[Get our Twitter updates here.]

Dutch brewer Heineken has apparently discovered a neat trick: In the face of falling beer sales, raise prices and cut costs. Voila! Bigger profits. We’ve seen it before from other big brewers in St. Louis, London and Colorado. Now Heineken, the world’s third-largest brewer by volume after Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, is doing what it can to work through a tough downturn.

Interestingly, Heineken finds itself in a similar situation as Anheuser-Busch InBev. It has a lot of debt from its purchase of parts of U.K.-based Scottish & Newcastle last year. Among other cost cuts, Heineken announced that it was closing four breweries and three malteries in the past two months.

Heineken said recently that its third-quarter revenue fell 3.9 percent and beer sales measured in barrels dropped 4.1 percent as consumers switched to drinking less-expensive beers. But the brewer raised its full-year earnings forecast, thanks to price increases and cost cuts, according to the Wall Street Journal. From the story:

The Amsterdam-based company said markets in Europe and the U.S. remain under pressure, echoing comments from other brewers that the move to premium beers seen before the downturn has slowed. Heineken said it won’t try to compete in the mass-market beer sector.

Heineken said profit before exceptional items and amortization of brands…will grow by low double digits in 2009 when acquisitions, disposals and currency movements are excluded. Previously, the company forecast growth by “at least high-single digits.”

The decline in beer sales was greatest in the Americas, and Heineken blamed “the challenging consumer environment in North America.” Heineken expects volumes to remain under pressure in most of its mature markets in Europe and the Americas, according to the Journal.

This downturn seems to be testing the managerial chops of all the big brewers. Will the tough times expose weaknesses? Or will things move along smoothly for the global brewers, who have clearly decided on their game plan?