The question has been simmering for months: Will AB-InBev try to cut down its network of U.S. beer distributors as it prowls for cost savings and extra revenues?

Fritz Maytag, Jack McAuliffe, Fred Eckhardt, and Charlie Papazian: together, this group is credited as “the men who launched a thousand breweries”. Without them, the craft beer renaissance in the U.S. might never have happened.

Grupo Modelo, which brews Corona Extra, will have a 51 percent stake in the joint venture firm, to be called Integrow Malt LLC, and Cargill will own the remaining 49 percent, Grupo Modelo said in a filing with the Mexican Stock Exchange.

Gone are the ponytails and the goatees. Many U.S. craft brewers now sport some silvery strands in their hair and dress more conservatively than in previous years. Well, that’s probably owed to their running successful businesses employing some 100,000 people. But the laid-back, hippyish atmosphere still prevails. Thirty years on, the U.S. craft brewing industry with its 1,500 breweries has very much arrived at the centre of society.

On 9 April 2010 Mr Sands said Constellation’s modest fiscal 2011 profit forecast partly reflects the weakness of the joint venture, as many U.S. consumers continue to buy less expensive beers.

Maker’s Mark, a premium brand of bourbon, is topped off with red wax in a design that is "off limits to our competitors," said Maker’s Mark President Bill Samuels in a statement.

According to a statement by the Brewers’ Association, the 2010 World Beer Cup eclipsed the record of the Brewers Association’s own Great American Beer Festival (GABF) to become the largest commercial competition ever. There were 3,308 entries judged in the 2009 GABF, compared to the 2010 World Beer Cup’s 3,330 entries.

The 79-year-old Mr Buffett, known as the “Sage of Omaha” for his investing skills, had praised McLane in February in his annual letter to shareholders, in which he singled it out as the only big company Berkshire Hathaway owned in the sector that did not suffer in the recession.

"We don’t see 2010 as a frothy year across the board," Craig Omtvedt, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Fortune was reported as saying.

Despite the softening of the overall beer market, craft brewers have every reason to be jubilant. Last year, craft beer volumes grew by 7.2 percent in hl and 10.3 percent in dollars over 2008.