Germany | Germans are a tidy lot. They separate their garbage and take their return-refill bottles back to the shops to reclaim the deposit. Hence brewers see more than 80 percent of the country’s 3 billion beer bottles return to source. Some bottles are refilled up to 30 times.

Belgium | Thanks to the rise of craft beer, there were more than 10,000 breweries operating in the European Union in 2018, up from 4,800 in 2012, according to figures released by the Brewers of Europe in December 2019.

United Kingdom | To encourage more people to vote on 12 December 2019, Scottish craft brewer BrewDog is offering a free pint to every voter at its bars, regardless of who they voted for. The offer is only valid on the day the UK goes to the polls.

United Kingdom | Business in London must be good for Mikkeller to move forward with a second London taproom in conjunction with 1980s pop star Rick Astley. The Exmouth Market site, previously a rotating pop-up space, will allow Mikkeller to also brew beer on site.

Germany | Read and weep. Krombacher is one of Germany’s most popular pils brands. Since May 2017, Krombacher in cans has been available at Aldi. This must have boosted Krombacher’s sales. But at a price.

Denmark | Danish brewer Carlsberg has revised upwards its annual profit growth outlook on 4 November 2019, saying it now expects organic operating profit to rise by around 10 percent, versus a previous forecast for a “high single-digit” percentage increase.

Germany | AB-InBev’s revolving doors are spinning faster, while top personnel is getting younger. After only seven months at the helm of AB-InBev Germany, Florian Weins, 35, has left the firm at the end of October to spend more time with his family. He is succeeded by Michel Pepa, 30, a Belgian.  

Germany | The NGO German Environmental Aid (DUH) has criticised Coca-Cola for blatant greenwashing, after the beverage giant announced plans to produce beverage containers which contain 25 percent of salvaged marine plastic.

United Kingdom | The Economist newspaper says that of all the substances people intoxicate themselves with, alcohol is the least restricted and causes the most harm. It warns that if the alcohol industry’s moderate consumption guidelines were really effective, they would ruin their sponsors’ finances.

Germany | This does not bode well for the rest of the year: From January to September 2019, brewers sold 2 percent or 1.4 million hl less beer than in the corresponding period 2017.