USA | Despite the ambiguous name, Platform is not an e-commerce site but a brewery business. The firm from Ohio was fully acquired by AB-InBev on 7 August 2019. It will join AB-InBev’s US unit Brewers Collective as its newest craft partner.

USA | After months of arbitration due to concerns about Coca-Cola violating its agreement with Monster Beverage Corp, courts have ruled on 1 July 2019 that Coke can sell its brand-name line of energy drinks globally.

USA | Long time no hear from Stone’s “True Craft” investment fund. USD 100 million were put into its piggy bank in 2016 to create an alternative source of investment for craft breweries who did not want to sell to a Big Brewer. But the fund never clinched any deals and was recently scrapped.

USA | Glen Patrick Fox, a senior research fellow at Australia’s University of Queensland, on 1 July 2019, became UC Davis’ new Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Science. Dr Fox succeeds Charlie Bamforth, who held the position from 1999 until his retirement last year.

Canada | Recreational cannabis is set to enter a new era later this year when drinkables and edibles will become legal. In June 2019, Health Canada officials announced the regulations for those new categories as well as a timetable for their coming to market.

USA | One of Germany’s oldest breweries is to establish a brewing base in Charlotte, North Carolina, a city 200 km to the east of Asheville. Founded in 1526 in Hannover, Gilde (German for "Guild") fell on hard times after it was bought by Belgium’s Interbrew in 2003.

USA – Praise where praise is due. Craft brewers saw their number and their sales rise last year. In a beer market that declined overall by 1 percent, craft beer continued to grow, with barrel output up 4 percent over 2017 to reach 26 million barrels (30.5 million hl).

USA – When does a price promotion turn into a price cut? The question is pertinent as Constellation Brands, the number three brewer in the US, appears to be discounting Corona family 12-packs of cans in markets across the country for weeks to come.

USA – It is not a ruling MillerCoors must have hoped for. A US court on 24 May 2019 only barred AB-InBev from using some parts of its advertising that said rival MillerCoors used corn syrup in the production of its light beers.

Canada – Ontario is expanding the sale of beer, wine and cider to almost 300 corner stores this summer as part of Premier Doug Ford’s push to liberalise liquor rules in the province. The bill, which was passed on 6 June 2019, entails ripping up an agreement with The Beer Store. The retailer has already signalled it will fight the move in the courts.