Are we alone in wondering if AB-InBev want to have the whole of the brewing industry covered from “AB”-InBev to “ZX” Ventures? Recall that AB-InBev launched the “disrupter” ZX Ventures (the Z reportedly stands for Zythology, the study of beer, and the X stands for eXperience) in February 2015, with the goal of investing into higher end and non-traditional areas of the beer category.

“Independence” is such a hallmark of beer industry identity that the Brewers Association created a seal to designate which breweries are and are not independently owned.

From September 4th to 6th RMI Analytics conducted a crop tour of hop production facilities in the USA’s largest production region, the Yakima Valley in Washington State. By the start of the tour the harvest was unusually well advanced, about two weeks ahead of usual. The outlook from farmers and merchants was for a good harvest mainly due to the acreage expansion with yields looking around the average but as yet there’s no clear view from the field though Barth-Haas has pegged the USA crop at 45,000MT, a 5000MT increase on 2016.

With most of the growth in the craft beer segment going to those “one-of” local breweries these days, it was only a matter of time before the Big Brewers like AB-InBev in the US and Lion in Australia would be trying their hands at local brewery-plus-taproom concepts too.

For the 36th time, beer lovers gathered from 5 to 7 October 2017 in Denver, Colorado, at the annual Great American Beer Festival (GABF), the renowned American beer festival and competition, to sample some 3,800 beers from more than 800 craft breweries around the country. 60,000 tickets were sold for the event.

“Creative destruction” is one of those buzz terms corporate leaders like to pay lip-service to. But for AB-InBev it’s a modus operandi. In early September 2017 the industry was shocked to read that AB-InBev had laid off around 90 percent or 380 sales force employees from its High End division in the US, which is the arm of the company that deals with import brands like Stella and Leffe as well as its US craft brewery acquisitions.

American craft brewers are not just making beer, they also use their beer sales as a force for good. Craft brewers donated an estimated USD 73.4 million to charitable causes in 2016, up from USD 71 million in 2014.

… because what you will see might throw you into a depression. Between 2008 and 2016 the US beer market shrunk from 219 million barrels (256 million hl) to 213 million barrels (249 million hl) and that despite the fact that the US economy under President Obama (January 2009 until January 2017) witnessed economic recovery and falling unemployment. Given the depth of the 2009 recession, some argue the recovery was relatively weak. But, compared to the Eurozone, the US economy performed relatively well, with unemployment dropping to pre-recession levels.

How do you reconcile reports of millions of Venezuelans seeking food anywhere they can find it, including trash cans and dumpsters, with a recent Reuters article (27 September 2017) that local craft brewers are creating a buzz?

On 25 September, Bill Owens turned 79. In case you have never heard of Bill (shame on you), in the course of his life he has worn many hats: he was a homebrewer, campaigner, brewpub operator, accidental inventor of the IPA style (his Alimony Ale was billed “the bitterest brew in America”), founder of the Alpha King Challenge, publisher of the American Brewer magazine and author of “How to build a small brewery”. Last but not least he was and still is an acclaimed photographer.