Except for Crown Imports, the top U.S. brewers saw beer sales flat or decline in the nine months to end of September 2013, Beerinsights reports. Meanwhile, lots of craft brewers continued to score double-digit growth.

In the on-premise sector, beer has had a challenging year. According to GuestMetrics, a company that tracks the hospitality industry, sales of beer in the first ten months of 2013 are down 3.7 percent, underperforming the wine and spirits categories.

India currently represents one of PepsiCo’s largest markets globally. In mid-November, PepsiCo announced plans for the company and its partners to invest 5.5 billion USD in India by 2020 to increase the capabilities in the areas of innovation, manufacturing, infrastructure and agriculture. In addition, the investment is expected to significantly increase production capacity to meet the growing demand for PepsiCo foods and beverages. The company and its partners plan to expand capacity in India to more than double current levels by 2020.

It would have been nice if regulators had turned the other way. But no, in early November 2013 AB-InBev announced they will sell their 30 percent stake in City Beverage Illinois, a beer distributor in the Chicago area, to the Hand Family Cos., to comply with new Illinois alcohol regulation.

Beer legally brewed with medical marijuana may be light years away, but it would give the American IPA a whole new meaning, wouldn’t it? Already there are a few producers of “soda pot” around. Yep, the soft drinks are made with the “sacred grass”, not hemp. The company Canna Cola, located in Las Vegas (where else?) is among them. So far, their marijuana soft drinks with zany labels like Orange Kush, Sour Diesel, Grape Ape, and Doc Weed, can only be bought in states where medicinal marijuana is legal and by patients who have a prescription from their doctors.

It could get interesting. In November, the “Belgizians”, as executives of Belgian-Brazilian brewer AB-InBev are nicknamed, will meet the Teamsters union to start contract talks. At issue is a new contract for workers at Anheuser-Busch's 12 U.S. breweries, including St. Louis, the U.S. headquarters for AB-InBev. The current contract expires 28 February 2014.

There are hobbies and hobbies. Some play golf, others sue. On 18 October 2013 U.S. media reported that a man from Miami has filed a class action lawsuit against AB-InBev, alleging that although Beck’s beer is brewed in the U.S., the company’s marketing practices deceive consumers into believing it’s imported from Germany. He has asked for USD 5 million in damages.

Will Boulevard remain a craft brewer now that it has been sold to Belgium’s brewer Duvel Moortgat? Don’t they have anything more important to worry about at the Brewers Association? Julia Herz, craft beer programme director at the Brewers Association, has ruled on the matter: “Yes, Boulevard is still a craft brewer meeting all three pillars of our definition even with new parent company Duvel ownership.”

The 4th VLB Ibero-American Brewery Symposium

On August 6th - 8th 2013, around 240 brewers and industry experts from South America, North America and Europe converged on Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the 4th Ibero-American Symposium on Brewing and Filling Technology. Organized by the VLB Berlin, the symposium was actively supported by three leading breweries in Argentina – CCU Argentina, Quilmes und SAB Miller. SENAI from Brazil was joined by the American Society for Brewing Chemists (ASBC) for the first time as a collaboration partner for the event.

Do consumers really care where their beer is brewed? That’s the billion dollar question Constellation, the sole owner of Modelo’s brands in the U.S., will have to find an answer to in the next couple of years.