just-drinks authors and correspondents

Columns by Stephen Beaumont

Comment - Beer - Beaumont's Brews

Award-winning writer and author Stephen Beaumont gives us his monthly thoughts on what is keeping the global beer industry busy.

Articles by Stephen Beaumont

How the global beer category will face the growth challenges of the future - Comment 6 December 2018

Bringing the curtain down on 2018, our resident beer commentator, Stephen Beaumont, looks at the growth-driving strategies of the past and predicts how these strategies will morph in the coming years.

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Will South America drive the next wave of craft beer growth? - Comment 25 October 2018

Our resident beer commentator returns, not just for his latest look at the beer world, but also from his travels. Stephen Beaumont tells us about his time spent in South America this month, and why he thinks the region is set to hog the craft beer headlines going forward.

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What brewers need to be aware of before stepping into cannabis - Comment 25 September 2018

With brewers eyeing the cannabis industry with both interest and enthusiasm, beer commentator Stephen Beaumont has some words of warning for them, before they take their first steps into unknown territory.

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Do consumers know about beer terminology as well as you do? - Comment 30 August 2018

When a brewer talks about the value category, does the consumer understand what is meant? How about premium? Super-premium? And, what about craft? just-drinks' beer commentator, Stephen Beaumont, considers whether these terms mean as much to consumers as they clearly do to the global brewing industry.

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Are beer festivals worth the time and expense it takes to participate in them? - Comment 26 July 2018

As July gently turns to August, we enter what must be considered the heart of beer festival season.

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What is beer's biggest problem? - Comment 26 June 2018

A trip to Belgium earlier this year provided some home truths for our resident beer commentator, Stephen Beaumont: While brewers have done well to break out beyond the traditional flavour brackets, they are coming unstuck on getting these under the noses of most consumers.

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What can the brewing industry learn from Anheuser-Busch InBev? - Comment 29 May 2018

If there is a single overriding lesson to be learned from just-drinks' analysis of Anheuser-Busch InBev's performance over the last five years, it is one more obvious than a pint of IPA at a Champagne tasting. Put bluntly, that lesson is: Global expansion + cost reduction = increased profitability.

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Why a growing craft brewer isn't always a takeover target – Comment 17 May 2018

Last month, the US trade organisation for craft brewers, the Brewers Association, released a most interesting list. just-drinks' resident beer commentator, Stephen Beaumont takes a closer look at the chart of the fastest-growing US craft brewers in 2017.

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What can the beer industry learn from Molson Coors? - Comment 5 April 2018

Without question one of the more interesting drinks companies to watch over the past few years has been Molson Coors. From the 14% drop in sales posted in 2015 to the boost provided by the acquisition of the 58% of MillerCoors it didn't already own in 2016, from the surprisingly-high cost savings of US$200m in 2017, to the loss in share price value of 21% during the same year, the past half-decade has been nothing short of a rollercoaster for the world's third-largest brewer by value and fifth-largest by volume.

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What can the beer industry learn from Carlsberg? - Comment 22 March 2018

If the principle lesson learned from just-drinks' analysis of Heineken's performance in the last five years is "don't panic", the overarching theme of Carlsberg's last half-decade of struggles might be the even more clichéd "don't put all your eggs in one basket". Said basket being, in this case, Russia.