… and about time too. A court in the liberal city of Amsterdam took a decidedly illiberal attitude to these “rolling taps” and banned them in early November 2017. Invented by two Dutchmen, these beer bikes are carts that have been modified with seats arranged around a bar table. Patrons power the bike as they pedal beside the city's famous canals, while drinking beer.

Trappist monks at the Mount St Bernard Abbey in rural North West Leicestershire (that’s between Birmingham and Nottingham) have been given council approval to convert part of their 19th century Cistercian monastery into a fully operational brewery. England once boasted 54 Cistercian monasteries (called abbeys), but these were dissolved by Henry VIII in the late 1530s.

Research by the accountancy group UHY Hacker Young found there were 1,994 breweries in the UK at the end of 2016, up 18 percent from the 1,692 recorded at the end of 2015. This is the highest number since the 1930s.

Heineken NV, the world’s number two brewer, reported a 2.5 percent increase in third-quarter beer sales to 60 million hl on 26 October 2017, with growth in all regions except Europe, where cool summer weather reduced demand, and in the United States.

The world’s number one brewer reported unsatisfactory third-quarter results with beer volumes dropping 1.2 percent to 161 million hl. Shareholders will take some comfort from management’s announcement that cost savings from the USD 104 billion SABMiller acquisition will be USD 400 million higher than the originally estimated USD 2.8 billion. The USD 3.2 billion savings will be delivered within the same four-year period, which is by October 2020.

On 28 September 2017, the Brewers of Europe stated in a press release that they were successfully implementing their voluntary commitment to list ingredients and provide comparable nutrition information, calling on other sectors to follow their lead in view of the alcohol industry proposal due in March next year.

The Scientific Committee of the 13th Trends in Brewing invites researchers around the world to submit abstracts for presentation at their 2018 Meeting in Ghent, Belgium, taking place from 8 until 12 April 2018. The meeting will feature a wide range of exciting scientific lectures, discussions, and numerous networking opportunities with researchers and experts in the field of Malting and Brewing Technology. Abstracts will be peer reviewed and acceptance will be based on scientific content and relevance, available space, and overall program balance.

Is this a chain reaction? After Birra del Borgo, located in Borgorose near Rome, was sold to AB-InBev in 2016, Belgium’s Duvel Moortgat snapped up a minority stake in Birra del Ducato, located in Soragna, a town halfway between Milan and Bologna. Though the deal was sealed late in 2016, it was only disclosed in July this year.

Heineken and Molson Coors are both “associate members” of the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), a situation that displeases some of its members.

Is accepting private equity funds the accolade for craft brewers? It may seem this way. Because, by taking in a GBP 15 million (USD 19.6 million) investment by the US private equity firm L Catterton in exchange for a 28 percent stake, disclosed in September 2017, Scottish brewer Innis & Gunn has proven the doubters wrong that its wonky finances could bring the company down.