October is here (say goodbye to pumpkin beers and hello to winter warmers)…And clearly nothing’s slowing down anytime soon. But no worries – Rumor Mill is always on the case, keeping you plugged in to all the craft beer news that matters. Plus we’ve an all-important update on what we’ve been drinking lately and you absolutely don’t want to miss that.

AB InBev Under Investigation (Brussels, Belgium) – Pushed to the sidelines by yesterday’s huge news that the Big Beer mega-merger would be moving forward, is a provocative report that the buyer, Anheuser-Busch InBev is currently under investigation. According to Reuters the U.S. Justice Department is looking into allegations the Belgian-based brewing company is trying to limit craft beer’s competition by acquiring beer distributors to keep smaller brands from getting their products to market. Will this complicate the merger? Unfortunately, we doubt it…after all that’s why God made lawyers. But we do think these allegations warrant scrutiny…just sayin’.

BrewDog Jumps Ugly (UK) – We’re a little late on this but as it’s appropriately snarky we wouldn’t want to overlook it. Last month after Lagunitas announced that they were selling a 50% stake in their company to Amsterdam-based Heineken BrewDog’s James Watt jumped ugly via his twitter feed and said that they’d no longer be serving Lagunitas beers

Words To Drink By (Las Vegas, NV) – “You can deny the future, but it’s gonna happen anyway.”

Bob Lefsetz – Music Analyst & Writer

Sun Not Quite Setting On Japanese Beer (Tokyo, Japan) – After 11 years of declining or flat beer sales the Japanese Beer market has begun to show some signs of life. According to The Japan Times beer shipments rose a miniscule 0.3 percent in the July through September period, the first uptick for that beer-loving country in over a decade. 

Indie Music Meets Indie Beer (Eugene, OR) – Music and craft beer have long been joined at the hip and Ninkasi is committed to keeping that going. Not only do they have a first class recording studio at their brewery compound, they actively sponsor with up-and-coming bands. Ninkasi Studios is currently working with Haunted Summer, a LA-based psychedelic band, who are re-releasing their EP “Something in the Water.” No word as to whether Ninkasi’s Jamie Floyd is credited for his tambourine work on this release – but we do expect him to join the band from time to time during their national tour.

 What We’ve Been Drinking Lately (Portland, ME) – We’d like to thank all the breweries who ship us beer from time to time. It’s always great to sample the brews that we write about and helps to give us a better feel for what’s happening out there. And last night we hit up a bomber of something special from SweetWater.Clocking in at an unapologetic 11.2% ABV, SweetWater Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout is the brewer’s first commercial barrel-aged release and it just kills it!

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