It looks like Americans are moving towards the lighter beers we know are lighter on the wallet.
Beer Business Daily writes that imported beer shipments to the United States are down 9.3 percent this year. That's the equivalent of 160,000 cases per day. Canadian imports are apparently down a whopping 22 percent. Drinks writer Lew Bryson argues that this is creating the perfect opportunity for another category of beers to find success at the liquor store:
Imports -- which are almost all light lagers -- are pricier than comparable domestic beers because of shipping and the weak dollar. Craft beer's increases are thought to be coming largely out of imports' lost sales.Perhaps in an effort to appeal to a fickle American market, Diageo, the brands giant that owns Guinness, is test-marketing something called Guinness Mid-strength in England. It has the same flavor and body, just a lower strength of alcohol. Which, as The Guardian notes, is a curious case of re-branding:
The new Guinness is called 'mid-strength' -- a triumph of marketing semiotics implying a kind of prudent, reasoned, middle-way of inebriation -- but then, I don't suppose 'New Weak Guinness' would havesurvived the first brainstorm.
For a beer surrounded by a mythology of strength, that feels like
unfortunate pandering to a society that drinks Michelob Ultra. It also
seems like a dramatic step away from the limited-edition, 250 Anniversary Stout, released earlier this year, that boasted a stronger alcohol content than Guinness Draught. I hope that Diageo's cautious outlook for 2010 doesn't spell widespread changes for Guinness.
And finally, in light of the debut of Boulevard's Seeyoulator Doppelbock, a modern nod to the beer first made by Bavarian monks, here's a guide
to German beers. It's true that we forget about how good German beer
can be. Maybe we should listen to the Germans when it comes
to lagers -- they drink the third most beer per capita.
I recently imported a few bottles of Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale into my fridge. We'll see how it stacks up alongside Abita's Pecan Harvest Ale next week. It's not quite 160,000 cases, but we're not in college anymore.
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