Boozin’ Blog

I’m a snobbish beer geek. I know it; I own it. Therefore I tend to look askance at anything a big brewer does be it Anheuser-Busch, Diego, Miller or Inbev. I always suspect that they are up to something besides making better beer.

I’ve softened my view a little in the last couple of years. Obviously someone is drinking these beers and I’ve talked to more than one beer lover who prefers the taste and qualities of a Bud over the latest APA from the local craft brewer. And some of the big brewers have tried - to varying degrees of success - to include themselves in the craft beer movement. The Michelob brand, for instance, made some very decent porter, wheat and pale ale beers last year.

But that hasn’t stopped me from looking a little too closely at what the big brewers do to move product. And so when Guinness and Coors recently launched campaigns in the US to push more product my fevered braid couldn’t help but compare them.

First, there was Guinness. As it turns out this year is the 250th anniversary of the signed of the famous 9,000 lease that A. Guinness signed for his Dublin brewery, which is more museum/gift shop than a brewery these days. So, in addition to other things, the brewer is celebrating by brewing a distributing a specially brewed stout. (I tried it. It’s nice enough, a sweet stout with heavy chocolate notes.)

This is a pretty traditional way for breweries to celebrate. The country wins a war, encounters a bicentennial or some other achievement and breweries often will brew a special beer to celebrate. (This is how Dos Equis was born.) Guinness 250 Stout is a nice way to celebrate and to get the word out to consumers.

Second is Coors Light. They have nothing to celebrate; nothing new to announce. But summer’s almost here so they have to do something, right? OK, remember the ‘cold activation’ bottles that they pushed the last couple of summers? Right, well they’ve added that gizmo to they’re cans and launched a marketing campaign. I shared what I thought of this worthless gesture at my About.com beer blog.

Clearly big brewers are not all created equal. I’m not a diehard fan of Guinness but in this particular contest they clearly win. They’ve taken a real event and reacted/used it in a very traditional way. Plus they introduced a new beer - my very favorite thing a brewer can do. Coors, on the other hand, invented a completely manufactured event jut to get people to take notice of them at the beginning of summer.

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I’m not advocating beer for breakfast. Not that I have a problem with it. Want beer for breakfast? Go ahead; see if I care. Just keep your mitts off my morning bourbon.

At issue here is a new IPhone app from Pacifico. It’s an alarm clock that features a live feed of a rooster. Yup, you can now be gently awakened in the morning to the soothing sounds of a rooster crowing from atop your dresser.

This is part of an overall beer 2.0 marketing thrust from the Mexican brewer. It also includes a blog written by Pacifico employee Ira Evan Nevius. Like the alarm clock, the blog seems to have nothing to do with beer except that it is sponsored by a brewer. Ira’s blog seems to focus on his adventure-vacation lifestyle.

That’s all fine but how does the beer taste? One has to wonder of a brewer whose entire marketing efforts seem to concentrate on distracting the audience from the product itself.

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2008 wrapped up with Germans having drunk 2%, or two liters, of beer less per capita than the previous year. This article blames things like the smoking ban in pubs and the global recession (countering the popular perception that beer is recession-proof) but I doubt it’s as simple as that.

The third reason - young people are turning away from beer - the article sites is more on the money. The first two have merit but that would lead one to believe that the decline in German beer would be isolated to 2008. It isn’t.

For years, even decades, Germans have been gradually drinking less and less beer. There is a cultural shift in German society that I don’t pretend to understand. I’m only aware of it through this one symptom – twenty-somethings are drinking less of the national drink than ever.

Like I said, I don’t pretend to know why but I’m not ashamed to float a couple of theories. First is that the EU’s more open market offers a wider variety of imported beers, wines and spirits and at lower prices than previously. With more competition inevitably comes a decrease in sales.

Second are the traditional ties that Germans have with beer. Why this would this would affect modern generations more than previous ones is beyond me but it might be an explanation. Drinking beer is what the old folks do. It’s what the hometown losers have always done and young drinkers are looking for new and sexier drinks.

German brewers have relied on tradition and the drinkers in their region to keep them in business. Even today they put very little thought into marketing and packaging. While I agree that a fancy new label doesn’t affect the brew on the inside it certainly helps the sales.

And there lies the solution. German brewers have to learn how to market, package and even export their beer. For example here in the US German beer retains a reputation of being the best. With some work German brewers can move into this market more aggressively and replace the domestic sales they’re losing. The ones that have figured this out, Paulaner, Spaten and a few others, have been and will continue to be successful. Those that don’t will not make it.

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