In the village they call the brewery the “beer church” and, by the looks of the building with its arched windows, villagers are not far off the mark. Nor when it comes to size. It’s the largest structure in the village of Ingvallsbenning (50 permanent residents) in central Sweden. No doubt, the delivery trucks will have a fun time reaching the brewery which is 8 km away from the nearest town (Hedemora) and about 180 km from Stockholm.

When releasing its third quarter 2016 results on 28 October 2016, AB-InBev not only reported a surprise drop in profits, but the world’s number one brewer also cut its revenue forecast for the full year, saying it no longer expects sales growth to beat inflation in 2016 because of declining volumes in Brazil.

For the first time ever, in 2015, more beer was sold in supermarkets and off-licences than in Britain’s 145,000 pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants. According to a recent report by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), of the 44 million hl beer sold, 51 percent found its way to consumers via the off-trade channel. The remaining 49 percent was sold through pubs, clubs and other licensed premises.

It was only a matter of time. With Russian beer consumption in decline for the past eight years, Heineken said on 5 October 2016 that it will suspend production at PIT Company, its affiliate in the Russian city of Kaliningrad, from 1 January 2017. With a population of nearly one million people, Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave by the Baltic Sea lodged between Poland and Lithuania.

How could this happen? Heineken Ireland has claimed that some of its beers have been purposefully mislabelled and sold as fake craft beer in certain pubs in Ireland, fuelling consumer debate over what constitutes a ‘craft’ beer. The scandal broke in September 2016 and has had punters wagging their tongues since.

Millennials are seen as such a strange breed of consumers that the German discount retailer Aldi has decided to launch its own range of craft wines in 0.5 litre beer bottles with groovy looking labels and sealed with crown caps. The reason? Craft beer is setting the standard for the whole alcohol category.

By the time you will be reading this, SABMiller will be no more. After winning shareholder approval on 28 September 2016, AB-InBev will drop the SABMiller name and begin trading as a combined company on 11 October 2016. SABMiller ceased trading on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges on 5 October 2016.

A buyer no one had on the radar has snatched up the Belgian brewer Bosteels. Media reported on 9 September 2016 that AB-InBev has purchased the 225-year-old Brouwerij Bosteels, best known for its Kwak and Karmeliet beers.

There are signs that Russia’s economy is bottoming. Analysts say that Russia’s unemployment peaked in March 2016 at 6 percent, but declined to 5.3 percent in July. Inflation has been gradually slowing from 9.8 percent in January to 7.2 percent in July. They expect declining inflation to partially offset the headwinds from increasing price competition in the beer industry.

Should Mr Castel be amused or intrigued? AB-InBev CEO Carlos Brito told analysts that, once the SABMiller takeover has been bedded down, he hopes to develop SAB’s partnership with France’s Castel Group. The privately-owned Castel Group is one of the biggest brewers in Africa. For over a decade SABMiller and Castel had an alliance whereby SABMiller owned 20 percent of Castel and Castel owned 38 percent of SABMiller’s African business, excluding South Africa.