The Brewers Association (BA) released on March 15, 2017 its annual lists of the top 50 craft and overall brewing companies in the U.S., based on beer sales volume. Of the top 50 overall brewing companies, 40 were craft brewing companies.

Go north, young man, if you want to start a beer business. Go to über-cool Copenhagen, Denmark, the hyggiest and happiest city on earth which rose to fame for its madcap cyclists, culinary revolution and, yes indeed, Mikkeller. Once you’ve got a tattoo and a van Dyck beard, hob-nob with arty types, become a Rate-Beerian, and woo the local beer buffs with your homebrew. That should set you up for greater things to come.

Constant monitoring of cleanliness of the operation is routine in a brewery. Microbiological checks are an important part of hygiene monitoring. Swab samples from plants and equipment and their surroundings were cultivated. Depending on microorganism exposure, these exhibit hazes or colour changes in culture media at various rates. Additional analyses of these samples require a lot of experience and are often imprecise. A rapid test detecting PCR products on a test strip could be useful in evaluating difficult samples. This test strip might work in a similar way to a pregnancy test strip.

Every year, Brand Finance values the brands of thousands of the world’s biggest companies. The world’s top 25 beer brands are included in the Brand Finance Beers 25.

Globalisation, like history, knows no end. How will it progress further? And which role can craft brewers play? Ina Verstl and Ernst Faltermeier, authors of the book The Beer Monopoly, discuss the state of the brewing industry with Michael Schmitt, the publisher of BRAUWELT International. Here are their key arguments.

Beer production worldwide declined in 2015 by 30 million hl (–1.5 %) compared to the 1933 million hl produced in 2014. This is given in the current Barth Report 2015/2016. Global beer production had already dropped in the previous year by 0.6 per cent to 1963 million hl.

The 2016 hop harvest is over. The AHA (Hop Analysis Working Group) announces the average alpha acid values as determined in freshly harvested hops. Members of the AHA include the laboratories of the German processing plants, LfL Hüll, BLQ Weihenstephan, VLB Berlin, TU Berlin, Labor Veritas Zurich and the Slovenian Institute of Hop Research and Brewing Žalec. These values are the basis of any modifications to supply contracts with “alpha clause”. To raise the informational content, some varieties have been added to this table: the newest German varieties and some others from the growing regions Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Brewers seem to be blessed with a sturdy health. This is no surprise as the endless change of climate zones between fermenting hall/storage cellar and brewhouse toughens up the human organism. But this is not as simple as it sounds: a brewery involves a multitude of hazards, from scalding to frostbites up until death by asphyxiation due to inhalation of carbon dioxide. In this article, the significance of occupational safety in general and the hazards in the daily work routine in particular are dealt with and recommendations are given to help brewers to keep safe.

Those under the impression that in the world of beer there is nothing new under the sun, must simply travel south to sunny Italy. In 1985 the first brewpub in Sorrento near Naples opened its doors. Though this region is known for its wines, something very intriguing began stirring in the country’s brewery landscape, and it has quite rapidly gained momentum. 30 years on, in the land of blossoming lemon trees, a brewing culture is flowering which has reached cult status like no other. Italian breweries now regularly win awards at international competitions, among them the prestigious European Beer Star in 2016.

At their sixth annual Beer Serves Europe event in November 2016, The Brewers of Europe presented two new publications, the 180-country study “Beer Connects Europe with the World” and the 2016 edition of “Beer Statistics”, highlight how beer is accompanying Europe’s economic recovery and flowing increasingly towards fast growing areas of the globe.