Beer category sales improved dramatically in 2015, based on the strength of the import, craft and super-premium segments as well as new product offerings throughout the category as explained IRI beverage alcohol expert, Dan Wandel.
Speciality beers now include as many as 700 craft brewers with only 26 of them listed here.
Data according to IRI reveals:
Variety is king, and according to analysts AC Nielsen craft beer drinkers are always looking for the next new beer to love. With most craft beer drinking occurring at home. In a typical month, respondents in a US survey recently said they purchase an average of 3.6 different brands of craft beer. For those who drink craft beer weekly, this increased to 4.4 different brands.
Niche sectors are increasing with beers linked to music and sport on a growth curve – at FoodBev we see no signs of this abating in 2016.
Japanese brewer Asahi has acquired all of the shares of Melbourne craft beer maker Mountain Goat Brewery, making it the second Australian brewer to be taken over by the Tokyo-based giant in just two years.
Avery Brewing Company of Boulder, Colorado produces Uncle Jacob, part of its well-loved annual barrel-aged series. This stout rests in bourbon barrels for six months. Robust and potent and at over 17%, it’s one of the strongest beers in a 12oz bottle.
Craft beer drinkers are a dedicated bunch, and no year-round beer inspires as much devotion as Vermont-based The Alchemist’s Heady Topper. For years, The Alchemist only brewed and canned Heady Topper, but Focal Banger is Heady Topper’s more restrained little brother.
Allagash Brewing Company of Portland, Maine, USA produces a Belgian wit beer. Wit, or Weiss, beers are light, tart, crisp, herbal and spicy; it can be difficult to get all these flavours balanced, but Allagash has sorted it.
Beavertown beer – in a recent tasting at Anuga in Germany this was on offer with crystallised ginger as part of a food pairing experiment which brings out its grapefruit citrus notes.
Borough Damson porter – made using seasonal damsons from Ted’s Veg in the famous Borough Market, this porter combined UK pale, amber, chocolate and roast malts, and famous English hop variety Bramling Cross, to offer a dry, clipped and refreshing beer.
Big Hug Brewing has given its growing brand a confident new redesign to reflect its ambitions for the year ahead. Available nationally through Matthew Clarke, and already trading with Punch Taverns and next year Greene King, the fledgling beer brand is gaining momentum as its fan base across the country grows.
Independent brewer Hall & Woodhouse has partnered with design agency BrandOpus to create Badger Daring Diver, a new addition to its Badger brand of ales. The packaging design features a mallard diving underwater, with the ale’s biscuity notes brought to the fore through the use of coppery tones. The choice of a duck as a mascot for the new product was described by BrandOpus as “a natural fit to join the other rural personalities that feature across the Badger portfolio of beers, playing on the rural provenance of the brand”.
Leading global can maker Rexam has partnered with UK brewery Concrete Cow to launch the brand’s first ever beer in cans. Branching out from their bottled beer portfolio, the Concrete Cow MK IPA cans are inspired by the beer brand’s base in Buckinghamshire.
21st Century Fox has revealed plans to release a licensed version of Duff beer – the erstwhile fictional brand from the animated television series The Simpsons – with a test run in Chile this month.
Exeter Brewery is best known for its Avocet (3.9%), Ferryman (4.2%) the original and Darkness brews. Darkness 5.1% lives up to its name – black, and velvety as midnight. This is a well-balanced but complex chocolate stout. Deliciously smooth, it’s made with a special recipe that includes seven separate grain types.
The rich bitter-chocolate taste of Darkness is created using a complex mash of premium malts including chocolate malt, which derives its characteristic coffee/chocolate flavour and aroma from subtle roasting during the malting process.
The Five Points Brewing Company produces a range of brews including pale and red ales, an IPA, Railway porter, and an imperial smoked porter called London Smoke that has an ABV of 7.8% and is made using East Kent Goldings hops. The company’s pump clips are understandably pentagonal.
Anheuser-Busch has announced that it will acquire Los Angeles-based Golden Road Brewing, as it chases a greater share of the US’ craft beer sector. Golden Road expects to sell approximately 45,000 barrels of beer in 2015 and can be found in more than 4,000 US retail locations.
Gigantic Brewing Company is known for only producing one-off beers. That is except for Gigantic IPA, which is always on tap, always citrusy, always hoppy, and yet showing some restraint compared to other West Coast IPAs, which seem to be battling it out for hoppiest brew.
G.B.Best from The Grainstore Brewery is based on the Golding hop. It is lighter than other Grainstore beers, possessing a pronounced floral flavour and aroma with a residual sweetness retained from a lower fermentation temperature.
Scottish craft brewer Harviestoun has launched two new beers: Raspy Engine, a raspberry-infused black ale, and Harviestoun IPA, made using American citrus hops.
Anheuser-Busch has produced a rare craft edition of its Hertog Jan brand in the Netherlands, as the beer maker continues its challenge on the country’s traditional “big three” brewers. It has now launched a craft beer called Ongekend – or “unknown” – in a select number of retail locations, featuring a bold image from brand design agency Osborne Pike.
Himalayan Monkey from East End Foods is a beer for spicy food. Ethnic food importer East End Foods has announced plans to diversify into the alcoholic beverage sector with the launch of Himalayan Monkey, a new Indian beer brand for the UK market.
Hook Norton Red Rye at 4.7%, brewed in the UK, has a spicy rye nose and a palate of bitterness and roasted malts.
Innis & Gunn’s lager beer has a “brilliant, light gold colour”. Delicate and yeasty – with “curious” aromas and flavours including egg sandwich, salty roasted corn, and pear skin – this is a beer that is fruity and “super-sessionable”.
Jopen Doubting Thomas’ Ongelovige Thomas a strong dark beer with an ABV of 10% from the Netherlands. Ongelovige is Dutch for “doubting”, and it has a great balance between sweet bitter and roasted notes, as well as caramel.
The surge in no-alcohol beer is attributed substantially to the launch of Kronenbourg’s Tourtel Twist, which captured a 27% share in just nine months. In Japan, beverage manufacturer Kirin has revealed plans for an alcohol-free beer containing an indigestible form of the carbohydrate dextrin, which slows the body’s absorption of sugar and fat.
On the more alcoholic front, Ketterer Ur-Weisse Dunkel from Germany is a dark wheat beer with an ABV of 5.2%
La Barberie brewery in Quebec has a surprsingly wide range of beers including blondes, reds and India pale ales, stouts and flavoured beers – even some with chestnuts.
Meantime has developed a beer with champagne yeast to celebrate its 2,000th tap listing.
London craft brewer Meantime has started selling a limited-edition seasonal saison beer, infused with strawberries. The new brew has been developed using Suffolk malted barley and puréed strawberries to create an authentic taste of summer.
Meantime has also just developed a celebratory beer brewed with champagne yeast to commemorate its 2,000th beer tap listing. The new IPA 2000 is the latest addition to Meantime’s limited edition Brewer’s Collection and “combines one of its most tradition styles of beer, the Meantime IPA, with champagne yeast to infuse the beer with a delicate carbonation”.
Northern Monk Brew Co has unveiled its core range of beer in can format, launching the new packaging option this week. The cans use the latest canning technology and Northern Monk is one of the first UK breweries to receive an in-house Wild Goose canning line, the company said. The cans “provide a more environmentally friendly, fresher and more lightweight way to get [the] beer to the consumer,” it added.
Nøgne Ø Brun Belgian style Dubbel from Norway is a dark beer with a 6% ABV. Coffee, raisins and malt make for a pleasantly bittersweet nose – easy drinking with a full, caramel-dominated body.
South Korean beer maker Oriental Brewery has produced a new premium, German-style Weizen wheat beer. Its new 5% ABV Premier beer combines German wheat malt and European barley malt. It features “a milky golden colour, a dense taste and soft texture,” reported the Korea Herald.
Punk IPA is Brewdog’s scene-stealing flagship – an India Pale Ale that has become a byword for craft beer rebellion, synonymous with the insurgency against mass-produced, lowest common denominator beer. It is full-on, full-flavour and full-throttle.
Q Brewery sells InvinciBull at 4.4%; 16:30, a strong dark ruby ale at 5.5%; Ridgemere, a smooth IPA malty bitter; and Q Hop, a light refreshing ale at 4.2%.
Specialist beer importer Euroboozer has announced the launch of Rogue 2015 private reserve ale in the UK. The red ale is crafted with Oregon-grown Rogue Farms hops and barley, and is now available in serigraphed 650ml and 355ml bottles in 30 litre keg format.
Roasty and malty in flavour with a well-balanced spruce finish, Santa’s Private Reserve has an ABV of 5.3% and is being targeted at pubs, bars, hotels, restaurants and the wider on-trade across the UK.
Licensed beer distributor Federation of Beer has revealed plans for a new Star Trek-themed craft beer called Star Trek – The Genesis Effect. The beer is produced by New York-based Shmaltz Brewing Company and will tie into the plot of the 1982 Star Trek film The Wrath of Khan, as well as Shmaltz’s own brand of He’brew craft beers.
Timmermans Tradition Oude Guetze – a 5% sour beer brewed in Belgium – has a hazy gold colour, and is also spicy, funky, fruity and bright. This is complemented by a fantastically limey acidity and gorgeous clarity.
XXV Anniversary imperial stout.
Colorado’s Upslope Brewing Company produces a host of innovative beers – including a blood orange saison, oatmeal stout and a Thai-style white IPA. The company also produces a premium American craft lager brewed entirely of malted barley, with 1% of revenue being donated to support the state’s trout population.
Vander Ghinste Oud Bruin with an ABV of 5.5%, brewed in Belgium, is a dark ruby red beer with dark fruits on the nose and sourness on the tongue – and sour cherry, sweetness and dark malts on the finish.
Wold Gold is a 4.8% ABV beer made using Wolds-grown barley, wheat and Cara malt with Goldings and Styrian hop varieties that give the beer a “soft, fruity flavour with a hint of spice”. Packaged in 500ml bottles, the blonde beer retails for £1.97.
British brewery Northern Monk Brew Co has released a commemorative beer in celebration of Swedish heavy metal band Opeth. Limited to just 1,700 bottles in 660ml format, the 9.2% XXV Anniversary imperial stout is a one-off brew from the Leeds-based beer maker with roasted flavours and underlying notes of rich chocolate, cinder toffee and coffee.
Yorkshire-based Wold Top Brewery has secured a new listing with supermarket chain Tesco for its Wold Gold brand of blonde beer.
The Zauber Brewing Company of Columbus, Ohio has a few temptingly named beers including NitroPorterGeist and Myopic Red (both 5% ABV), as well as a German Red Alt beer plus a Belgian-type IPA called Berzerker at 6.3% ABV.
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