The rising star of Africa

There were not many compelling reasons for AB-InBev to take over SABMiller, except for one: AB-InBev wanted SABMiller’s African business. If projections hold true, the African continent with its 1.2 billion people will become a critical driver for the future growth of AB-InBev’s business. Between 2015 and 2025 beer volumes in Africa are expected to rise over 30 million hl to reach to 175 million hl. With global beer volumes in decline since 2013 all hopes now rest on Africa to replace China as the driving force in the brewing industry. Imagine that: brewers will be saved by Africa, a continent that has long struggled to shake off its image as ‘lost’.

Beer diversity all over the world

The 12th Trends in Brewing took place in Ghent from April 3rd to 7th, 2016 (see BRAUWELT International 3 2016, pp. 192-195). The leading theme of the event was “Diversity of Beers and Beer Styles”, and the keynote speeches from Prof. Ludwig Narziß, TUM-Weihenstephan, Germany, Chuck Skypeck, Brewers Association, USA, Chonlada Manakul, Boonrawd Brewery, Thailand, and Christian von der Heide, Newlands Systems, Canada, provided a good overview on beer diversity in the various continents. The four speeches are summarised below, exclusively for our readers.

Gathering more momentum

At the end of November last year, AB InBev surprised analysts with a sales announcement. With reference to antitrust regulations, the focus was all of a sudden on three European shareholdings – Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime – in the context of the SABMiller takeover. After, initially, a lot pointed towards a Private Equity (PE) deal, Asahi was ultimately successful. At a glance, this is nothing but another puzzle piece in global market consolidation but it has the potential of having far-reaching consequences for the European brewing sector.

Resilience is the word

While over in the US craft brewers are eying the impending merger of AB-InBev and SABMiller warily, craft brewers in South Africa are genuinely worried. Although SABMiller controls nearly 90 percent of the local market, it has proved a friendly competitor, essentially refraining from throwing its weight around. How craft brewers will fare once the Brazilians take over is a much debated topic these days. Will they come in and start buying up breweries as they have in the US, or will they try to nip the local craft beer industry in the bud to ensure it never poses a threat to their business?

A brave band of world-class brewers

Some four centuries ago, French explorers discovered the vast wilderness on either side of the mighty St. Lawrence River, one of the great waterways that drain the North American continent. Most were colonizers like Samuel de Champlain, considered the founder of Canada, or coureurs de bois (scouts) like Étienne Brûlé, who discovered four of the five Great Lakes. These daredevils had brought with them not only their spirit of adventure, fortitude, and commercial ambitions, they also planted the French culture in the New World… and that culture has survived to this day in the French-speaking Canadian Province of Quebec. Naturally, when it comes to beverages, you would think that the alcoholic drink of choice of modern Québécois is classic French, that is, wine. Yet it is not so: A surprisingly large number of European Beer Star winners hail from this area.

Let’s tap a barrel today

When asking your average man in the pub about the beer he likes best, the answer frequently does not refer to any specific type but simply to “a fresh draught beer”.

What’s next for AB-InBev?

It’s a funny world out there. Remember when InBev bought Anheuser-Busch in 2008? Almost all the world took note. Seven years on, AB-InBev’s proposed USD 100 billion plus takeover of SABMiller received little to no attention outside the business pages. Although it is the ultimate deal that reeks of size for size’s sake, AB-InBev’s eventual world domination in beer will merely be a welcome side-effect. According to analysts, AB-InBev’s real reason for buying SABMiller was laughably absurd. They could not get Coca-Cola at this point and took the opportunity to bulk up instead.

Craft beer in Australia

Small-scale commercial breweries, now numbering about 240 in Australia and spread widely across all six states of the federation and the capital and northern territories, are commonly regarded these days as a regular part of the country’s brewing scene. During much of the twentieth century, however, beer making was exclusively the domain of one or two large corporations in each of the states, so the relatively recent reappearance of small-scale producers here, as elsewhere in the world, has been contrary to a long-term historical trend.

How near is the end – Big Brewers and craft beer

Man, you’d think Armageddon is just round the corner, what with all of the tweets, blog posts and articles I’ve seen commenting on a spate of craft beer deals that shook the industry in 2015. While I was waiting in vain for apocalyptically boiling oceans, rains of fire and rivers turned to blood, doomsday preppers wailed and gnashed their teeth because, in contrast to me, they had interpreted the signs as ushering in The End of the World as We Know It.

Science follows function

On November 12th, 2015 the Ludwig Narziß Award for Brewing Science was bestowed at BrauBeviale for the first time. In her opening address, Dr. Lydia Winkelmann, Editor-in-Chief of BRAUWELT International, briefly summarised the background to this award (BRAUWELT International no. 4, 2015, pp. 238-240). She thanked everyone who contributed to initiating the award, e.g. Dr. Jörg Lehmann, Chairman of the Association of Weihenstephan Brewing Studies Alumni, former PhD students of Prof. Dr. Ludwig Narziß, who very decisively gave conceptual and financial support and, ultimately, the eponym. For more than 60 years – the scientific journal BrewingScience, Fachverlag Hans Carl, has facilitated knowledge transfer among researchers and for use in practice for all that time –, he was not just instrumental in shaping science, he also had a formative influence in dissemination of scientific knowledge for everyday application.