Trends

British brewer Adnams has produced a keg beer for the Punch Taverns chain.

Keg beer is much different than traditional cask-conditioned ale, also known as real Ale in the UK. This beer, 5% abv, is filtered and will be served on tap rather than through a traditional handpump or by gravity.

Jonathan Adnams told The Publican the launch of the beer, called Spindrift is in no way at the expense of the company’s cask ale portfolio.

“Adnams is dedicated to great cask conditioned beer. It is our bread and butter,” he said. “But this beer is for people who have made the decision not to drink cask beer. We are seeing an increasing area of the on-trade where retailers have decided that cask is a non-existent proposition. This is a great beer brewed in the Adnams way.”

A business story form the Mail Tribune in Oregon reports that hop producers see a turnaround for their market. That means a growers’ market instead of a buyers’ market, and higher prices.

Consider this history:

In August 1980, clusters sold for $1.15 per pound, but rose to $5 per pound when brewers began to perceive a shortage, recalled Ralph Olson, general manager of Hopunion LLC, a collection of hop growers who sell primarily to the craft brewers.

Just one year later, the price bottomed out at 30 cents. Hop growers need at least $2 per pound to cover their costs and make a slight profit.

“You need the stability, you don’t need the slot machine,” he said. “You just need the in-between. It’s very hard to accomplish, but I think right now we’re at a place where that’s going to happen.”

Prices so far this year have ranged from $1.40 to $2.40.

Credit American craft brewers for at least contributing to the turnaround.

The best thing the craft brewing industry has done for hop growers is to broaden consumers’ appetite for beer, said Michelle Palacios, administrator of the Oregon Hop Commission.

“They’ve done a really good job of educating consumers about the different types of beer, about different kinds of hops, and educating their palate,” Palacios said.

The fact that this Associated Press story has been picked up by more than 100 news outlets echoes that thought.

Advertising Age reports that Miller is ready to “put the gruff back into High Life beer.”

What that means is the brewing giant will abandon efforts to position Miller High Life as a more upscale, more feminine beer with hopes of reclaiming blue collar loyalty.

Still-in-development spots shown to the brewer’s distributors at regional meetings last week seem to repudiate the disowned direction, showing Miller delivery drivers forcibly removing High Life from trendy, upscale restaurants and nightclubs. The scenes strike a creative chord not seen since Miller scrapped Wieden & Kennedy’s 1950s-era manly man for the fussier, feminine push. Sales cratered with the Girl in the Moon ads and lessons apparently were learned.

“I don’t know what the hell they were thinking,” said one Southern distributor who was happy to see the new creative effort.

Notice the discussion is about changing the marketing/advertising (and that continues when the topic shifts to Miller Lite). To Miller’s credit, they think highly enough of their beer that they don’t mention the product itself could be the problem.

But isn’t their a chance people have quit buying it because of what’s inside (or not inside) the bottle?

It seems every news outlet in the Midwest has the story about Miller Brewing joining the chocolate beer crowd – like chocolate beers are something new.

Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager, which includes chocolate and dark chocolate malts in the recipe, will be sold in Wisconsin, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Valparaiso/northwest Indiana. The suggested retail for the four-packs is $5.99.

Chocolate Lager is the second holiday season beer that Miller has developed in recent years. Chocolate Lager’s sales will be tiny compared to those of Miller Lite, High Life and Miller’s other mainstream brands. But it is aimed at drinkers who are turning to craft and specialty beers. “There is a lot of fragmentation going on,” company spokesman Pete Marino said. “Consumers are looking for more niche products.”

Chocolate Lager was developed a year ago, and was entered in the 2005 Great American Beer Festival under the name Temptation Bock, Marino said. Temptation Bock won a gold medal in the festival’s herb and spice beer category, and this year won the category’s bronze medal under the Chocolate Lager name.

Craft beers across the country have sold chocolate beers for years. Most take their chocolate flavor from malts but some, such as Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock, use real chocolate.

Anheuser-Busch also will sell a chocolate beer during the holiday season. Celebrate Chocolate, 8.5% abv, spends time in contact with used bourbon barrels. A-B renamed Michelob Celebrate, calling it Celebrate Vanilla, the bourbon-vanilla beer launched last year.