Thursday last week – 8 March – was International Women’s Day. To support women and their campaigns towards their fair share of the world, Diageo and BrewDog each launched one of their popular products in women-friendly packaging. Diageo brought out a special edition of its Johnny Walker Scotch, calling it Jane Walker, while Scottish craft brewer BrewDog released a satirical pink-branded “beer for girls”, which is basically a variation of Brewdog's Punk IPA with a pink label.

Thanks to Italy’s vibrant craft beer sector, the country has a beer trade show again. BeerAttraction’s predecessor Pianeta Birra, which was also held in Rimini, died several years ago, after the country’s Big Brewers pulled their support.

Thanks to Brazil rebounding after two tumultuous years in the region and the integration of SABMiller proceeding well, AB-InBev reported on 1 March 2018 that revenue increased 5.1 percent in 2017 to USD 56.4 billion (EUR 46.3 billion) while profits (EBITDA) rose 13.4 percent to USD 22.1 billion (EUR 18.1 billion). AB-InBev’s EBITDA margin stood at 39.1 percent in 2017.

Is it possible that AB-InBev’s job lot sale of the two breweries could be untied again? Insiders think that their new owner, the former banker and consultant Daniel Deistler, who acquired them from AB-InBev in January 2018 for an unknown sum (estimates range from EUR 150 million to EUR 200 million), might exactly do this.

Have the good times come to an end? Volatile markets and an acquisition in Brazil prompted the world’s number two brewer Heineken to forecast that its profitability in 2018 would improve by less than the target it had set for the previous three years.

Danish brewer Carlsberg reported 2017 profit well below analysts’ expectations, hit by a fall in sales and a large write-down in its key Russian market.

Norwegian Farmhouse Brewing at the Lindheim Ølkompani (Part 2)

Flora of the Fruktbygda | In the previous installment, we became acquainted with the “Fruktbygda”, the fruit-growing region around Gvarv, Norway, and the Lindheim Ølkompani, the family farmhouse brewery located there. In this installment, we take a closer look at the research presently underway at the Lindheim farm.

The German Sonderweg

Beer in Germany | Have a guess: how long do you need to work for a bottle of beer in Germany? Even on minimum wage it’s only four minutes. Our spectacularly low beer prices in the off-premise are great for consumers, but catastrophic for brewers. Nearly all brewers battle with declining volumes, aggressive retailers and dwindling profits. Premiumisation would be a way out but few have the courage to go down that path.

Data provided by Morgan Stanley shows that the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia this summer could lift beer consumption. It estimates football fans’ impact on beer consumption at two percent. As a result, it expects that Russia’s beer market would grow during 2018, for the first time in a decade. Recently Anadolu Efes reported that beer consumption dropped in the low single digits in 2017.

It may be the world’s oldest brewery and owned by the Bavarian state government, but this does not mean that its people are retrogressive codgers. Weihenstephan Brewery, located outside Munich since monks began brewing there in 1040, has a new hefeweissbier. It’s a collaboration between the state-owned brewer and California’s major craft brewer Sierra Nevada.