[Get real-time Twitter updates by clicking here.]

In the midst of a rough summer, the beer industry just posted a victory. Trade groups representing brewers big and small have cajoled over half of the legislators in the House of Representatives to sign…

[Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stljmac]

Lager Heads wouldn’t have expected the top honchos of the National Beer Wholesalers Association to be big fans of tighter regulations. But NBWA President Craig Purser are chairman Phil Terry are full of surprises.

Both men issued a challenge…

To blatantly rip off the Postal Service’s motto, it would appear that neither rain, nor sleet, nor hail nor economic malaise can slow the rise of beer prices. Brewers have to be happy about this. Are drinkers? We’re not even…

A fascinating new study from the Nielsen Co. dissects the ways in which Americans are changing their drinking habits in the face of a lackluster economy. A recent survey of 5,000 adult drinkers shows that folks are looking for bargains when they buy…

A new economic impact study casts America’s beer industry as an economic powerhouse directly employing more than one million people and paying $28 billion in wages. The study, commissioned by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association, also indicated…

Citizens of Missouri and Illinois have plenty of pride for their respective home states. And with reason. Missouri gave us Harry Truman and toasted ravioli. Illinois gave us Abraham Lincoln and deep dish pizza.

Alas, neither state has much to brag about when it comes…

Aaah, a success story in these uncertain times. Today’s news comes to us courtesy of the Brewers Association, the Boulder, Colo.-based trade group for craft brewers.

Apparently, sales of American craft beer are growing even faster overseas than in the U.S.…

Our friends at Sageworks, a Raleigh, N.C.-based provider of data on private companies, gave Lager Heads an interesting batch of figures about the financial health of beer, wine and liquor stores.

The takeaways: It looks like sales continued to grow in 2008,…

The craft brewing industry, recently battered by high prices for hops, might be getting a little relief, reports Bryan Corliss on bnet.com, a business news website. For a while, things were so bad that some brewers were asked to pay $20…

Local beer lovers shall rejoice. The St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival is on, and still has the support of Anheuser-Busch after it was taken over by InBev of Belgium. Last we checked, the festival in Forest Park had become the nation’s third-largest beer…