Fake "Craft" beers backfiring...

Seems things like Shock Top are just taking market share from things like Bud Lite…

The article makes that assumption but it’s incorrect. The marketshare for budlight etc would be low regardless of shocktop/blue moon. They are saving themselves with blue moon/shocktop by capturing some of the “craft” beer market.

Charlie, they are 'helping" craft beer by using their distribution muscle to facilitate access to 'bridge" beers that move drinkers from domestic to crafts/imports. True that they “rent” those drinkers for a bit and salvage some volume but at they end they facilitated the departure of a drinker they will never recover.

Bingo.

good.

Yuengling, what I would call a fake craft beer in a different sense (craft beer marketing, terrible product that tastes quite a bit like Budweiser), was recently released in Massachusetts after not being available for quite a while. We hoped it would take business away from Bud/Miller/Coors, but it actually took a bite out of Sam Adams, one that used to be “craft”, but is now produced on such a massive, industrial scale that it shouldn’t reasonably qualify either (the definition of craft beer was changed to continue to include this brand). I guess it’s all the same. I would be shocked if more than a very few of those Sam Adams drinkers didn’t go back immediately after trying Yuengling.

I don’t know about that. First, AB’s marketing and development is not exactly amateur hour. I also considered that they are creating bridge beers, and that is likely quite true, but there are also a lot of would-be bud light drinkers who might move on to those bridge beers and progress no further down that path. Also, it’s not all shock top. AB also owns Goose Island, and if not exactly a top craft brewery, it is the kind of solid producer that can post decent sales, particularly when backed by AB’s distribution model. That’s just an example, but as long as they own a spectrum of options they can continue to do well in these areas. They can own the mothership, the bridge, and the next tier. That may never get them the epic market share they once enjoyed, but it ensures that they still control a good part of the sales from people who move towards craft beers. Only time will tell what part of market share AB and Miller continue to hold in the US and what part shifts to smaller operators, but I don’t think diversifying is in any way a bad business plan in the current beer climate.

Yeah, I actually know people here in the Midwest, where Yuengling is not available, who like it, who will have friends bring it back when on vacation. It’s funny because I see it as essentially the same thing as AB product.

Shock top sucks. That is all.

my argument is that those drinkers would be gone regardless.

Say in 2012 (making up numbers) the major brew companies had a 60% share. Craft brew had 40%
in 2013 it went to 50/50
2014 it’s now at 40/60.

Those numbers will happen regardless of the introduction of shocktop/blue moon to be part of the craft brew market. I understand your argument that shocktop/bluemoon is a potential “gateway” beer to better craft brews but I think it’s equally plausible that people who go to blue moon stay there. I know plenty of beer drinkers who have “graduated” to blue moon and have never left. It’s like saying “well this person finally stopped drinking 2 buck chuck and has moved onto a $10 wine… fine wine purchases in the future are going to be inevitable”

edit: Looks like Michael is making the same argument that I am a few posts up.

Talk about desperate: I was watching Brew Dogs this morning while having my coffee and the main sponsor was Corona Light!

But…but…but…

At this point Craft beers only make up 7.8% of the American beer market, while imports have 14.0% share, and the big boys have 78.2%. We may think that craft is a big deal (and frankly I wouldn’t include Boston Beer Co as craft), but there is still a lot of Bud Lite that gets drunk out there.

I’ve been amazed at Yuengling’s popularity, and the crowd with which it is popular, ever since I first tasted it; my impression of it is the same as yours, Doug.

InBev bringing in new Mexican label:

“Contrary to popular belief, the fastest-growing beers in the U.S. right now are not craft beers, but Mexican imports,” said Harry Schuhmacher, publisher of trade journal Beer Business Daily. “Anheuser-Busch would be foolish not to attempt to tap into that growth.”

Roberto, forget that Butternuts crap! THIS is what you really need to get!!!

Cervejaria Wäls

It’s freaking delicious!

Another one we had on Sunday as well.

big in Socal. College students love them some Modelo and Corona… “it’s fancy!”

Jorge, importer?

C’mon velho…sure you can do a little finger work there no?

http://artisanalimports.com/brewerydetails.asp?id=28

Or are you soon-to-be slammed with work?

I thought maybe you had the bottle in front of you…

Nope, had them both last Sunday.