TGIF – ‘Crafty’ unmaskes itself and completely shreds the shelf

In a exulting press release, AB InBev announced that two of her brands will soon present a first 'collaboration brew'. Nice, one’s inclined to think, a collaboration brew results often in an interesting, sometimes innovative, beer. But on closer inspection, my thirst ran dry. A collaboration brew often aims to bring together the creativity and ...

RUBY TUESDAY – Will ‘open source’ beer lead to flavorful or flavorless beer?

The news came to me via a tweet by Gerard Molenaar, editor of Entree Magazine (amongst others) and a fanatic blogger on good beer on Hopstersblog. In his tweet Gerard asked ‘would you want this, as a brewer?’ – he had me sitting straight up at once. He referred to an article in Retail Trends ...

Wicked Wednesday – when beer names and freedom of speach collide

The news item remained relatively unnoticed in Europe, but the American beer scene was quite shook up by it. Flying Dog Brewery, founded in 1990, ended its membership of the Brewers Association (BA) this June citing changes to the not-for-profit industry trade organization’s Advertising and Marketing Code that are aimed at addressing “sexually explicit, lewd, ...

OHIM – Beer ice, the innovation of the century!

It struck me, at first, as either too early or too late since I could swear this was by far the best April fool’s joke EVER. An EPIC April fool’s joke – awesome! Alas, it turned out to be all but a joke: this is serious business, and it was all over the (Dutch) news: ...

OHIM – Big Brewer becomes ‘Big Brother’

It was a huge ripple in the internet pond last week: AB InBev, the world's largest brewer who controls more than 30% of global beer production and sales, has acquired a minority stake in Ratebeer already in 2016, as reported by Good Beer Hunting. The deal was deliberately kept secret from the (larger) public. The ...