USA | Boston Beer, the brewer of Sam Adams beer, increased annual turnover slightly to USD 995 million in 2018, the company reported on 20 February 2019. It benefitted from a good fourth quarter, which registered a turnover of USD 225 million compared with USD 162 million in the fourth quarter 2017. Its profits (EBIT) for the full year were USD 117 million.

USA | Constellation Brands seeks to “optimise” its wine and spirits portfolio. The alcohol firm became the number three brewer in the US, thanks to brewing Mexico’s Modelo brands for sale in the United States.

USA | In response to AB-InBev’s Super Bowl ad, which rubbished its rival for its use of corn syrup, MillerCoors has pulled out of a meeting with AB-InBev, Constellation Brands and Heineken, scheduled for March 2019. During the meeting, the three brewers were to decide on generic campaigns in support of the overall beer category, the Wall Street Journal reported.

USA | What do you call a career that weathers two company sales in short succession? The answer is: lucrative. Cutwater Spirits, an upstart distillery from San Diego, has sold itself to AB-InBev for an undisclosed sum. The transaction, which is AB-InBev’s first in the distilling industry, was disclosed on 20 February 2019.  

Mexico | The Mexican Coke bottler and retailer FEMSA will start selling AB-InBev’s beers, including Corona and Pacifico, at its Oxxo stores. This was announced on 26 February 2019. The agreement will take effect in April for certain Mexican markets, and will spread to all stores by the end of 2022.

USA |The going is getting tougher for craft brewers, if off-premise sales are anything to go by. According to market research firm IRI, sales of craft beer in supermarkets and the like in 2018 only rose 1.2 percent (until 2 December 2018), compared with the 6 percent growth in 2017.

USA | Craft brewer Lagunitas may have gone fully corporate under Heineken’s roof, but it is not as if its brewers have lost their knack for creating new recipes. Lagunitas was called in to modernise the iconic brown ale and give it a more craft appeal for release in the US in March 2019.

USA | You would have thought that Corona Extra, the number one imported beer brand, with a near 5 percent share of the market, can do no wrong. But in 2018, after more than a decade of growth, the brand swung into decline.

USA | It looks like a nitro-stout but it will taste like a cola. Called Nitro Pepsi, the drink combines nitrogen infusion with the classic Pepsi taste to “deliver an entirely reimagined cola experience”, according to Pepsi’s PR.

USA | Taking localism to its logical conclusion, over 90 percent of ingredients in Black Button’s spirits are grown or produced in its home state of New York. Calling itself a farm distillery, Black Button was founded in Rochester, New York, in 2012 by Jason Barrett, then only 24 years old. Mr Barrett stems from a family of button-makers. Their buttons have closed suits worn by presidents, popes, kings, and businessmen the world over, he says on his website.