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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?
Market
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.
Market
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”.
Market
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.
Market
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.
Market
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.
Market
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.
Market
After 2001, beers imported from Europe disappeared from specialist bars in Argentina, and many beer-drinkers who had hitherto enjoyed Newcastle, Samuel Smith, Chimay, Fuller, etc., began to wonder how this custom of drinking “different” beers could be maintained in a country with scant brewing history. This marked the beginning of home brewing in Argentina, and the birth of „Dorada Pampeana“. Marcos Ragoni, biochemist, microbiologist and Quality Control Manager at Compañia Cervecera Mataderos SRL, Buenos Aires, describes the development of craft brewing in Argentina and introduces a unique Argentine beer style.
Market
According to the current Barth report for 2014/2015, global beer production dropped by 11.8 million hectoliters (–0.6 %) compared to 2013 (see table 1). This has been influenced by the general state of unrest around the world, the Ebola epidemic and political upheavals. To date, the only years in which world beer production fell were recorded in 1992 (–0.2 %) and 1984 (–0.4 %).
Market
As German brewers prepare to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot this year, taking pride in the fact that for five centuries their beers have only been made with water, barley, hops and yeast, the rest of the beer world will politely acknowledge this achievement and move on. No doubt, the Reinheitsgebot has contributed to brewing culture but times are changing. The old battle cries “German beer versus chemical beers” do not resonate any longer with consumers abroad as the global beer discourse has already shifted to “big brands versus craft”.
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