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For holidays, beer drinkers get their just deserts

The big brewers are jumping on the flavored-beer bandwagon.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 25, 2006

MILWAUKEE - From chocolate to pumpkin, the nation's top brewers are venturing where craft brewers have experimented for years - flavored brews - even if it's only for a few months at a time.

Miller Brewing Co., the country's second-largest brewer, recently announced it would sell a holiday-themed beer made with real cacao named after its founder. Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager will sell in six Midwestern markets through the end of the year.

"Over the holidays are a good time to bring out a chocolate beer because it's the time when people are indulging and going to parties," said Pete Marino, a spokesman for the Milwaukee-based brewer.

This season, Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., the country's largest brewer, is rolling out a chocolate beer for its Michelob Celebrate line, which was introduced last year with a vanilla oak flavor. It also has a line of pumpkin ale for the fall and vanilla-flavored bourbon ale for the winter, which will be released for the first time this season in bottles.

Experimenting with flavors and seasonal beers makes sense for big brewers because manufacturers are looking to rejuvenate the alcohol category, recently dominated by wine and spirits, said Felicia McClain of Mintel Research.

"They're trying to do something to bring some spice back into beer," she said.

Brewers like Miller and Anheuser-Busch are showing that they can take part in the ever-popular craft beer market, too, said Eric Shephard, executive editor of Beer Marketer's Insights, a trade publication based in Nanuet, N.Y. Sales of domestic brews have been flat, while sales of craft beers and imports have carried the market, he said, both up about 11 percent in the first half of this year.

Anheuser-Busch, based in St. Louis, is making its 2-year-old seasonal line available in bottles at stores this year, no longer only in draft, said Pat McGauley, vice president of innovation. The products, which also include Spring Heat Spiced Wheat and Beach Bum Blonde Ale, carry the Anheuser-Busch marking on the label, but they are marketed through word of mouth and in store promotions as craft beers, he said.

Miller's chocolate brew comes in four-packs sold in a deep brown case. It will be sold through the end of the year in six core Miller markets: Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Valparaiso, Ind., and throughout Wisconsin. It was offered last summer on tap at brewery tours and proved successful, Marino said.

[Last modified October 25, 2006, 00:28:56]