What is Anchor up to?

I had the Blackberry IPA recently and didn't find it to be too bad, just sort of average really. The blackberry flavor isn't that apparent to me, but it did have a bit of that fruity tartness and the reddish/purple color. Not bad, but I'm probably not going back for another any time soon. The new Liberty IPA is pretty enjoyable, but it doesn't hold a candle to Double Liberty. They really need to bring that one back soon! Like others have said, I was a little sad to see one of my favorite breweries chasing trends, but nobody is immune to the market shifts I guess. I just want to see more Breckle's Brown on the shelves, plus the return of Anchor Bock and Humming Ale!

 

But none of those beers match the present day trends. What do you think the chances are of those beers making a comeback?

Cheers!

 

I used to be addicted to that Breckle's brown! I saw it on a list at a beer garden in Brooklyn and it was the first new thing I had seen by them in ages. It was so good.

 

Unfortunately very little at this point, it's hops, fruit, barrel aging, and sour or nothing these days it seems.

 

That is basically my understanding of today's craft beer trends. Maybe add Turbid IPA to the list.

Cheers!

 

Sidecar from Sierra Nevada I liked quite a bit. As are the draft only versions of Jungle Juiced Head Hunter and Super Juicy Hop JuJu from Fat Head's. Hoof Hearted Slippery When Wet (Mango added).

There are probably a couple others, but those are four off the top of my head.

We will be in Northern California in two weeks, stopping at Anchor. Look forward to trying their other stuff on draft! (and the tour). Maybe fresh on draft I will like it more.

 

I recently had some draft pints of Sidecar and I too enjoyed drinking those beers.

The only fruited hoppy beer that I am a BIG fan of is Grapefruit Sculpin.

I am guessing that in 2017 we will see more fruited IPAs being produced; these seems to be a recent trend.

Cheers!

 

Are you referring to Grapefruit Harvest IPA?

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3/106843/

That beer is a fall seasonal.

Cheers!

 

I attended a really interesting marketing meeting recently. I think my company is similar to some brewers - we're big but not huge with a history dating back to the 1930's. We have "flagship" products, but offer a broad range of goods. We're in a category in the grocery store that is suffering from overall decline in consumption and while we're still the big dog, the food bowl is getting smaller. So in my mind, the similarities are there.

Our number one seller continues to be our flagship product that we've made for 80-ish years with minimal changes. But here's what the marketing data says - yes, people buy the flagship repeatedly, but they also grab the "new shiny" at the same time. We're a trusted brand in the eyes of the consumer, so they expect us to introduce new flavors. They expect those new flavors to be at least of high quality even if they might not find the new flavors totally delicious, point is they try them, continue to buy the flagship products, and repeat sales on the new stuff tell us whether R&D has delivered a paid off on a new product.

There was a LOT of talk around here a few years ago where there was serious consideration being given to abandoning the flagship products and completely reinventing the company to regain "relevance with the consumer". This recent data seems to say good thing that didn't happen.

Seems quite similar to me. I don't know Anchor that well, but I seem to recall a what the hell are they doing thread about Sierra and Sidecar and the tropical Torpedo. So I reckon that SNPA and Torpedo are the flagships and volume leaders by a wide margin, yet volume is declining. So what are SN - or Anchor or anybody else with moderate to large scale distro - gonna do? Sit around and wait to go out of business as sales decline? Pull back and become a smaller player? Seem like at least for the near term they are going to put out different products and see what sticks, hopefully maintaining the sales of the flagship, selling some incremental volume with the new products, and maybe snagging some new consumers who might be looking for these flavored variants. That stops working, they will go on to something else, or they won't and eventually Dandy Don sings "turn out the lights".

So good for them - Anchor is trying this strategy that, by the way, does not seemed aimed at the Beer Advocate crowd specifically, and hopefully it keeps the wolves at bay. Maybe they pick up incremental volume, and people say "this is good, I'll try their XYZ..." I have heard from a lot of casual drinkers how great they think Frootwood is, for example, but that has been pretty polarizing around here. But it's really no win for them here in our subset of a subset of beer drinkers - they do nothing and eventually fall off the map and "we the BAnation" would bemoan the loss. If they try new things and "we" as the aggregate BA hive mind don't particularly like them, we pine for the "old days" and the wheel spins 'round. We are far from a bunch of brand-loyal consumers and are barely brewery-loyal by what I can see.

Short answer to "what are they doing" is they are trying to stay in business in an industry where things are shifting dramatically, and their consumer world is more vast than BA-verse.

 

Larry,

Isn’t this exactly what AB has been doing for the past decade+?

They introduced new products like:

· Budweiser Black Crown

· Beck’s Sapphire

· Fruit*-a-Rita

· Etc.

*Lime, Strawberry, Lemon, Mango, Grape, next fruit?

Has this product extension strategy reversed the decline in sales volume (as measured in barrels) for AB?

@jesskidden

Cheers!

 

No it hasn't if I recall the trends correctly, and I would rely on jesskidden infinitely more than me on that. But diversifying the portfolio seems to be a valid strategy depending on the business model. I think AB continues to invest heavily into the mothership, though, based on Bud and BL ads. I think back to the "new" Coke - blew everything up and put all the effort into something people didn't want. I just read a similar business article about the mistakes McDonald's have made trying to cater to whims - people who go to McDonald's simply aren't looking for the "healthy" choices. So I can see it can have the "why bother" feel to it, but if things go the way they are, what's going to be left? Everybody will be back to small distribution except for a very few. And a lot will be out of business. Well, I think more than a few are headed there anyway but that's been my opinion for a long while as you know.

It doesn't always work - even for us it can get pretty frayed around the edges and all we have really been able to do is hold onto a greater percentage of the overall shrinking pie in certain business units.But I do believe, to some extent, that offering different things can help. I also believe you can't forget who ya brought to the dance and you have to value those ""tried and true" products just as much even if they are "cash cows".

And like the smaller "national" brewers, we're in a sort of limbo - damned if we do and damned if we don't. The heritage the company enjoys will eventually run out and we're seeing that in the demographics - the average age of our consumer is pretty high and our trend is backwards. Usually sales drop off with consumer age - ours goes up. Are we replenishing, or are there just huge numbers of people who grew up with our products and when it flushes through are we done for? Maybe...hopefully after four more years of gainful employment...

It was funny - I was sitting at this meeting next to the former farm brewer who works for us. I said hey, all we gotta do is put 1000 pounds of hops/batch in half our batches, barrel-age the other half, put a $25 per liter price tag on the stuff, sell it Thursday - Saturday only at the plant parking lots with a 6 bottle limit...problem solved.

 

I think this is a valid strategy assuming that there is sufficient retail space (shelf space in the context of bottled/canned beers) for an expanding portfolio of product. Based upon my observations of my local beer store this is not the case. There is more and more product (including ever increasing amounts of locally produced product) and not enough existing shelf space. It is getting to be a real challenge for beer store owners/managers to decide which beers they will place on the shelf. Even for established breweries like Sierra Nevada some store owners are going to say: "Hey, wait a minute here. I can't place all of your packaged beers on my shelf. I have to sell some of my locally produced beers too."

Yup, there will indeed be more consolidation occurring in 2017 along with some breweries going out of business. There is simply more beer out there than customers. Even if the craft beer industry could 'create' some more customers I don't see this changing that situation.

Based upon what I am witnessing in my area, that sounds like a winning business plan:

• Produce and sell locally
• Use tons of hops (including hop dust)
• Everything is better in a barrel
• Price it high because the buy local folks equate high price with high quality

Do you need an investor?

Cheers!

 

You forgot the crappy canning line to heighten the need to drink it NOW!!!