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.

At last. On 7 October 2015 AB-InBev announced that it wants to acquire SABMiller for GBP 42.15 per share in cash, which would value SABMiller, including debt, at GBP 72 billion (USD 110 billion).

Unless you shop for your beer at the discount supermarket Aldi, you would not know that behind Aldi’s big seller Karlsquell beer is the family-owned Belgian brewer Martens.

What? Gin not Scotch whisky? UK embassies were told to serve gin at official functions as the UK’s government makes a concerted push to double the level of gin exports, media reported on 28 August 2015.

Not exactly the premiere he must have hoped for. Carlsberg’s CEO Cees ’t Hart, the former head of the Dutch dairy company Royal FrieslandCampina who took over at Carlsberg in June, had to break the bad news on 19 August 2015 that the world’s number four brewer was expecting a slight fall in profit for the full year after reporting first half organic volume declines of -1 percent in Western Europe and a drop of -18 percent in Eastern Europe, which were not offset by volume sales in Asia (+5 percent).

AB-InBev must be glad that they have found a buyer for their Hannover brewery, which has long been surplus to their requirements in Germany. According to estimates, beer production at Gilde is only 150,000 hl although the plant has a capacity of over 1 million hl.