Browsing Category: "commercial beer news"
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In some good news for Good Beer Advocacy nation-wide, after years of biggering and biggering, it appears that sales of imported beer are on the decline. According to Brandweek,
Constellation Brands, Fairport, N.Y., which handles Corona and other Modelo products via the Crown Imports joint venture, did not, as usual, disclose exact figures last month, but CEO Robert Sands did say that third-quarter shipments for the leading brand declined by “low-single digits.”
Heineken, whose fate isn’t quite as bad, faces declining numbers, too. after posting increases at a rate of 7.7% from 2004 to 2006 (per Beer Marketers Insights), their numbers are up just 1.3% from January to June this year, compared to a year ago.
Why the sudden change in beer-drinking trends? Analysts claim that a price increase for Corona, along with the growing popularity of local craft beers are starting to have an impact. Huzzah.
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Popularity: 23% [?]
Fosters (you know, that Australian word for ‘beer’) has just released its first ever Internet-only ad, entitled Stubby Symphony.
Why has Foster’s decided its Stubby Symphony ad is best on the web? It’s the medium of choice for its target market. According to an article from Austrailia’s Daily Telegraph, Foster’s group marketing manager for their Victoria Bitter brand (commonly known as VB) Ben Wicks said,
“We just think it adds to the surprise. We are talking to them (young men) in their space, and their space is increasingly digital,”
The ad features more than 90 musicians, most from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and all of their instruments are made from VB bottles, with liquid used to alter the notes in each bottle. The filming of the ad took place in Melbourne’s Concert Hall.
The company is also encouraging web users to submit their own films using “VB stubbies”, with first prize receiving 52 cases of Foster’s beer.
This campaign is, of course, marketing genius on Foster’sbehalf. In no other medium does an advertisement travel so quickly and freely. As you can see below, the ad appears on blogaboutbeer.com–by way of YouTube–completely free of charge (and I promise this isn’t the only site where you can find it). Thanks in no small part to the blogging revolution (and every daily newspaper and every magazine in the world having an online presence), Foster’s is able to produce an ad, in all likelihood pay for it only a few times, claim to be spearheading the revolution of Internet-only beer advertising, and the ad spreads for free, across the blogisphere, like wildfire (guilty as charged). Truly genius; and undoubtedly only the beginning.
Without further adieu, the click below to view the ad:
Popularity: 41% [?]
There’s big news brewing on the Canadian Beer Front, according to today’s Winnipeg Sun, A new deal between Fort Garry Brewing (Manitoba’s largest brewer and distributor) and British Columbia-based Russel Brewering will result in,
“More Manitoba jobs, new beer brands on Winnipeg shelves, and possibly a larger regional profile for Manitoba-made beer,”
Russell’s CEO told the Sun.
Fort Garry shareholders voted last night to accept a friendly takeover of the Winnipeg-based beer maker in a deal reportedly worth between $3.5 and $4 million.
Russell Breweries CEO Brian Harris said the fact most Fort Garry shareholders opted for a stock swap rather than a 40-cent-per-share payout proves investors have a lot of confidence in the new, larger company that now has brewing facilities in Winnipeg and Surrey, B.C.
Harris said the Winnipeg plant capacity will be increased from the 35% it’s running at now to between 70 and 90% over the next year, which will increase jobs at the Linden Woods plant. The facility will continue to brew Fort Garry and Two Rivers brands, and will begin brewing Russell’s brands too. Harris told reporters,
“The product that’s brewed (in Winnipeg) is “fantastically good beer.”
The B.C. company’s flagship beer is Russell Cream Ale. It also brews lager, pale ale and blond beer, all of which it hopes to sell in all the western provinces. Russell is now conducting research to see how widely to sell the Fort Garry brands, said Harris. Russell also currently holds the exclusive right to sell beer at B.C. Lions CFL games in Vancouver.
Harris said beer buyers in Manitoba can expect Russell products to appear on vendor shelves here during the first few months of 2008.
Popularity: 22% [?]
According to an articlein today’s Boston Globe, the rice used by Anheuser-Busch Co. to brew Budweiser beer is,
Tainted with an experimental, genetically engineered rice strain, according to an analysis released yesterday by the environmental organization Greenpeace. Three of four samples of unprocessed rice from the beer maker’s mill in Arkansas showed the presence of the strain, Bayer LL601, Greenpeace said.
The real question we all know, of course, is not “what is a genetically modified strain doing in the rice in Budweiser?” but rather, “WHAT THE HELL IS RICE DOING IN THE BEER IN THE FIRST PLACE?!”
While anyone who knows anything about beer knows that rice has no place as a replacement for better ingredients in beer in the first place, Greenpeace’s Doreen Stabinsky notes that U.S. consumers have a right to know that, when rice is used in beer, that it is genetically modified rice. To that end, the group has created an off-color YouTube “commercial” entitled ”Wassup With Your Beer?” to alert users to the presence of genetically altered rice in Budweiser; the video can be seen below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZlYmCqALY[/youtube]
Popularity: 24% [?]
Peel Police have arrested a suspect in connection with last month’s theft of two trailers containing more than 100,000 bottles and cans of Moosehead, which we first reportedabout on September 19th. A man by the name of Pullara Calogero, 59, has been charged with two counts of possession of stolen property.
One of the trailers held more than 69,000 bottles of Moosehead beer, while the other was filled with over 44,000 bottles of Moosehead, James Ready Honey Lager and Carlsberg brands. Both big rigs were stolen from a Mississauga, Ontario trucking yard.
Officers said the beer thieves crept into the storage spot in September. They stole two transport trucks to allow them enough space to get the trailers secreted and then made off with their loot undetected. Police said security personnel simply let them leave the complex without a challenge.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Officials from Labatt Breweries have announced that they’ve uncovered how a handful of Stella Artois bottles were filled with ethanol instead of beer and ended up in the hands of drinkers at several Canadian bars earlier this year.Working in collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and bar owners across the country, the brewery found the affected bottles were meant for display purposes and were filled with concentrated alcohol as a replacement liquid; they were never meant to be consumed.
However, a handful of bars from Kamloops and Toronto accidentally placed the potent bottles in beer fridges and sold them to unsuspecting boozers. Patrons who drank from the bottles wound up vomiting and spitting out the pure alcohol.
Neil Sweeney, vice-president of corporate affairs for Labatt, said Canadian bar owners worked in collaboration with the brewery to inspect every bottle of Stella Artois being served across the country to ensure they were in fact filled with beer.
Labatt imports Stella Artois from Europe and distributes the brand across Canada. A press release from the brewery said new control procedures have been put in place to prevent a similar incident in the future.
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Popularity: 31% [?]
Guinness from a can will soon pour like Guinness from a tap. Thanks to a plate-shaped device called the “Surger.”
Guinness wholesalers are on the verge of placing the $25 unit into bars that serve the Irish import from the bottle or can rather than from the tap. After Guinness is poured into a glass, the pint is placed on the Surger. The bartender pushes a button to activate sound waves, which pass through the liquid creating gas bubbles and ultimately the familiar cascading effect typical of a Guinness pint poured from draught we all know and love.
“It gives me a new talking point that I can bring to my customers, which is good for us,” one U.S. wholesaler said.
Guinness has long secured tap handles in bars around the world, but has been trying to lift its packaged beer, which currently sees less than steller sales. Efforts have included the 2001 introduction of Guinness Draught in a Bottle, nicknamed in the trade as “the $13 million bottle”. That figure referred to the research, development and testing expense behind the Rocket Widget inside that released nitrogen with each pour.
Although one wholesaler on the east coast complained that his fulfillment of Surger orders has been delayed, he likes the idea and foresees the Surger eventually becoming available to consumers so they can drink a draught-like Guinness at home.
Popularity: 26% [?]
There are a lot of questionable products out there–many of which come from the country’s biggest breweries–which try and pass themselves off as beer, but I have to say that this one takes the cake. Budweiser has begun to market its own “chelada style” concoction (think Miller Chill but worse) of its own beer and Clamato (the disgusting sounding, although popular, mixture of tomato and clam juice). And don’t worry, if you’re watching your calories the beer is also available in a “light” style.
According to a review in the New York Press,
“The red beer-and-fish mixture is both thin and thick at the same time. The beer part tastes watered-down from the Clamato, but there is still the thickness of the Clamato throughout the beer. It has a taste and smell similar to a Bloody Mary at first glance, but that quickly disappears the more you drink.
Imagine your vomit after an evening of Bud and seafood pizza. That’s the feeling you get here. Disgusting.
As I’m sure everyone knows by now, Miller also markets a new “chelada style” beer, Miller Chill, but it doesn’t include any clam or tomato juice, just salt and lime - the way a chelada is made in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. In southern Mexico, however, I’m told that you either mix in Clamato or you don’t make a Chelada at all.
The beer, despite sounding downright putrid, is apparently wildly popular with west coast Latinos. Since I’ve never seen it on this side of the country, I guess it doesn’t have any crossover appeal in the east. Thank God…
Popularity: 10% [?]
On Friday Pilsner Urquell will celebrate its 165th anniversary as the first golden beer ever produced.
“Ninety percent of beer drank now is a direct descendant of that type of style,” said Ryan Johnson, U.S. trade brewer for international brands at Miller Brewing. “Back then, as it is today, gold was looked at as being something precious.”
Miller Brewing purchased the Pilsner Urquell brewery, located in the Czech Republic, in 1999. All of the beer is still brewed there, Johnson said.
“There aren’t any recipe modifications at all,” he said. “Three or four times a month, they still brew the beer the exact way they did in 1842, in open casks. We have a whole panel (of tasters) in the Czech Republic that checks to see how perfect the beer is to the original brewing process.”
It was brewmaster Josef Groll who, in 1824, discovered the process of bottom fermenting a beer, which is known as lagering, Johnson said. The golden liquid this method produced stood out against other lagers and ales because it was something people wanted to see. The name, Pilsner Urquell, translates to “pilsner from the original source.”
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Popularity: 12% [?]
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - An industry group representing Dutch bars sued Heineken NV and two other brewers on Monday, seeking damages for alleged price fixing that the EU says kept beer prices artificially high for years.
Spokesman Anthony van der Klis of the Horeca association–which also represents hotels, restaurants and caterers–declined to say whether it would seek more or less than the 219 million (US$310 million) that Heineken was forced to pay the EU in April. Heineken denies price-fixing and is appealing the fine.
The suit also names Grolsch NV and Bavaria NV, which were fined smaller amounts by the EU and are also appealing,
“We tried to reach a settlement before moving to a lawsuit, but (the brewers) didn’t want to talk seriously to us,” Van der Klis said.
A fourth brewer, InBev SA, was exempted from EU fines because it blew the whistle on several European beer cartels after regulators caught it fixing prices in Belgium. Klis said the Dutch association was in talks with InBev over a settlement.
Heineken spokeswoman Vivi Hollert said it was company policy not to comment. The suit had been widely expected: EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes directly invited the association to seek damages at the time she levied the fines,
“The management of these companies at the very highest level participated in this cartel … knowing that this behavior was illegal,” Kroes said then. “Instead of respecting the law, they instead covered their tracks.
The companies coordinated prices for beer that customers buy in bars and the beer they buy from supermarkets, even for cheaper ‘no brand’ private label beers,” the EU’s executive arm said in the April decision.
Executives used code names to refer to secret meetings held in hotels and restaurants, the EU said. Under European law, executives are not personally liable for taking part in a cartel. Heineken’s first half earnings fell by 30 percent to 302 million (US$413 million) due to the fine. Chief Executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer–who did not lead the company at the time the alleged price-fixing occurred in 1996-1999–acknowledged in August that the company had held meetings with its competitors.
“But we contest that led to any pricing agreements,” he said.
He predicted appeals of the EU fine would last until 2010, and said he doubted any civil suits would be successful in the interim. Van der Klis of the Horeca association said it was also seeking to force the brewers to lower their current prices,
“It’s incredible that it costs more for bars, who are wholesale buyers, to purchase beer than it does for consumers in the supermarket,” he said.
Asked why the bars do not simply buy their beer in a supermarket, he replied,
“Some do.” But he added that did not make sense in terms of logic or logistics, and that many bars are bound by contract to purchase their beer directly from Heineken. “They’re afraid of being cut off completely if they violate those terms,” he said.
At bars in Amsterdam, a 33 centiliter (11.2 ounce) glass of Heineken from the tap usually costs around 2.00 (US$2.40). A 30 centiliter (10.1 ounce) bottle costs around 0.50 (US$0.70) when purchased in a crate of 24 at the supermarket.
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Popularity: 12% [?]
