If you thought it was hard choosing between Blue Moon, Harvest Moon, Full Moon and Rising Moon, get ready for the beer-buying process to get a tad tougher as there’ll be a new “moon” on the shelves.
At their distributor conference, Coors annouced that they are expanding the Blue Moon family with the addition of a pale ale - Pale Moon. The “Belgian-style pale ale” checks in at 5.4% abv and will launch in several test cities next month with a national rollout planned for 2009.
According to the label: “Pale Moon is a drinkable pale ale that has a distinctive hop aroma, without the lingering aftertaste. This Belgian-Style Pale Ale is brewed with European malts, cascade hops and a touch of hibiscus and orange peel. Thse ingredients create a rich copper colored ale with a flavor complexity that one would expect from the Blue Moon Brewing Company.”
In addition to Pale Moon, you can expect to see 22-ounce bottles and seasonal 12-packs coming soon to a store near you. Blue Moon’s seasonal brews are currently only available as 6-packs.
This almost feels like a tree falling in the woods if no one is around to hear it.
So, if craft beer is, by definition, meant to be brewed in small batches with limited distribution, what happens when the nation’s second largest brewer takes its best-selling beer and serves it up, craft-style? Can it still really be called a craft beer?
Let the debate begin as Miller Lite is bringing its ”Brewers Collection,” featuring three craft-style light beers, nationwide in September. They’ve been available in Baltimore, Charlotte, N.C., Minneapolis, and San Diego since February with strong initial sales.
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The IRI Beer, Wine and Spirits Practice, an independent company which provides manufacturers, distributors and retailers with market information, announced its “Top 30 Beer Brand Performers in 2007″ and “Top 15 New Beer Brands in 2007.” The lists provide a look at the industry’s 30 fastest growing beer brands as well as emerging new brand entries.
For the Top 30 Beer Brand Performers ranking, IRI analyzed volume growth, share of segment trends, everyday base pricing, and incremental sales growth in 2007 versus 2006 to determine the brands with the strongest performance in the beer industry. (Or, if you’ve had a couple already today, that’d be a ranking of the brews which saw the biggest growth in 2007, not necessarily the brands that sold the most overall.)
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