USA | In the afternoon of 26 February 2020, a gunman killed five people and then himself during a rampage on the Milwaukee site of brewer Molson Coors. The shooter was identified as working for the company. There were no reports of injuries.

USA | There is hard evidence that hard seltzer has altered the brewing industry, maybe irreparably so. Boston Beer, which remains a leading craft brewer despite the protracted decline of its flagship Samuel Adams brand, now produces more “other beverages” than it does beer.

USA | So sad. A legacy brewer bows out. Carol Stoudt, a 1980s pioneer in the craft brewing industry in Pennsylvania, will close her brewery in early spring, the firm from Adamstown said on 2 February 2020.

USA | Molson Coors’s hard seltzer Vizzy is not even out in the market yet, and already its competitor Future Proof Brands that sells Brizzy hard seltzer has cried foul.

Canada | The Calgary craft brewery Banded Peak Brewing has been acquired by Labatt Breweries, the Canadian unit of AB-InBev, media reported on 30 January 2020.

Brazil | Heineken has refuted a Brazilian newspaper report, which said that Coca-Cola Brasil had filed a lawsuit seeking to void Heineken’s 2017 acquisition of Brasil Kirin. This was reported by esmmagazine.com on 27 January 2020.

USA | Having shifted some of Lagunitas’ export production to The Netherlands and Brazil, the Petaluma-based brewer has said it is cutting “under 5 percent” of its workforce, as part of a restructuring strategy. Lagunitas is estimated to employ under 800 people these days.

USA | There goes another one. Detroit’s Atwater brewery has sold itself to Tenth and Blake Beer Company, the US craft beer division of brewer Molson Coors, for an undisclosed sum, media reported on 22 January 2020.

USA | Driven by the phenomenal growth of its brands Mike’s Hard Lemonade and White Claw in 2019, the privately owned firm will invest USD 385 million in two breweries. The first to open in June 2020 is an USD 250 million plant in Glendale, Arizona.

Canada | In the first full year of cannabis legalisation, the nation’s domestic beer production fell 3.9 percent over 2018, according to data from Beer Canada, a trade body. The drop in consumption was less pronounced, though, as beer imports grew 1.4 percent.