According to Datamonitor Consumer’s Product Launch Analytics database of new products, the number of new shandy or radler product launches more than tripled between 2008 and 2012.
Furthermore, through the first four-and-a-half months of 2013, the global new product launch numbers for shandy or radler beverages were nearly equal to the full-year launch count for 2011.
“The irony of the recent surge is that this type of beverage is hardly new,” said Tom Vierhile, innovation insights director at Datamonitor Consumer. “Radler dates back at least as far as the ‘Roaring 20s’, when a German innkeeper named Franz Xaver Kugler is said to have stumbled on to the mixture.”
According to the German Beer Institute, Kugler built a bicycle path through the forest, from Munich right to his establishment, called Kugleram. The path worked and Kugler found himself inundated with some 13,000 bicycle riders on a warm day in June 1922. Fearing that he was going to run out of beer and have a riot on his hands, Kugler stretched his beer supply by mixing beer with clear lemon soda he had left over from an earlier failed attempt to sell the thirst-quencher.
Cutting the beer with the soda in a 50/50 ratio to create Radlermass (literally ‘cyclist litre of beer’), Kugler saved the day and avoided running out of beer. He even claimed credit for brainstorming the drink as a clever way to keep the riders sober for the ride home.
“Others claim that it was the British, and not the Germans, who did the innovating first with shandy and similar beer and soft drink blends,” said Vierhile. “What matters, however, is that shandy and radler have emerged as the right products at the right time.
“With governments reducing allowable blood alcohol contents for driving under the influence, lower-alcohol drinks seem destined to receive more attention. Generally lower in alcohol than beer, shandy and radler also provide a bridge to younger consumers reared on sweet-tasting soft drinks, but seeking alcohol beverage alternatives that lack the bitter bite of beer – especially craft beers.”
In Europe, many shandy products contain as little as 2% or 3% alcohol. Some might say that this is too low, but the sales results indicate otherwise. Foster’s Radler, a 2% ABV blend of lager and cloudy lemon juice, saw more than three million bottles sold in just a few weeks after its launch in the UK.
The terms ‘radler’ and ‘shandy’ may be a mystery to many Americans. However, America does know lemonade, and the summertime refresher has already worked magic in the iced tea market.
Ever since golfer Arnold Palmer added lemonade to iced tea at a restaurant in Palm Springs, California, in the 1960s, the marriage of lemonade and iced tea has been fruitful. Quietly, Arnold Palmer Tee (half tea, half lemonade) has become the number four iced tea brand in the US, with close to $200m in sales in 2012. Can lemonade do for beer what it has done for tea?
We may soon find out, because the list of American and Canadian brewers offering shandy-style lemonade or lemon beers is growing rapidly.
Molson Coors Brewing offers new Rickard’s Shandy in Canada, a 4.5% ABV drink described as the perfect blend of premium lager and classic lemonade. Anheuser-Busch InBev introduced Shock Top Lemon Shandy in 2012, a 4.2% ABV wheat beer with spices and lemonade flavour.
Even non-beer brands want in. Mike’s Hard Lemonade Company has come out with Mike’s Authentic Shandy, marking the brand’s debut in the beer market. The product is described as a blend of Mike’s Hard Lemonade and lager.
Mike’s president Kevon Kotecki refers to the new shandy as “the most refreshing beer ever brewed”. All of these recent entrants would love to duplicate the success of Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, a summer-only offering that has seen demand skyrocket in recent years.
For these products to catch on, they will have to avoid the pitfalls that sank earlier efforts to create successful beer and lemonade blends.
MGD 64 Lemonade was a 2011 US launch that had just 2.8% ABV and a mere 64 calories per serving. Launched as an extension to the female-oriented MGD 64 brand (since rebranded as ‘Miller64’), the product was pulled after less than three months on the market.
Another relatively recent failure, Foster’s Twist, may offer other lessons. Launched in the UK in 2006 and featuring a ‘hint of citrus’, the 4.5% alcohol by volume product was aimed largely at women in their 20s, and could have simply been a little ahead of its time.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024