Let me stress how aware I am of the somewhat schizophrenic situation I am in, working for one of the finest alcoholic beverages wholesalers in Europe and about to explode on some rubbish talk on alcohol I came across this week. I know I have to walk on eggshells since alcohol is potentially a serious ...
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 ...
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 ...
Beer is priceless
With 2016 coming to an end, most Dutch lager breweries announced an increase in their beer prices - for the hospitality industry. None of the brewers seem to have adjusted their prices for the supermarkets. Although there is NO existence of a cartel, it remains remarkable how all these individual companies make their price calculations: ...