Well, it was only a matter of time before stock market-listed FEMSA would spin off its beer business. FEMSA’s brewing unit, FEMSA Cerveza, has been overshadowed for years by its soft drinks division Coca-Cola FEMSA (KOF), the largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America.

Speaking on an earnings conference call on 1 October 2009, the company’s executives said the summer selling season for the U.S. beer industry was challenging, but that marketing efforts are starting to help sales stabilise at its joint venture. In order to boost sagging sales, Constellation has increased its promotional activities through increased media coverage and targeted marketing programmes. The company also plans to introduce new packaging options and will shortly launch a 24 oz. can of Corona Extra and Corona Light brands in the market.

The sale of the Busch Entertainment unit, which owns the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks, has long been expected as part of AB-InBev’s plans to pay for its USD 52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch last year.

Perhaps it is because I happen to live in Mr Rumsfeld’s Old Europe that I wonder if this Blogger Culture, or Blog Fest, or Blogosphere is not just a lot of intense navel-gazing of zero relevance. If all that collected outrage that can be found on www.stltoday.com/blogzone/lager-heads/ really had an impact on how consumers feel about long-cherished beer brands, surely people would stop buying AB-InBev products.

The Justice Ministry will follow a recommendation from CADE, as the country’s anti-trust agency is known, and open an investigation of AmBev’s executives, Mariana Tavares, the ministry’s anti-trust division chief was quoted as saying. The probe could result in civil charges against the executives.

The news of higher beer prices will go down very well with consumers who have been told only a few weeks ago that AB-InBev’s compensation for their 13-member executive board nearly doubled in the first half of the year.

The four-hour Siebel Institute Sensory Analysis Seminar is designed to train brewers and beer enthusiasts in the process of sensory evaluation of beer.

The Siebel Institute, in conjunction with the Ethanol Technology Institute, is currently putting together a course in beverage distillation.

Royal Unibrew (selling under the brands Faxe and Ceres) said on 12 August that it agreed to sell its three Caribbean breweries to the Dominican brewery CND for a total consideration of USD 31 million.