为什么顶级啤酒的果味版本在商店货架上弹出

水果啤酒will always have their place。Though occasionally maligned as “not real beer,” in places like Belgium, fruit has been added to beer for generations. The reasons make sense: Hops often impart awide range of fruity flavors，尤其是柑橘和热带的。酵母也可以产生水果香气，例如香蕉或苹果。用实际的水果播放这些口味可以为酿酒商提供创造性的解放，因此，世界有很多很棒的水果啤酒。

At the same time, fruit can make for great “crossover” beers — beers for people who are reluctant to drink beer — by masking its more acquired tastes with something more familiar. Back in the ‘90s, one of my first craft beer loveswas Pyramid Apricot Alefor the simple reason that it was extremely palatable — which can’t always be said about today’s throat-burning double dry-hopped IPAs. For this reason, many big brewers turn to fruited beer not so much as a creative decision, but instead with the hope of luring in new drinkers. It’s far from a new phenomenon: MillerCoors-owned Leinenkugel produces its Summer Shandy — a mix of wheat beer and lemonade — that’s one of the top-selling brands in the country. And Blue Moon — the best-selling non-lager beer in the U.S., also owned by MillerCoors — has seen all sorts of fruity iterations.

但是最近，美国最大的酿酒师Anheuser-Busch一直在加入水果啤酒世界。去年，Bud Light（到目前为止的最畅销的啤酒）引入了Bud Light Orange，并且有传言称Bud Light Lemon Tea将于今年晚些时候推出。同样在2019年，Michelob Ultra是该国第六台最畅销的啤酒品牌，也是增长最快的啤酒品牌之一（根据24/7 Wall St） - 宣布了一系列米歇尔·Ultra Infusions，从石灰和刺梨仙人掌产品开始。同时，自然光（无论信不信与否实际上是美国的第八大啤酒品牌）最近推出了Naturdays，这是一种用草莓柠檬水调味的啤酒版本。

这些示例当然不是Anheuser-Busch首次给出其标志性酿造水果味的旋转。希望你有forgotten about Bud Extra— Budweiser’s fruity, caffeine-spiked cousin that was launched in 2005 in the days of the Four Loko trend. And the true beginning of this A-B fruit beer madness can be traced to the release of Bud Light Lime in 2008 — which was massively popular upon its release and, despite a significant decline since, has continued to sell well enough to remain in production.

但是，使当前趋势有趣的是，在一年的时间内，Anheuser-Busch同时追求了其五个最大品牌中三个的新的，果实增强的版本（Budweiser和Busch Light是两个that haven’t seen any fruit tinkering).

原因与过去相同：交叉吸引力。Anheuser-Busch的价值品牌高级总监Daniel Blake承认，他们并没有试图重塑营销轮。他通过电子邮件告诉我：“在Naturdays的情况下，我们希望在感觉到'Natty'的事物之间取得完美的平衡，但也会吸引潜在的啤酒饮用者的新受众。”“我们想创造一种啤酒，对以前可能从未考虑过纳蒂（Natty）或啤酒的人们更容易平易近人。有机会为21岁以上的消费者，特别是在经济啤酒领域中带来更多种类。草莓柠檬水味道的结合虽然仍然像淡啤酒一样完成，但我们认为人们会非常兴奋。”

MillerCoors took a similar approach in February of last year, not by adding fruit to one of its existing brands, but by creating a new brand of light beer specifically focused on fruit flavors. Two Hats, as it was called,以石灰和菠萝口味发射。The concept faired so poorly that it didn’t even make it until the end of the year, but something MillerCoors’ Chief Marketing Officer David Kroll stated on the company’s blog in the lead up to the release was extremely illuminating: “We know that people who choose beer when they become of legal drinking age are two times more likely to continue drinking beer throughout their lifetime, and as an organization, we have an opportunity to regain ground with this group,” he explained. “[Two Hats] is meant to serve as an easy entry point into beer and an introduction to the rest of our portfolio.”

Two Hats failed for a number of reasons. Not helping was the fact that the beers, at least to me, tasted awful, even by mass market beer standards. And perhaps as a MillerCoors’ offshoot, the brand lacked a certain level of authenticity — or at the very least, it was cast afloat to find a niche in a market that’s now over 7,000 breweries strong.

Bud Light Lime十年历史的成功和两顶帽子最近的失败可能指出了为什么Anheuser-Busch决定利用其三个最大的品牌，以试图在水果啤酒跨界市场中立足。而且，如果戴维·克罗尔（David Kroll）说的是真的，那值得赌博。如果有人从自然饮酒到饮用自然光，那是潜在的长期啤酒饮用者。坦率地说，自然光没有太多的损失。12月，华尔街24/7发布了年度“啤酒不再喝酒”的年度清单，自然光完成第九with a sales decline of 20.5 percent from 2012 to 2017. Making things worse, Bud Light finished tenth, posting an 18 percent decline over this same period. In fact, according to the Brewers Association, beer sales overall dropped 1.2 percent in 2017, with the largest brands bearing the brunt.

These figures help explain why the beer world has been going a bit bonkers lately, not just with fruit beers galore, but also attack ads and literal lawsuitsover corn syrup。“我们希望看到啤酒类别的增长，”行业范围内贸易集团啤酒研究所的总裁兼首席执行官吉姆·麦格雷维（Jim McGreevy），上周在CNBC采访中说。“What’s happening since the Super Bowl is sort of an example of how fierce the competition is in beer.”

Meanwhile, one of the few bright spots for big beer companies has been Michelob Ultra, which a单独的24/7 Wall St报告节目从2012年到2017年的销售量增加了两倍，这使其成为美国第二快的大型啤酒品牌。有意识地或巧合的是，通过给米歇尔布超级水果处理，Anheuser-Busch正在尝试在其品牌上建立同步性，以为水果爱好者可能会从一个标签跳到另一个标签。

无论如何，显然发生的事情是，许多酿酒师（尤其是Anheuser-Busch）正在采取一些厨房水槽的方法来释放新啤酒。在某些方面，水果一直是Brewing的厨房水槽成分。酿酒商有时会在啤酒中加入水果的另一个原因是，这些口味也可以用来掩盖啤酒的缺陷。那个时髦的啤酒有点太酸了吗？只需将一些覆盆子扔到那里：这将解决问题！认为这是对大型啤酒世界中发生的事情的隐喻：如果销售看起来不太热，也许有些水果可以使事情变得顺利。