What kind of person are you?

Your choice of beer can be as telling about your personality as what kind of clothing you wear or the car that you drive. And if you don't drink suds at all, or change brands depending on your mood -- well, that says something

What are you?

. . .he and his team found generic differences as well. For instance, people who prefer domestic beers over craft beers or imports are generally middle of the road in their politics. They're not nearly as conservative as people who don't drink beer at all, but not as liberal as people who prefer more exotic beer.

Read all about it here

Thanks Liz S.

Start a Brewery

While beer conglomerates like Anheuser-Busch InBev grow bigger every day, microbreweries are shrinking.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing: Nowadays, many home brewers who turn pro want to keep their beer intimate and personalized. Hence, the nanobrewery: a small-batch operation typically run by one or two people.

Check out the full article

The Sam Adams Beer Glass

So last night I encountered the Sam Adams Beer Glass for the first time. While I've read about it and how it's designed to enhance your Sam Adams drinking experience, I'd never used one. Honestly, I liked it. Though I'm not sure it helped the taste of the beer, it ergonomically felt right for drinking - the weight was good and the angle at which you drink, which is what the design is about, seemed better than your average glass.

Have you tried one?

Read about the glass and order one.

A Little Beer With Your Food

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MillerCoors Tests a Draft-Beer Box for the Fridge

MillerCoors, the second-largest U.S. brewer by revenue, has begun testing the 1.5-gallon "Home Draft" for its biggest brands -- Miller Lite and Coors Light -- in about a half-dozen cities, including Dallas, Phoenix and San Diego. The boxed product, which is designed to fit into refrigerators for drinkers to consume periodically, rather than for one-time party use, comes amid packaging overhauls by the U.S. units of Heineken NV and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV.

"In this economy, we are seeing an increase in packaging innovation" in consumer-goods industries, said Kara Gruver, head of the North America consumer-products practice at consulting firm Bain & Co. "In many cases, it can be less costly [than creating a new product] and a very effective form of innovation."

Wall Street Journal

Anheuser-Busch to launch Bud Light Golden Wheat this year

This just in: Anheuser-Busch will launch Bud Light Golden Wheat in early October in an effort to attract older drinkers who are looking for a little more flavor from their light beer. if all goes as planned, the Bud Light “megabrand” will soon have three formidable prongs. You heard it hear first, on Lager Heads.

A-B is “trying to stay ahead of where consumers are going,” Keith Levy, vice president of marketing, told Lager Heads. “Our expectations are fairly big for this, given that it’s got Bud Light’s name on it.”

stltoday.com

Do consumers care about their beer's attributes?

For many products touting the attributes is a key to garnering interest and differentiation against competitors. Budweiser Beer, though, is finding out that perhaps everyone knows about their beer and just wants some good ol' ads.

The focus on the beer itself was a departure from Bud Light's relentless and two-decades-old fixation on sophomoric humor, which it will now return to. But Mr. Levy said that, as with Budweiser, the brand can now get back to joking around now that it's reminded consumers about the product. "We're going to maintain that product attribute part, but we can do it with more humor and more engagement," he said.

AdAge

I'll Drink to The Upcoming Dolphin's Season . . . and so will Jimmy Buffett

Perhaps the economy is ready for a bounce back as stadium naming rights are coming back into the news. The joint venture of Jimmy "I've Got Snazzy Shirts" Buffett and Anheuser Busch, Land Shark Lager, is looking to rename Dolphin Stadium.

Read More Here

Miller Lite Reprises an Old Theme

Sounds like Andy England's first big initiative at MillerCoors. I'm dubious of how much the domestic lite beer drinker cares about RTBs and process.

The campaign -- one of MillerCoors's first strategic thrusts since it was formed last summer by combining rivals Miller Brewing and Coors Brewing -- is aimed at grabbing market share from leader Anheuser-Busch InBev and its top-selling Bud Light brand. While the new ads don't attack Bud Light by name, they are clearly designed to persuade consumers that Miller Lite is the better-tasting brew.

Wall Street Journal

Nelson Beer: The New Tcho Chocolate

We all know of Tcho Chocolate at this point, and for good reason. They've excelled at enabling a new wiki-, open-source culture to customize their product and involved the consumer with their "Beta testing" model. (tcho.com)

Now, Australian Nelson beer has quickly become the talk of the town throughout Melbourne utilizing a similar, but more underground campaign. Designed by Taboo, the white-capped and unnamed bottled is recognizable with a signature tribal-looking graphic and swing tag that claims "This beer is subject to change according to the recommendations of people like you." The batches are numbered, enabling consumers to provide feedback on their specific brew.

Nelson's is only available in specific, limited venues but is expanding with its backing by Fosters.

Making Some Cuts at AB

Just saw this in AdAge:

"Agency fees are the latest casualty in Anheuser-Busch InBev's quest to trim $1.5 billion in costs out of the world's largest brewer.

A-B has swapped its long-held retainer-based model of compensating its busiest agencies for a new approach based on an agreed-upon scope of work at the shops. That shift, which has become an increasingly common one for marketers looking to cut agency outlays, puts the agencies on the hook if projects require more hours or greater cost than expected. Other changes include stingier reimbursement rates for production costs and smaller, flat per-concept fees."

This change should be interesting to watch unfold as a variety of smaller shops will be axed from the AB stable.

Also, check out the new label - it's kind of ridiculous InBev is forcing "American" down our throats. The fact that they have to emphasize that it's an "American Ale" actually puts more emphasis on the fact that it's no longer an American company, but a mere piece of a huge Belgian conglomerate. The next thing they'll put on there is that Belgium is the St. Louis of Europe.

UPDATE: I stand corrected - "American Ale" is a new line, yet the push for "American Lager" on their site is a little over the top (see below). "American/America" is on there 6 times.

Would you have a beer with this man?

The king of Michigan is getting his own brew. A brewery in Michigan received over $700K in tax breaks to start it's Kid Rock beer.

" The Michigan Brewing Co. has designs on investing $7 million for the new Kid Rock beer. No word just yet on what the name of the beer will be. We suggest "Bawitdaba Beer," followed by "Kid Rock's All Summer Long Ale" to compete with Sam Adams summer ale. "

Some other names to consider include:

• Bob's Brew (his real name is Robert Ritchie)
• Cowboy Ale
• A Pint for Pam
  

via Pet Rock

Almost too pretty to drink

More Mockingbird Lager concepts here

via The Dieline

A-B Forms 9th Street Beverages

9th Street Beverages will operate separately from A-B's beer business and will focus exclusively on marketing and growing distribution of the company's no-alcohol products. The unit's name reflects its location within A-B's headquarters in St. Louis.

Brand Week

MILLER (/Coors Logo) TIME

Pentagram has created the new Miller/Coors logo.

Pentagram

via Logo Design Love