USA: Anheuser-Busch tests blueberry-flavoured beer

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, brewer of the King of Beers, is exploring whether Blueberry beer might be the salvation for regaining market share lost in recent years to hard liquor and wines, Chicago Tribune communicated on March 18.

If that doesn't work, the company is also testing an alcoholic fruit juice called Peels; a new light beer, Michelob Ultra Amber; and even a new draft beer, Spring Heat Spiced Wheat, to see if those products touch the fancy of America's drinkers.

The flurry of new products comes after a yearlong price war wasn't enough to drive up sales -- a problem not faced by Anheuser-Busch alone. Miller Brewing Co. relaunched its Miller Genuine Draft brand on March 5, and Heineken USA introduced a light version of its premium label this month.

The new products are symptomatic of the larger issue facing the nation's beer industry: Younger Americans are moving upscale to wine and liquor.

During the past five years, sales of beer have fallen from 55.5 percent of alcoholic beverage sales in 2000 to 51.4 percent in 2005. Sales of liquor have climbed from 28.2 percent to 32 percent during that period. Such numbers are forcing the industry to throw out the book in its efforts to woo back customers. In some ways, the industry is throwing its ideas against the wall to see what will stick, or targeting niche audiences.

Peels, the alcoholic fruit drink, "is all about focusing a new type of product for the female consumer," said Pat McGauley, Anheuser's vice president for innovation.

The new malt beverage drink, which has an alcohol content of 5 percent, similar to beer, is targeted at the same audience that the wine and liquor industry is attracting -- "a little more upscale from a demographic standpoint," he said. "It's very targeted. Very focused."

Peels is very much like an alcoholic fruit drink called Brutal Fruit that Miller tested and abandoned last year, according to Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketers Insights. Still, Steinman said the challenges facing the beer industry require Anheuser-Busch and Miller to focus more effort on the premium end of the category. "The beer industry has been declining for years," he said, noting that "high-end is really where it is happening in the beer industry."

Peels is being launched in ads in InStyle, Elle, Real Simple and Self magazines. The Spring Heat Spiced is the third in a series of draft beers that Anheuser began introducing last fall, according to McGauley.

Steinman said the new brews did not cost a lot of money to develop, but that doesn't mean brewers aren't spending a lot of money on the new brands. Heineken has budgeted $50 million to market Heineken Light.

But in comparison to the billions of dollars in sales, the money is just a drop in the bucket. "I don't think a lot of these new products are big bets. Most of them are experiments in an attempt to address the changing consumer dynamics," Steinman said. Besides, he said, blueberry beer could be a hit.

It already is being brewed successfully by Pugsley Brewing Co. in Portland, Maine. There it's called Sea Dog Bluepaw Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale. Anheuser's version, called Wild Blue, is being test-marketed in Bloomington-Normal, Ill.; Madison, Wis.; and Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, Mich.

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