Brewers chase cocktail drinkers
The drinks, known in the industry as flavoured malt beverages, give brewers a chance to steal share from wine and spirits.
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Hawke’s Bay
Fed up with losing share to liquor companies for five years straight, US brewers are trying to cash in on the popularity of cocktails.
Sales of hybrid brews, which are made like beer but flavored to taste like a cocktail, are surging. The category’s share of the $US100 billion US beer market has doubled over the past five years to 4%.
The drinks carry more alcohol than beer and are designed to appeal to millennial drinkers, many of whom prefer sweeter alternatives to beer.
Recent examples includes Anheuser Busch InBev’s Bud Light Mixx Tail, which comes in in three cocktail flavours, and MillerCoors’ third variant of its ultra-popular Redd’s Apple Ale.
The drinks, known in the industry as flavoured malt beverages, give brewers a chance to steal share from wine and spirits.
“Younger consumers continue to want more flavor variety,” says MillerCoors marketing director of innovations Anup Shah.
Public health advocates have raised concerns in recent years about cocktail-style brews, arguing they appeal to underage drinkers because they taste more like sweet sodas than bitter beers.
But executives with AB InBev and MillerCoors says they haven’t received any complaints about their malt beverages from advocacy groups.
Mr Shah said MillerCoors’ beverages are put in “very adult” packaging and placed alongside other alcohol products.
AB InBev’s Bud Light Lime-A-Rita, launched in 2012, leads the market with an estimated 25% share.
One of Mixx Tail’s new flavours, Long Island, mimicks the taste of a Long Island Iced Tea, while Firewalker parrots the cinnamon-flavored whiskey of the hugely popular Fireball liquor.
Nevil Gibson for NBR Food Industry Week
Fri, 06 Mar 2015
Fri, 06 Mar 2015
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Brewers chase cocktail drinkers
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