Guinness Big In Africa
Hottest Beer Style
The fastest growing beer style in the USA and a
BeerNexus staff favorite is an "import" from
the  East Coast alternately dubbed the “North
Eastern IPA” or “New England IPA”.

This new breed of IPA is all about showing off
fruity hop flavors without the bitter hop bite. As
brewers have developed new techniques for
squeezing more hops into a beer, they’ve also
discovered that many common brewing
processes strip out some hop character.

While not all craft beers are filtered, most are
clarified to some degree to remove particles and
increase the brew’s clarity. Not NEIPAs —
they range from opaque to downright sludgy
as a complex soup of proteins, suspended yeast
and hop compounds form the haze that defines
the style. Which, alongside the vibrant fruit
flavors from modern hop varieties and
a higher perceived sweetness led to another
nickname: The Juicy IPA.
Africa has surpassed Ireland as the second-largest market
for the Diageo-owned Guinness worldwide. Guinness
arrived on African shores in 1827 where the British
Empire had colonies there. When locals overthrew the
Brits in the 20th century, the beer stayed. In 1962,  
Guinness built the first brewery outside the U.K., in
Lagos. Now there are 13 Guinness breweries throughout
Africa, but they’re not making Irish Guinness. Instead of
barley, African Guinness is brewed with maize or
sorghum. It also clocks in with a higher ABV,about 7.5%
versus the 4 to 5 % in Guinness Draught and Extra Stout.
The company has just introduced Guinness Africa
Special, made with local herbs and spices, including cola
nut, chili, and lemongrass.

Growth in beer consumption in Africa is expected to
continue at 5 %year-over-year to 2020, outpacing Asia,
the Middle East and North Africa (all pegged at 3%) and
far ahead of old markets like Western Europe and North
America (pegged at 1 %or less).
Cicerone Sí-  Cicerone Certification Program is reaching out internationally with the
launch of its program in Spanish making it directly available to the world’s 400 million
Spanish speakers in their native tongue.

Beer Theme Park- Beer sponsorships could be coming to Universal Studios,
Disney World and Busch Gardens in Florida. Florida senators have approved a bill
that would allow beer companies to sponsor events and advertise at the state’s
theme parks.

Logical -   Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson examined the
growth of microbreweries — breweries that make less than 15,000 barrels per year
with 75 percent or more of its beer sales off-site — and found those that had
tasting rooms grew faster than those without.  They needed a survey for that?

Amazon Delivers Beer -   Richmond, VA has just joined Seattle, WA and
Cincinnati and Columbus Ohio as places where you can  get beer from Amazon if
you are a  "Prime" member. One-hour deliveries of hundreds of alcoholicbeverages
are available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. One-hour delivery costs  $7.99 and
two-hour delivery is free for Prime members.

Laphroaig - Like Laphroaig Scotch? Silly question.  Well, Avery Brewing Co.
somehow got its hands on some very rare Laphroaig Scotch barrels and brewed
the first beer ever from them.  Only 127 cases were made and they are available
only at the brewery in Boulder..  The stout is appropriately named Islay
War of Words - Boston Beer v. Macros

Boston Beer and Molson Coors have found themselves in a war of words after
The New York Times published an op-ed by Boston Beer founder Jim Koch in
which the brewer lamented the effect Big Beer mergers have had on the craft
beer industry.  Koch says that mergers and acquisitions led by Molson/MillerCoors
and Anheuser-Busch InBev have led to $2 billion in higher prices annually,
thousands of lost jobs, and a more restrictive wholesaler channel that favors
Big Beer over craft upstarts.

"I worry that yet another major shift in the beer landscape is upon us — and this
time, American consumers will be the losers," writes Koch. He refers to the
Brewers Association recent report that in 2016's craft beer's volume increased a
fairly modest 6%, partly due to Big Beer binging on craft rivals at a rapid pace.
When large-scale beer concerns buy craft brewers like Ballast Point and Lagunitas,
sales of their ales are no longer deemed "craft". The craft industry had previously
reported double-digit annual volume growth.

Koch is particularly upset that the Justice Department allowed Big Beer to bulk up,
first by approving the merger of Anheuser Busch and InBev and then by allowing
Molson Coors to take full control of the MillerCoors joint venture when SABMiller
got acquired by AB InBev. And since then, both of those big brewers have been
on a buying spree in the craft world, further muddling the industry.

MillerCoors, however, is disputing much of what Koch has claimed. They
claim that craft continues to grow—becoming an industry of more than 5,300
players versus just over 1,500 in 2008. They also say that craft also has 26.9%
of shelf space as of 2016, up from 23.2% two years early.

MillerCoors also alludes that Koch's sour feelings about the state of craft may have
to do with the fact that Sam Adams' franchise is suffering from a sales slowdown
as larger national craft brands like Sam Adams have found themselves squeezed
by local, craft upstarts and Big Beer, resulting in sales softness.


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Edited by Jim Attacap

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