Man, some people are really stupid. They drink beer from shoes and boots at the Munich Oktoberfest – should you need proof. How disgusting.

As the talks between AB-InBev and SABMiller drag on, more and more critical voices can be heard via an all too willing international media, arguing that the

For the potential ignominy of losing the battle against AB-InBev, SABMiller’s managers will be royally rewarded. According to The Guardian newspaper, around 1,700 top managers at brewer SABMiller could be in line for payouts averaging USD 1 million (GBP 650,000) each, if AB-InBev succeeds in taking SABMiller over.

To say that beer is in vogue nowadays is the understatement of the year! Recently, hobby brewing has become really popular not only here in Belgium but with our neighbours too, some of whom have developed into real craft brewers.

Being the biggest is also best for shareholders, it seems. In the past three years alone, the Belgian family shareholders in brewer AB-InBev received dividends totalling EUR 2.2 billion (USD 2.5 billion), a report by the Belgian magazine Trends (16 September 2015) says. By comparison, the Heineken family received about EUR 950 million in dividends between 2000 and 2014, according to estimates by the UK’s Sunday Times and Dutch media.

Plans to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Scotland face further delay, following an initial ruling by Europe's highest court. The European Court of Justice advocate general, Yves Bot, said on 3 September 2015 that the move risked infringing EU rules on free trade. In an official opinion, he said minimum pricing would only be legal if it could be shown no other mechanism could protect public health.

So it will be MegaBrew after all? AB-InBev, the world’s number one brewer has approached the world’s number two brewer, SABMiller, to explore a tie-up, which analysts have dubbed MegaBrew. In a statement on 16 September 2015, SABMiller said it had been informed that AB-InBev intends to make a bid proposal for the company.

Long time, no hear about anyone courting the world’s number two brewer SABMiller. Deal rumours died down after in September last year Heineken publically rebuffed an offer by SABMiller to combine.

Is saying something “agrees with you” actually the same as saying “it will do you lots of good”? That’s what a German law court thinks and in its verdict on 25 August 2015 prohibited a small brewery from using the word “bekömmlich” (“agreeable” and derived from the toast “wohl bekomm’s”) on its beer bottles.

Who remembers the infamous Guinness Light, a wheat beer called Breo and Guinness Black Lager? They were the not-so successful product launches by Guinness. Fortunately, others have done better. Last year, Guinness introduced a number of new products in the key Irish and UK markets, including two new porters and a golden ale, it was reported.