The cans, which mimic the decades-old logo that frames the Budweiser name on packaging, will be offered as an alternative to traditional cans, not as a replacement, and will come in 8-packs rather than the standard 6-packs, the brewer said Monday.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, the North American headquarters for Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, has been working on the bowtie design since 2010. The can’s unique design is intended, in part, to attract young adults who haven’t yet tried a Budweiser.
“We know there are a large number of consumers out there looking for new things, the trend-seekers,” Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of innovation Pat McGauley told the Post-Dispatch. “We expect both our core beer drinkers and new customers to try it.”
In 2011, the brewer launched the redesign of Budwesier cans and packaging that features the bowtie as a focal point on each can.
The new bowtie-shaped Budweisers launching next month hold 11.3 ounces of beer and contain 137 calories – 8.5 fewer calories than a 12-ounce can of Budweiser.
US craft beer: How it inspired British brewers
A functional flyover of the scene with a British twist.
Beer fight brewing over taxes
Sorry, this is a classic overreach by the crafters. They have played the job creation card enough during the Great Recession, no need to go arguing for special excise tax breaks because they are “small.” Remember, ability to pay is the metric of the progressive taxers. If a simple flat income tax is the most just and efficient income levy, one without distortionary pitfalls and marginal windshear, so is a flat excise levy on alcohol.
In short, stick to brewing guys. Leave the tax policy schemes to the swill beer makers.
Yay! But can the quality be sustained?
Georgia's Brewed Awakening
Patience, friends.
InBev Sued by U.S. to Block $20 Billion Grupo Modelo Deal
Federal anti-trust crusaders have never heard of craft beer, evidently. The idea that Bud Light and Corona under the same roof would corner the US beer market is absurd. Sounds like the other swill beer makers did a little lobbying on the down-low.
2013: The Year Craft Beer Crashes?
Don’t want to go all craft Cassandra here, but I do want to note two trends that I think should give pause to craft beer fans at the close of a tremendous year of growth.
One is simple, bad beer. Maybe it is the slew of “harvest” and “holiday” ales that have been in heavy rotation recently — often experimental and by definition hit and miss — but the past few months have seen an uptick in weak offerings. At least to my palate.
Of course that is happily self-correcting, either the bad brewers get better or they cease to exist. But the second trend I worry about short-circuiting that market discipline.
This is anecdotal and therefore no claim of universality is implied, but it seems to me that within the past year or two craft breweries have crossed into the magic happy place of central planners where farmers’ markets, soccer plexes, and ArtsFests are revenue-churning “destination locations” quite apart from economic reality. Or merit.
Once bureaucrats get involved quality control goes out the door. That is how the Mid-Atlantic ended up with farcical farmers’ markets stocked with produce trucked in Florida — same as the big boxes. It is bad enough that the corporate swill hawkers have their crafty fake crafts out there. A slew of bad craft breweries propped up by tax increment financing or other regulatory gifts would be a nightmare.
Hope I am wrong.
Bonus Caveat: None is this is to suggest that real, organic crafts do not sometimes anchor and sustain planny-plan-planned neighborhoods and districts. They do. And throw off a ton of money doing so.
Best movie of the year. Bonus: Theremin. Or possibly saw.
The Lawless World of…Craft Beer?
Heard this one the other day from someone in the biz and was stunned. Seems several municipalities in the Atlanta area have issued “tasting” licenses to growler/pour houses for on-site consumption. For a fee, of course.
Trouble is, the state of Georgia recognizes no such authority for municipalities. Worse, the state can cite the establishments for serving alcohol without the proper licenses. Crazy, the state evidently has in at least one case.
Counting bogus local fees and state fines one area business is out over $2000. Without so much as an “oops” from the local government geniuses who caused the problem in the first place.
