| Live Lobster Beer A Maine brewer is offering a quicker way to consume two of the state's summertime staples: beer and lobster. Oxbow Brewing is serving up beer brewed with live Maine lobsters and a dash of sea salt. Brewmaster Tim Adams says the lobsters were placed in a mesh bag and suspended in a kettle full of boiling wort during the brewing process. He says the lobsters adda subtle brininess and sweetness that lobster fans will recognize. The beer is a saison-style beer brewed in collaboration with a brewery in Parma, Italy. It is 4.5 percent alcohol by volume and is available on a limited basis. The beer is served in the brewery's tasting room. Adams says the lobsters that were cooked in the brewing process were later eaten. |
How A-B Is Fighting Back Anheuser-Busch has developed a two-pronged approach to fight off the ever increasing market share of craft beer.:First, they created their own in-house national brands like Shock Top, while at the same time expanding its portfolio by acquiring established regional craft brewers with room to grow. Anheuser-Busch madeits first craft splash in 2011 with the purchase of Chicago's Goose Island Brewery for $38 million. The acquisition of Goose Island—one of the craft industry's pioneers—stunned the craft brewing world, but the move would prove to be prescient. In the years since, Anheuser-Busch flagship brands like Budweiser and Bud Light have struggled and Anheuser-Busch North American sales volume has been on a downward trend—including a drop of 1.3 percent last year. The craft segment, meanwhile, has been on a steady upswing, posting an 18 percent increase in volume in 2014, while reaching double-digit market share for the first time. n February 2014, Anheuser-Busch announced the purchase of Blue Point Brewing in Patchogue, New York, for an undisclosed amount (estimated to be about $24 million). Eight months later, it purchased Bend, Oregon's 10 Barrel Brewing, again not disclosing the terms, but with some industry insiders pegging the cost at about $50 million. The company opened its wallet again in January of this year, this time buying Seattle's Elysian Brewing, for an undisclosed amount. The purchase of Elysian gave a slight pause to many who thought there may be a regional craft acquisition strategy at work, with the presumption being Anheuser-Busch was looking for a craft brewing presence in each region. -------------------------------------------- |
| Feature News from beernexus.com |
Edited by Jim Attacap
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| BEERNEXUS the crossroads of the beer world |
| Hard Soda Fueled by buzz generated by liquored-up root beers—most notably Small Town Brewery's Not Your Father's Root Beer—big brewers are jumping into the category. The latest is MillerCoors. plans to start selling Henry's Hard Ginger Ale and Henry's Hard Orange sodas to retailers across the country by the end of the year.. Backed with a national ad campaign, MillerCoors is aiming its products at Gen Xers who grew up drinking soda and now have more income to spend on boozy alternatives. Both beers are sweetened with cane sugar with 4.2 percent alcohol by volume, in line with light domestic beers. While initially available in two flavors, more are in the works. A company spokesperson calls this "the launch of our hard soda platform.If history is a guide, however, hard soda's staying power is up against fairly long odds. Remember Zima? How about Smirnoff Ice? Both brands' sales rocketed before eventually cooling, or disappearing altogether. |
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