Quickly picking up on consumer trends, the privately-owned Belgian brewer Duvel Moortgat bought a 60 percent stake in London's JARR Kombucha, which produces a range of fermented teas. The transaction became public on 22 November 2018, although no financial details were disclosed.

Irish drinks group C&C, the maker of Bulmers/Magners cider and Tennent's lager, will invest in a new brewery in Dublin, to increase capacity for its Five Lamps craft beer label.

Independently-owned craft breweries represented just 2.6 percent of domestic beer consumption in 2017, say The Independent Craft Brewers of Ireland (ICBI), a trade organisation representing independently owned microbreweries across the Republic of Ireland, in a November 2018 report. The Irish beer market is controlled by Diageo/Guinness, Heineken, Molson Coors, and AB-InBev.

A rout in AB-InBev's share price since the beginning of this year has led plenty of commentators to ask if the business model of world's major brewer, which was based on a sequence of takeovers ("buy and build"), has not run its course. When the Brazilians pulled off InBev's acquisition of Anheuser-Busch in 2008, which ultimately became AB-InBev, it seemed like a guaranteed winner. AB-InBev had such success generating value in the global market, it appeared that Big Beer was a logical target, given its enduring power in the market.

Patriotism and craft beer seem to go together well as the tiny country of Scotland boasts lots of craft breweries. According to the BBC, there are 115 breweries across Scotland this year, compared with just 35 in 2010. More than 80 percent are microbreweries. One in three sits either in the Highlands or in Edinburgh.

Since July 1, 2018, Markus Gerner has been strengthening the team of Ziemann Holvrieka GmbH, Ludwigsburg, as Head of Sales Western Europe. “In addition to his professional qualifications, Markus Gerner has many years of practical and sales experience in the European brewing, beverage, food and dairy industry, which makes him the ideal contact person for our customers”, explained Florian Schneider, the company’s Head of Sales EMEA.

As the EU lurches towards a ban on plastic drinking straws, anti-pollution campaigners are advocating more far-reaching measures. In October 2018, the umbrella NGO Break Free from Plastic, consisting of about 1,300 groups, including Greenpeace, released a global audit, which identifies Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle as being among a handful of businesses that are contributing most to ocean pollution.

Is BrewDog aiming to become the next Virgin group – the conglomerate that flogs everything from drinks to flowers and airline tickets? As of 2019, BrewDog will be taking to the skies with the launch of its own airline. In fact, the Scottish brewer has only announced a single round trip from London Stanstead to Columbus, Ohio, and only shareholders in BrewDog (they are called Equity Punks) are eligible to buy a ticket.

Emerging markets have always spelt “volatility”. There have been ups and downs. This year quite a few emerging markets have stumbled and AB-InBev is bearing the brunt. As was expected by many analysts, AB-InBev felt compelled to cut its dividend on 25 October 2018, as it reported weaker profits and lower volumes in several of its key markets in the third quarter 2018.

Are we “past beer”? Some investors clearly think that in the brewing industry heady deals are a thing of the past, and seek to put their money elsewhere. Having done nicely out of AB-InBev’s generous dividend pay-outs, two Belgian shareholders of AB-InBev, the families de Spoelberch and de Mévius, have taken to investing their spoils into other industries.