USA | Allegations of sexual, racial and other misconduct, which were published on Instagram in May, have rocked the American craft beer industry. They have prompted resignations, firings and promises for change.

USA | In the old days, employees lived by the rule: leave your politics and religion at the front door. Not any longer. Now they are encouraged to bring their “whole self to work”, which willy-nilly includes their political beliefs. Internal message boards are full of heated debates about all kinds of social issues. What are company bosses to do?

USA | Is this just an American thing or will it catch on in Europe too? US craft brewers have long used their beers as a soapbox. From Lagunitas’ Undercover Shut-Down Ale, a jab at a 2005 St Patrick’s Day police raid on their brewery, to the many anti-Trump beers, craft brewers have found that embracing a cause can help sell a product.

USA | Call it a sign of how desperate industry watchers have become that a merger between France’s drinks firm Pernod Ricard and US distiller Brown-Forman is being talked up again, following Diageo’s recent launch of a share buyback programme.

USA | Heineken, AB-InBev, Molson Coors – all the world’s major brewers want to move beyond their traditional male, beer-drinking image and attract more female and younger drinkers. Fact is: beer has lost its oomph to other alcoholic beverages like wine, spirits and a host of beverages, which defy previous classifications.

USA | It is still early days for Boston Beer. But like all the major brewers it is seeing a huge growth potential for cannabis beverages. Therefore, it has set up a Canada-based subsidiary for non-alcoholic beverages infused with cannabis.

USA | The unstoppable rise of cans. Sales of beer in cans were up 11 percent in 2020, says Beer Marketers Insights, a trade publication. While domestic draught beer sales dropped 7.9 million barrels (9.3 million hl) and bottles fell almost 3.6 million barrels, cans picked all that up.

USA | On Earth Day (22 April), New Belgium shocked its punters by releasing Torched Earth Ale, a beer made entirely with ingredients available in a climate-ravaged future.

USA | BrewDog signed the lease for Las Vegas’ first and only carbon negative bar, which is believed to be opening later this year.

USA | Constellation Brands is finding itself in an awkward situation with no easy way out. In March 2020, Mexicali residents, in a referendum, rejected the completion of the 10 million hl brewery at a cost of more than USD 1 billion, which Constellation had already partly built.