Continuing its strategy of snapping up leading craft brewers in individual states, AB-InBev on 12 April 2016 said it agreed to acquire Devils Backbone in Virginia. Financial terms of the deal, expected to close in the second quarter, were not disclosed.

After several years of impressive growth, cider sales slowed down to grow by just 10.8 percent in 2015, according to Nielsen market research. In 2014, sales increased by 71 percent and in 2013 by 89 percent.

There must be something in the beer, or why do U.S. beer drinkers tend to drag AB-InBev to court? The most recent plaintiff is Henry Vazquez, an optometrist who said that AB-InBev’s deceptive packaging caused him to overpay for Leffe beer.

The Teamsters Union have struck a small victory. North Carolina has decided to investigate MillerCoors’ decision to close its Eden brewery, U.S. media reported on 30 March 2016. The East coast state will join the U.S. Department of Justice in its antitrust investigation into the merger of AB-InBev and SABMiller, the latter being one of the current co-owners of MillerCoors.

Soon Esau & Hueber will supply yet another pilot brewery "System Nerb" into the United States: BSG, one of the largest suppliers to the craft brewing industry in the US can expand their services in future. The plan is not only pure research on raw and auxiliary materials. Breweries can also practice product development there.

Craft beer sales enjoyed another year of double-digit increases in 2015 that added up to a 12 percent stake of the U.S. beer market, according to the Brewers Association.

Why did they change their mind? After months of rumours, it was finally announced that Florida’s craft brewer Cigar City would be sold. But it was not to AB-InBev as many had assumed. While there were talks between AB-InBev and Cigar City, and even a letter of intent signed in late 2015, the exclusivity period expired without AB-InBev having made a formal bid. We wonder why? In any case, this allowed Cigar City to negotiate with other interested parties.

You have to give it to craft brewers, they would not let an opportunity pass to market themselves. On the occasion of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland (18 to 21 July 2016), the local craft brewer Platform Beer Co., in conjunction with retailer Heinen's, will launch a special beer, local media reported on 7 March 2016.

Within the scope of a capacity expansion, Ziemann Holvrieka GmbH, Ludwigsburg/Germany installed one “Lotus” lauter tun with a diameter of 7.6 meters and 12 cylindro-conical tanks with a height of 15 meters, 5 meters in diameter and a fermentation capacity of around 2,000 hl at the Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits Company from San Diego, California.

Are we right in detecting a new strategy here? When in 2011 AB-InBev began its craft shopping spree, it bought out Chicago’s Goose Island brewery except for one thing: the brewpub where it all started in 1988.