Carlsberg A/S welcomed comments from Scottish & Newcastle Plc Chief Executive Officer John Dunsmore signaling that the U.K. brewer is open to an offer, Danish newswire Direkt said, citing a Carlsberg spokesman, Bloomberg posted December 27th.

``If we're looking at a more open stance, then that's good news,'' Jens Peter Skaarup told the Copenhagen-based newswire. Carlsberg believes it has already made a good offer for the brewer, the newswire said.

Dunsmore told workers he may have to start talks with Carlsberg and Heineken NV if they make a significantly higher offer for the brewer, the Scotsman reported Dec. 24, citing an internal memo to staff. Carlsberg and Heineken have made an informal offer to pay 750 pence per S&N share and must make any formal bid by no later than Jan. 21, the U.K.'s merger regulator said Dec. 17.

The proposed bid is ``a good offer,'' Skaarup said in an interview with Bloomberg.

A poor summer and an ageing population dragged German per capita beer consumption down to a record low of 112.5 litres in 2007, the country's brewing association said on December 23rd. Brewery Association managing director Peter Hahn predicted little or no improvement in the year ahead. "We will have to get used to long-term declines in consumption figures," he told the Welt newspaper.

Hahn predicted the decline would begin to hurt the 1,284 breweries in Germany - more than in any other country. While no closures were likely in the immediate future, there would probably be mergers and acquisitions, he said. "We are going to see an increased concentration in favour of the larger brewing companies, Hahn said.

He also predicted little or no improvement in the year ahead. "We will have to get used to long-term declines in consumption figures," Hahn told the paper.

The 2007 figure was 3.5 litres down on that for 2006, which was boosted by Germany's hosting of the Football World Cup, and confirmed a trend that set in a decade ago. The soccer World Cup last year did wonders for beer sales in Germany. Only once in the last nine years did beer ...More Info

A perfect storm of factors affecting beer making and distribution have come to a head, meaning that consumers will be paying more for their favorite brews next year, Online Athens posted on December 22nd.

A shortage of beer making grains, higher prices on those commodities, the weakening U.S. dollar and increasing costs for transportation have added to the price of brewing.

Hops and malted barley, the two essential ingredients for flavoring beer, have gone up in price significantly in the past month, with hops rising by as much as 400 percent in some markets. Hops provide the aroma and bitterness to beer while barley gives it color and sweetness. The skyrocketing costs of both will impact small breweries and imports the most.

"In the course of one week, hops prices increased three to four times what I was paying," said John Cochran, a founder and owner of Terrapin Beer Co. "A month ago, I was paying $5 a pound for Cascade (a popular hops) and now it's 20 bucks if I can find it."

English malts rose nearly 28 percent, and German malts increased even more at 47 percent, said Matt Buley, brewmaster at Copper Creek Brewing Co. in downtown Athens.

Those escalating costs are ...More Info

Lion Nathan says it has received Overseas Investment Office consent to buy 16.7 hectares of freehold land in South Auckland to build a $NZ250 million brewery, NZPA posted December 20th.

The land will be the site of a new manufacturing and warehousing facility for the New Zealand arm of the Tasmanian boutique brewer J Boag & Son.

Works will begin in January at the industrial site in East Tamaki.

Lion Nathan also said it had been cleared by the Australian competition watchdog to buy Boag from Philippines-based San Miquel Corp for $A325 million ($NZ373 million).

The Sydney-based company, in which Japanese brewery Kirin Holdings has a 46.1 per cent stake, said today it had secured the site – subject to approval by the Overseas Investment Office.

The new Auckland facility was expected to be up and running in about four years, Lion said.

In July, Lion announced it had entered into an agreement to sell its Auckland brewery site in Newmarket, nowadays a swanky upmarket area of the city, to AMP Capital Investors for $162m.

Most of the sale price will be payable when Lion leaves the site in about four years, but $50m will be realised this financial year.

The new manufacturing and warehousing facility would better ...More Info

Published by: The Brewers of Europe

Executive Summary
The European Commission will review current fusarium legislation in order to revise or fix maximum residue limits in cereals and cereal products. In a response to a Commission call for information, EBC/The Brewers of Europe initiated a survey on fusarium toxins in beer. Out of the 9 fusarium toxins analysed, only T-2 and HT-2 occurred in levels which, taking account of a consumption of 1 liter/day beer, would contribute to the temporarily tolerable daily intake for the sum of T-2/HT-2: up to 11%. The results for the other fusarium toxins show that levels are very low if they are detected at all, or at a level which is well within the established safety range. Research on the fate of T-2 and HT-2 in the beer value chain revealed that the presence of these toxins in beer depends on their levels in the malt and cereals used in the brewing process. Whilst malting reduces T-2/HT-2 levels of brewing barley by 50 to 75%, most (65 to 100%) of the T-2/HT-2 present in malt will persist into the beer. The Fusarium Stakeholders' meeting organized by the European Commission in January 2007 revealed that there is an increase of barley contamination by T-2/HT-2 toxins from 2003 to 2006. This increase is due to barley contaminations by Fusarium Langsethiae and needs to be further monitored. EBCl The Brewers of Europe therefore recommends that a new survey on T-2 and HT-2 be carried out in order to assess the variation of contamination from crop to crop. The Brewers of Europe supports the scientifically valid principie that regulatory limits for mycotoxins, if appropriate, be set at their control point. In the case of T-2 and HT-2, field mycotoxins, this is the malting bartley.
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