News this morning of a possible deal between beer giants SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch InBev is sending shock waves through the industry, as it appears likely an even bigger chunk of the beer market will be taken up by one company. Indeed, the $100 billion deal would be the largest ever by far in the industry, and would combine two companies that had huge market shares in many countries. The two companies together brew 9 of the top 20 beers in the world in terms of market share, including 4 of the top 5 – Snow, Bud Light, Budweiser, and Skol. If the possible deal goes through, it may have huge implications globally, but in the US, we probably won’t see a big impact. 

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Time for another edition of New Brews, where we tell you about the new beers arriving on draft lines and beer store shelves around the city. In this edition, we’ll tell you about some new bottles, cans, and draft beers from four of the city’s brewers.

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For the third time in four years, members of New York State’s beverage industries came together in Albany for the Wine, Beer, Spirits & Cider Summit, hosted by Governor Andrew Cuomo. The summit, which in the past has helped bring to light regulatory difficulties and push through reforms that better support growth in beer, wine, spirits, and cider, allowed members of the industry to voice their concerns directly to the governor and lay out a path for changes at the state level to support beverage makers.

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Tomorrow, the governor’s office will convene its third Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cider Summit in Albany. The summit, which was first held in 2012, brought together members in the beverage industry to address regulatory issues in the state that held back the growth of things like craft beer production. In past years, the summit has been successful in bringing about change for craft brewers, including tax credits, the farm-brewery license, a state craft beer working group, the elimination of the need for a separate tasting room license, and a higher cap on production for small brewers. Together, all these things have helped to make New York state a better place for brewers – in fact, it’s now one of the best in the nation.

The Brewers Association has several tools on their site to sort out beer regulations by state, so we took a look at how we compare to other states in several different areas of alcohol regulation:

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New York state’s breweries celebrated their victories at this weekend’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver, taking home six medals — three gold and three silver — in a competition that featured over 1,552 American craft breweries and over 6,647 beers. Six medals is back up from four last year, and some of the winning New York breweries took home their very first medals.

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Photo © Brewers Association

The annual Great American Beer Festival kicks off Thursday in Denver, Colorado, and several local brewers will help to put the New York beer scene on the map. The festival this year will be the largest yet – over 60,000 beer drinkers will be on hand to try over 3,500 different beers poured on the Colorado Convention Center floor. Over 800 breweries will pouring at booths in the festival this year, and 21 will be from New York state, up from 17 last year. Five of New York City’s breweries will be pouring this year (including two for the first time), and another six from Long Island and Westchester will be serving beer to the thirsty masses this weekend.

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