American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s some more of what’s been happening in the beer world, while you were drinking yourself through an early August weekend.
MillerCoors Throws Two Hats Out Of The Ring (Chicago, IL) – Squeezed by increased competition from artisan spirits and wine on one side and craft beer on the other, MillerCoors introduced a new beer brand in early 2018 that they hoped would connect with those difficult 21-to 24-year olds, only to announce that they were pulling the plug on the fledgling brand only six month later.
Two Hats is/was ‘two’ low-cost LIGHT beers, one with lime, the other with pineapple flavor, that come with at a minimalist 4.2% ABV. But no matter MillerCoors extensive social media marketing plans, or the affordability of the brand, CLEARLY THEY DIDN’T CONNECT WITH THEIR TARGETED DEMO IN A BIG WAY.
Two Hat’s epic fail and the fact that the company bailed on the project so quickly speak to miscalculation and maybe a little desperation on MillerCoors part. And the fact that company had recently reported that its sales had decreased for the fourth straight quarter, with Coors Light’s decline contributing to the slump, possibly played a part in their decision put an end to the Two Hats project.
Words To Drink By (Chicago, IL) – “We believe industry growth requires healthy brands across all segments, and we won’t stop trying to be part of the solution to grow beer.” – Bryan Ferschinger, MillerCoors Vice President of National Craft and Innovation
Dixie Beer Plans New Brewery And Visitor Center (New Orleans, LA) – NOLA used to be the brewing capital of the south and Dixie Beer ruled that empire.
Founded in New Orleans more than a century ago, Dixie Beer’s fortunes have waxed and waned over the years. It not only survived Prohibition, but in the 1950s it owned almost as much as 30 percent of the city’s local beer market. But it struggled over the years to compete with national heavyweights such as Pabst, Miller and Budweiser and the impact of Hurricane Katrina finaly sunk the brand…
But last summer Dixie Beer was reborn (and returned to its original recipe) when Tom and Gayle Benson, owners of the New Orleans Saints, bought a majority interest in the legendary brand. And they’ve just announced they’ll be building a $30 million, 80,000-square-foot brewery and visitors center in New Orleans East with a brewing capacity 72,000 barrels a year.
