I think we've talked about the Shock Top Wheat IPA, but how about a Bud Light Lime-a-Rita(8% ABV) and a Michelob tea-and-lemonade(4%) and cider(4%). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304177104577309631081128556.html
It also has stepped up marketing for Stella Artois, its biggest Belgian beer, whose shipments to U.S. retailers soared 24% last year to top one million barrels. Volumes of Goose Island, a smaller, Chicago-based craft brewer Anheuser bought last year for $39 million, grew more than 20%. Really??? i didnt know this... Last November, Anheuser also told more than 500 wholesalers who distribute its products across the U.S. that it wants them to sell fewer rival brews. The company warned that wholesalers who aren't tightly "aligned'' with Anheuser might be prevented from acquiring other wholesalers through equity agreements, a type of business contract, that Anheuser holds with the wholesalers. wtf? Capitalism is a bitch sometimes....i guess if you cant beat the competition with better beer you have to threaten people.
lets get hired there so we can work on the inside...ill start shitting and pissing in there beer before bottling...wait nevermind it wont affect the taste, maybe make it better...bad idea
I sort of want to see how that beer compares to a margarita lol. Other than that, screw them. Distributors hopefully won't align with those assholes even more. It's a little ridiculous, shouldn't even be legal. Telling a business what they can and can't sell, really?
I'd try the lime-a-rita if it were on the list with the usual shit at my favorite Mexican restaurants.
I mean I can't blame them for trying, since they are under major attack from craft, but I wish they'd just cut their losses and stick with their AALs, making all kind of weird stuff that looks like craft just confuses people and potentially will scare them off of craft and back to Adjunct stuff.....but I guess that is their ultimate goal.
ok, lime a rita, cider and lemonade mich...that's 3. What are the other 16 new items? That's the scary thing
And to think that several years ago they were pumping out some good R&D Michelob beers ... the 16 more "beers" will most likely go after more seasonal flavors using "natural flavors". AB had a lot of potential before the Inbev buyout. I guess that potential did not show them the right numbers($$$).
I wont hate on them just becasue they are the big bad Inbev. Just because they make some beer that I don't like(Bud light and Bud and others). Im sure there are craft breweries out they that make some shit beers that I dont like that doesnt mean I curse their name and dispise them for being around. I hate the trend of hating things just because they are big. Its not the cool "hip" thing to like. If they pump something out that looks interesting I'll give it a shot. If its good I'll buy more, end of story.
Problem with this is that they're threatening distributors to carry more of their product and less of the competition's. So it's not just like they're making more shitty products we won't buy, they're trying to push out the beers that we actually want.
Exactly. I try not to be too much of a snob when it comes to BMC beers, but this is crossing the line.
Sad as the Michelob name was their cadillac, top shelf brand that for a brief time was beefed up via that R&D line of beers before being fazed out in favor of being a catch all for every fad-like cash grabber, low carb, flavor of the quarter type swill...still amazing that they seem so threatened by the little guys that they have to result to these kinds of tactics. Stay in your lane, Stalin!
More of the same, emphasizing their heavy handed intentions on squeezing competition from their "independent" distributors: http://www.businessinsider.com/desp...ies-new-beers-and-bullying-wholesalers-2012-3
19 new products just seems like "Let's throw a metric fuckton of shit against the wall. SOME of it has to stick!"
i hope they replace all the craft beers on the shelfs so we can get the beer even fresher by driving to every brewery that bud will kick off the shelfs. mmm. budweiser margaritas. better start saving my gas money
Last time I checked nobody is holding a gun to these stores heads making them carry one thing over the other. If my local store thinks it will be good business to drop Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams and take out their entire deli department to fit in more InBev brands then more power to them. In my case they would be wrong and will have lost a customer. If other people feel the same way they will lose them as well. If the move doesn't work then the store either goes under or changes their plan again. So next time your in a store and pissed because it takes you 10 minutes to walk past all the InBev products and you blink and miss the 2 craft selections let the store know how you feel by not spending your money there. Instead of complaining about the next store being 2 more miles away and you already missed the first round of the women's basket weaving championships. So you pick up a case of bud margarita from that store. Then they will never change. Why would they? The store got what it wanted, you dignity and your money.
The reason why big stores have so much shelf space devoted to BMC is because that's what sells. They won't notice you not spending your money there. The only way to make them change is to buy the craft beer that they do sell, which will make them take notice and buy more craft.
I tried A/Bs Cask Winter ale once .. My brother of all people told it was good. HOLY SWILLAGE BATMAN That shit was a JOKE I should have known better
A few days before this was announced a friend of mine (who works for a local craft brewery) and I were discussing that AB should do exactly this. They aren't going to convert people back to their beers at this point because craft drinkers are so loyal to the concept of craft itself. What they can go after though are the Smirnoff Ice/Mike's Hard Lemonade etc drinkers.
why is it that when they aim to fight against craft, that instead of making craft beers, they come up with daft beers?
This isn't 100% true... in many states it is legal for breweries to pay slotting fees to gobble up shelf space, thus limiting the ability of any of the smaller guys to gain entry. Really... do we need 20 different package configurations of one macro beer? 20 packs, 30 packs, 16oz cans, 12bottles, 24oz cans.... It is a land grab for space, pure and simple. They are attempting to do to the beer aisle what the Kellogs, GM, and Post have done to the cereal aisle.
Haha... yes I did watch Beer Wars but I've been employed in the beer Biz going on 10 years now. I've seen it in action... daily. I've actually sat in large meeting with corporate buyers and category managers dividing up the territory.
Whoa! Just heard about the Lime-A-Rita. I know I called this about 6-8 months ago. Booyah. /it's gonna suck
On lime-a-rita: The new drink is available in 12-packs of 8 oz. cans, 24-packs of 12 oz. shrink-wrapped bottles and single-serve 24 oz. cans
Essentially ABI wants to create a system where they have in every region/state a master distributor. Where legal, they would own said distributor. That distributor has a certain portfolio, mostly ABI (probably all, but, they didn't specify that) and then other independent distributors in that region would follow that lead, either at gunpoint or heavily incentivized. What brought this all about was the Yeungling launch in Ohio, but it's been simmering for awhile. They are going to continue to innovate random stuff like a-rita and purchase other brands (Goose) instead of creating their own (Bourbon Cask Disaster). The CBA agreement is paying off in spades now that they took that money from the GI transaction and invested it all in marketing. Andy Thomas doesn't hurt either.
