E 330) and ascorbic acid (E 300). Proper apples and pears, as advertised, had never got near the product.

Berlin, Germany’s capital city has little to boast about. The city is broke and unemployment is rife. Still, the cosmopolitan arty set regularly jets to Berlin to take a look at its edgy art galleries, which thrive on low rents and a never-ending stream of hopeful young artists keen to make a name for themselves. In early September, right at the start of this autumn’s art season, 60 of Berlin’s estimated 400 galleries were pressed into service as tasting rooms, with an average of three different VDP producers serving their wines to paying members of the public. Jancis Robinson, the wine writer, admitted that initially she could not quite imagine how wine & art would work out. In London it could all too easily have degenerated into a sleazy booze-up - provided there would have been enough galleries volunteering for such an event in the first place.