The partly empty stadiums during the Olympics drove it home again: Brazil is in deep recession. Moreover, per capita beer consumption has been flat for several years at 63 litres and people have taken to drinking beer at home rather than at a bar. Off-premise consumption is 37 percent. This puts AB-InBev’s growth prospects somewhat in danger, considering the clear signs that its strategy, which focused on the on-premise with mainstream brands in returnable glass bottles, no longer seems to move the needle, so to say.

Are they holier than thou? Only hours after Revolver announced that it had been sold to MillerCoors, the Texas Craft Brewers Guild on 11 August 2016 released a new set of requirements defining what it takes to be a member brewery.

Exchange of know-how at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada

This year’s Young Scientists Symposium on Malting, Brewing and Distilling (YSS) took place in the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California, USA, under the overall chairmanship of Prof. Charles W. Bamforth (University of California, Davis). Young scientists from many nations met at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada from April 21st to 23rd in order to present their researches in the area of brewing and distilling technology.

Bye, bye to double digit growth? Craft beer slowed to its lowest growth rate in seven years. During the first six months of 2016, volumes were up 8 percent over the same period last year, says the Brewers’ Association (BA). That’s a big drop from the 13 percent rate craft beer notched in the first half of 2015, and just half the 16 percent expansion it enjoyed in 2014.

Finally, on 20 July 2016, AB-InBev received US antitrust approval to merge with SABMiller. The approval by the Department of Justice (DOJ) was seen as a major obstacle towards the eventual merger, expected to be completed later this year.

You don’t announce a deal these days via the media, you tweet it to all and sundry. The Oregon craft brewer Hop Valley, which was founded in 2009 and has two pub locations in the Eugene area, announced the sale of a majority stake to MillerCoors on its Twitter feed on 29 July 2016.

UC Davis Extension, the continuing and professional education division of UC Davis, has been an internationally recognized leader in educational outreach for individuals, organizations and communities for more than 50 years. With 58,000 annual enrollments in classroom and online university-level courses, UC Davis Extension serves lifelong learners in the growing Sacramento region, all 50 states and more than 100 countries.

Craft beer appears at the crossroads. There are more than 4600 breweries in the U.S., and new ones open at a rate of about one per day. Pundits worry that craft brewers already produce more brands and varieties than supermarket shelves and bars can reasonably accommodate. There are only three options for craft brewers right now. They either need to grow bigger, club together and form groups to look bigger, or go really small and hold down their tiny bit of turf.

Why, oh why? An attorney for the U.S. craft brewer Boston Beer on 24 June 2016, the day after Britain voted to leave the European Union, filed a trademark application for the term ‘Brexit’ to be used for a hard cider. The trademark petition was first brought to light on www.tantalizingtrademarks.com.

It’s a new kind of philanthropy: Lagunitas’ founder Tony Magee, 55, announced on 29 June 2016 he will open venues in two of the nation’s brewing hotbeds — Portland, Oregon, and San Diego, California — to be used exclusively by non-profit agencies for fundraising.