Two giant brewing companies, Anheuser-Busch InBey and SABMiller are in the process of merging. They will be producing almost one third of all the beer drunk in 2016. It will stream many of the best well know international brands including Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona, Becks and much more.
With the sales of beer decreasing, this merger is developing to be a world story for the beer community. South American countries prefer InBev while Sab used to stand for South African Breweries.
Mergers have been a talk of decades in the beer community. This partnership will drive bigger, better breweries, more efficient distribution and marketing.
There is more to beer than just the alcohol content. Individuality, tradition, heritage, exploration, smell and taste are captured in every glass. This merger also proves to be promising in the "Craft" aspects of beer. Since different beers have different taste, the brewery must manage all their products to have its own distinct unique and consistent texture while producing one third of the world's beer.
With all this comes the history. The UK has 1500 small breweries across the country, and is said to be the most breweries in one country all over the world. The first wave of efficiency-led beer company mergers and the rise of imported continental lagers that were lighter and fizzier than the traditional British beer came after the era of local brews and breweries the sprouted up 50 years ago.
A group of drinker got together in 1971 to form Camra (Campaign for Real Ale). This small group had enormous impact in the community. What they did was creating and producing a fizzy beer, lighter, and it instantly grew popular through out the UK.
Adding to the beer story is British beer writer Michael Jackson. He produced The World Guide to Beer, celebrating the differences of beer all over the world. This was said to have follow a best seller by Hugh Johnson, The World Atlas of Wine.
These events were significant milestones in the development of 20th Century British taste.
On another scale, starting out in kitchen and garages, people who learned how to brew their own beer got ambitious. Scrapping in railway arched and other metals to buy the brewing equipment they needed to start making beer. It was driven by an individual's belief to create the best beer thus the Craft brewing revolution was under way.
Growing and growing, eventually some highly successful early-start artisan brewers already sold themselves to the big groups - Sharps Brewery in Rock in Cornwall, founded 1994, to name one. Today, it is part of the giant MolsonCoors and the bottled version is very successful Doom Bar Ale.
It's now part of the giant MolsonCoors, and the bottled version of its wildly successful Doom Bar ale now comes out of a great big brewery in Burton on Trent, though draught ale is still brewed in Rock.
In this merger, we can only wait and see how much damage it will have on Craft beer. Cause after all, it is always going to be the taste of the beer that counts.
