Beer Draft Kits

INNOVATION ECONOMY: Making microbes that can do the dirty work

On the edge of Boston harbor, just a short walk from where Harpoon harnesses the power of yeast to produce tasty beverages, researchers are designing new kinds of microorganisms that might one day scrub wastewater clean, crank out fuel for our cars, or keep hospital equipment perfectly sterile. While making beer can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia, this new field -often called “synthetic biology’’ or “engineered biology’’ - belongs to the 21st century

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Vancouver stabbing sends 1 to hospital

Police say a 24-year-old Vancouver man is recovering in hospital after being stabbed early Saturday morning.

Officers responded to reports of a fight between a group of men in the 800 block of Granville Street shortly after 4 a.m. PT.

When officers arrived, they found a man suffering from a stab wound to his upper body.

He was taken to hospital and is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Police say there have been no arrests and there are no suspect descriptions.

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Sell beer and wine in B.C. supermarkets, groups say

There’s a growing call for beer and wine should be sold in B.C. supermarkets.

"Common sense would say, ‘Why are we not going to grocery stores and being able to buy wine,’” says Ian Tostenson, head of B.C.’s Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

Some in the province’s wine industry agree.

"There's 200-plus wineries in British Columbia now,” said Christine Coletta, of Haywire Winery in Summerland. “We're all working really hard to do a great job and deliver a great product, so if we can get better distribution for our wines, that would be fantastic.”

Coletta said food and wine are a basic pairing, and supermarkets should sell both.

The B.C. Government Employees Union has not endorsed the notion of supermarket sales, but it also is pressuring the government to update regulations to have the province’s liquor stores open on Sundays.

The union calculates an extra $150 million in revenue for the government from Sunday liquor sales alone.

Making some alcoholic beverages available in grocery stores got a mostly positive response from those CBC News talked to on the streets of Vancouver Friday.

"That would be very convenient for me," said one woman.

Another said, "I think it would be convenient. In the United States all the grocery stores do."

The Rio already has a licence to serve during live events, as do other venues like the Orpheum, but current regulations hold that movies and booze cannot be offered at the same time.

Not everyone is in favour.

As far back as the 80's, calls to sell beer and wine in food stores drew protests.

Some worried about loss of union jobs, others about making alcohol too widely available.

It's a worry some consumers still share.

"If you put it in the grocery stores, it just makes it more accessible and I don't think it’s the right idea," said one man we asked.

The province has said it’s considering some changes to the province's liquor laws and is looking at what the possible implications would be.

For now, alcohol producers are hopeful about seeing their own product on store shelves.

“I would love to be able to go to the corner store and get a bottle of Haywire,” said Coletta. “I think it would be great."

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Farmhouse Beer May Help Md. Farms & Waterways

BALTIMORE (WJZ)—Locally grown most often means farm-raised food. Well, one local grower wants to expand that to farmhouse beer.

Alex DeMetrick reports now it’s an untapped market.

Adam Frey’s farm is family owned. He’d like to keep it that way, but in a global market it isn’t easy.

“If somebody in Brazil can release a bushel of soy beans for 10 cents, you gotta go up against that, and we’re trying to offset that a little bit because we’re trying to do beer,” Frey said.

Beer is a product not normally associated with Maryland farms. Frey is trying to convince state legislators to allow the kind of micro-breweries you see in cities to be built and operated on farms.

After all, in this part of Frederick County wineries are thriving.

“There are four vineyards within bike riding distance of this farm,” Frey said. “There’s not a lot of farmhouse breweries out there right now.”

And unlike farms turned into vineyards, making beer means growing a variety of crops. Instead of grapes, barley and wheat would be raised. These grains make ideal cover crops, which soak up fertilizers before they wash into waterways and the bay.

Hops would also be raised. It’s a tiny crop in Maryland right now, but one needed by beer makers worldwide.

Frey’s plan isn’t so much to turn a farm into a brewery, as it is to brew beer to keep the farm.

“And basically create something more than just a family farm. Give us a few extra options as far as farming goes. It’s me against the global market. We need some kind of buffer in there,” Frey said.

Frey does have supporters for his plan: legislators who will submit a bill in Annapolis to open the door to farmhouse brewing.

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No Deals for Beermakers After Buying Spree

January 25, 2012, 3:12 AM EST

By Clementine Fletcher

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Global brewers, after spending $195 billion on acquisitions in the last decade, may slow the pace of deals in 2012 as beermakers struggle to maintain profit growth amid rising costs and weaker demand in the U.S. and Europe.

The two biggest companies to emerge from the spree, Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and SABMiller Plc, are best positioned to profit with a presence spread over Africa, Asia and Latin America, while smaller rivals Carlsberg A/S and Heineken NV may suffer from their higher exposure to Europe.

Brewers will be “just getting through 2012, keeping their heads down, managing price and trying to keep input costs down,” Trevor Stirling, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said. “It’s going to be tough for everyone, and particularly Carlsberg and Heineken.”

More than $21 billion changed hands for beer assets in 2011, topped by SABMiller’s A$10.5 billion ($11 billion) takeover of Foster’s Group Ltd. That made it the busiest year since 2008, when InBev NV paid $52 billion for Anheuser-Busch Cos. As sales volume growth decelerates and the cost of making beer rises, companies including the integrated AB InBev, Heineken and Carlsberg may focus more on running their own businesses this year than buying others.

Carlsberg shares have dropped 25 percent in Copenhagen in the past year and Amsterdam-based Heineken has dropped 4 percent, compared to gains of 14 percent at SABMiller and 13 percent at AB InBev. Carlsberg said in November that it plans to eliminate as many as 150 jobs across Europe.

Reduced Forecasts

Heineken and Carlsberg both cut their forecasts last year due to tough conditions in Europe and Russia. Grain harvests have also been relatively poor in the area this year, according to Stirling, which could lead to sustained high costs in 2012 weighing on their margins.

The amount of beer sold may rise 3.1 percent from 2012 through 2016, slower than the 4.9 percent increase in the four years ended 2008, according to analysts at Nomura including Ian Shackleton. Commodity costs are higher, including malting barley, a key ingredient in beer, which has risen 65 percent since the futures contract started trading in May 2010.

“It’s unlikely that growth will return to historical high levels of 2005 to 2008,” Nomura wrote in a note. “The cost of business is set to rise.”

Beer Volume

Beer volume and revenue growth may be particularly limited in Europe and the U.S. as brewers compete for sales amid economic turmoil and high unemployment. SABMiller, the first brewer to post results for the three months through December, reported declining volumes in both regions, as every other unit grew. Carl Short, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ in London, said “recessionary conditions” may return to Europe this year.

Beermakers may have to rely on internal cost cutting as price increases may be limited. Carlsberg and Heineken may have a “really tough time managing the pricing mechanism,” said Anthony Bucalo, an analyst at Banco Santander.

Carlsberg, which exited or sold sites in Switzerland, Finland, Germany and Norway since 2009, may close more breweries and cut costs, according to Nomura analysts.

AB InBev should deliver $270 million of so-called synergies this fiscal year from the Anheuser-Busch acquisition, and Heineken will give details of a new cost-reduction plan when it reports full-year results Feb. 15.

Trading at Premium

Analysts at Nomura and UBS AG have reduced their outlooks on the beverage industry, which also includes spirits companies. The stocks “already command a significant premium to the market,” according to Nomura’s Shackleton.

Deals including Heineken’s purchase of Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB’s beer unit in 2010 and SAB’s takeover of Foster’s have previously helped brewers diversify into faster-growth regions away from the U.S. and Europe. With Brazil’s Schincariol Participacoes & Representacoes also off the market after Japan’s Kirin Holdings Co. swooped in last year, big acquisitions may be tough to find in 2012.

“There are fewer assets out there that move the needle,” said Anthony Bucalo, an analyst at Banco Santander. “We’re going into a period where companies are inward-focused.”

Carlsberg could make small acquisitions in Asia. The Danish brewer’s biggest deal in 2011 was buying 30 percent of China’s Chongqing Brewery Co. for about $31 million.

Any buyer with an eye on Corona brewer Grupo Modelo SAB, Groupe Castel and Turkey’s Anadolu Efes would have to wrangle with family ownership and existing joint ventures.

Expanding outside Europe and the U.S. isn’t necessarily a quick fix for brewers. SABMiller said Jan. 19 that Foster’s pro- forma sales slid 6 percent in the quarter ended Dec. 31, raising concern from some analysts that benefits from the acquisition could be harder to come by.

“Realistically, it’s probably not on anybody’s agenda” in 2012, Bucalo said. “This looks like kind of a low-drama year.”

--Editors: Sara Marley, Rick Schine

To contact the reporter on this story: Clementine Fletcher in London cfletcher5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sara Marley at smarley1@bloomberg.net

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No Deals Brewing for Beermakers After $195 Billion Buying Spree

Enlarge image

No Deals Brewing for Beermakers

More than $21 billion changed hands for beer assets in 2011, topped by SABMiller’s A$10.5 billion ($11 billion) takeover of Foster’s Group Ltd.

More than $21 billion changed hands for beer assets in 2011, topped by SABMiller’s A$10.5 billion ($11 billion) takeover of Foster’s Group Ltd. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Global brewers, after spending $195 billion on acquisitions in the last decade, may slow the pace of deals in 2012 as beermakers struggle to maintain profit growth amid rising costs and weaker demand in the U.S. and Europe.

The two biggest companies to emerge from the spree, Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI) and SABMiller Plc (SAB), are best positioned to profit with a presence spread over Africa, Asia and Latin America, while smaller rivals Carlsberg A/S (CARLA) and Heineken NV (HEIA) may suffer from their higher exposure to Europe.