It may feel like the dust is settling after the latest series of brewery buyouts, but I can assure you it’s still a warzone out there. The lawyers at AB Inbev and SAB Miller are busy juggling their new pseudo-monopoly, and at the time of going to press it seems they have sold Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime to Asahi for £2.5bn.

Poor Meantime have gone from steering their own very successful ship to being buffeted about like a life raft in need of rescue. Even if the deal goes through, any supposed common ground between the directors and SAB Miller could well be thrown overboard. Will Asahi make the same promise of “business as usual” when it was not a business they would have usually considered buying? It’s their foray into quality beer, and potentially a distraction from their spirits and macro lager pedigree.

Meanwhile, AB Inbev’s Camden are probably gearing up for a titanic expansion, but growing fast has huge technical brewing challenges, not to mention marketing ones. Their new place in the beer world is going to present them with huge opportunities, but also restrictions. And the same is true of independent breweries, because in an industry this compact, shocks are felt by everyone.

The most obvious issue is going to be increased pressure on bar space and pricing. There is no doubt that the recent mergers will help these beers spread rapidly, particularly through the bigger chains that macro brewers focus on. It’s very unlikely that Hells is going to be pushing Stella off the bar, so something else is going to have to make way.

In pubs that don’t rotate their brands that often and are very focused on accessible price, it’s probably going to be a small brewer that loses out. Despite Brewdog founder James Watt’s valid assertion that Camden will no longer get any Small Brewer’s Relief, prices will tumble too – and Hells and London Lager were already cheap compared to most craft lagers.

But at the same time these mergers could open up space in some pubs. It’s not just Brewdog that have taken it off the bars, it’s just that they were the only ones zealous enough to film it. There will be opportunities in former Camden and Meantime accounts for those who also sell a hoppy British lager or pale ale.

Another issue could be hops. Already there is huge pressure on the volumes of hops, particularly the American C hops that dominate most recipes in the craft beer world. The quick expansion of the breweries and the buying power they will have from joining forces with macro brewers is going to make buying hops harder. Changing your old recipes might be a lot to ask, but it’s certainly something to consider for future beers.

There will also be a challenge in the marketing as the concept of craft beer shifts. I realise that most breweries don’t even have a marketing person, let alone department, but how your business puts itself across to the consumer is the most important thing for a brewery to consider after the beer, and just like the beer world, your marketing has to shift too.

We may still not know what craft beer is, but there is no doubt that elusive definition has changed hugely over the last few years. In America their official definition is falling apart in their hands. Founders, Ballast Point, Lagunitas and Elysium have all lost their craft badges, but are still producing exceptional beers. The constantly expanding definition keeps the bigger guys in the fold but is slowly eroding its meaning, and over here we’ll see the same thing happening.

Camden was one of the stalwarts of the scene, yet now most definitions would exclude them from the club they helped create. Where does this leave companies that identify themselves as craft breweries? Well, despite running a company called the Craft Beer Channel, I hope that the word becomes redundant.

I hope we will be able to just have good and bad beer; micro and macro breweries; local and imported beer; accessible and experimental beer. Increasingly these will be the marketing touch points and sales pitches. It’s a famous writing tip that if you have to call something “famous”, then it probably isn’t. The same goes from “craft” – if it’s on the label, it’s probably not in the bottle.

Brewery sell-outs and “partnerships” should be seen as an opportunity by brewers. Target accounts where spaces may arrive and focus on our local markets, concentrate on innovation in our recipes, and then make sure that our branding and approach is unique, concise and truthful.  Because part of the charm of craft or micro brewing is the unique story and non-corporate process.

The craft movement has grown against extreme competition because we can be agile, exciting and adaptable. When the dust settles we’ll brush it off.