The Bar Towel

http://money.msn.com/investing/5-beers- ... t-drinking


No. 5: Old Milwaukee Brewer: Pabst Brewing
Sales decline (2006-2011): 52.8% Barrels sold last year: 460,000

No. 4: Milwaukee's Best Brewer: MillerCoors
Sales decline (2006-2011): 57.1% Barrels sold last year: 750,000

No. 3: Budweiser Select Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
Sales decline (2006-2011): 60.8% Barrels sold last year: 775,000

No. 2: Michelob Light Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
Sales decline (2006-2011): 66.3% Barrels sold last year: 425,000

No. 1: Michelob Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
Sales decline (2006-2011): 72.0% Barrels sold last year 140,000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oP_GbYsiq4

These are 5 beers no one should be drinking

Though these beers may be generic commodities inferior to craft brews, they could as well be simply the vitctim of failed marketing. Brands get fatigued over passing decades, and companies that own them cling to past success and fail to bring them to renewed public interest.

There are still lots of BMC-MolBatt commodity suds outselling everything else. The brands that are still doing it well just got smarter - not better.

(I had to say 'suds' there just because Josh likes that word whole lot)

Belgian wrote:Though these beer labels may be generic commodities inferior to craft beer, they could as well be simply the vitctim of failed marketing. Brands get fatigued over passing decades, and companies that own them cling to past success and fail to bring them to renewed public interest.

Absolutely - 3 Anheuser-Busch beers there, but I'm betting Bud Light numbers are pretty high.

To be fair, when was the last time you saw advertising for Old Milwaukee anything? I think the last time they changed their brand was when the put pinup girls on the cans.

JeffPorter wrote:- 3 Anheuser-Busch beers there, but I'm betting Bud Light numbers are pretty high.

Yeah they can't be hurting.

Michelob had quite a lot of brand variation over the years! I was really enjoying this whole niche-branding clusterfuck:

Michelob: ULTRA Lime Cactus A fruit-infused light pilsner with natural lime flavor and a floral essence derived from the cactus; Michelob: ULTRA Pomegranate Raspberry A pilsner with a berry aroma, raspberry flavor, and a hint of pomegranate; Michelob: ULTRA Tuscan Orange Grapefruit A pilsner with fresh juicy orange notes and a slight pink-grapefruit finish.

NRman wrote:No. 5: Old Milwaukee Brewer: Pabst Brewing
Sales decline (2006-2011): 52.8% Barrels sold last year: 460,000

No. 4: Milwaukee's Best Brewer: MillerCoors
Sales decline (2006-2011): 57.1% Barrels sold last year: 750,000

No. 3: Budweiser Select Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
Sales decline (2006-2011): 60.8% Barrels sold last year: 775,000

No. 2: Michelob Light Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
Sales decline (2006-2011): 66.3% Barrels sold last year: 425,000

No. 1: Michelob Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
Sales decline (2006-2011): 72.0% Barrels sold last year 140,000

Yeah, well, 99.9% of craft brewers would be drooling if they had production numbers like that.

saints_gambit wrote:To be fair, when was the last time you saw advertising for Old Milwaukee anything? I think the last time they changed their brand was when the put pinup girls on the cans.

I once had a bar owner tell me how "psyched" he was that Old Milwaukee was planning a Pabst-esque revival, and that his bar was going to the first in Toronto to carry the product. Yeah I mean, there are so many things wrong with that, but maybe this guy knows something we don't?

saints_gambit wrote:To be fair, when was the last time you saw advertising for Old Milwaukee anything? I think the last time they changed their brand was when the put pinup girls on the cans.

Funny you should ask. That's the one brand I do remember the advertising for recently.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=will+fer ... ee&tbm=vid

I can only imagine what Michelob was like on its release as a draft-only, all-malt beer in 1896 or even 1960. Even Old Milwaukee had a discernible taste profile back when (wild cherry-like - I remember).

IMO, these beers have been dumbed down too much, and given the beer landscape today, they are "neither here nor there", they don't offer a real alternative to generic light or craft beer. It's really too bad that the producers can't see it. Bring back Michelob 1896, or Budweiser 1876. Instead, they experiment with craft-like lines that likely won't do much, IMO.

Gary

I agree. Even Michelob c. 1990 was not terrible (or at least was discernibly better than the other macros). But they have both dumbed it down and abandoned any support for the brand. On a recent trip to Florida Michelob Ultra, Michelob Amber, etc were omnipresent but plain old Michelob was invisible.

Maybe they will get added to this list.

http://grub.gunaxin.com/fourteen-dead-beers/44964

Wiedemann's actually is back:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2012 ... now-stores

The formulation is not quite like the original, but then too, other beers change over time and I'd like to think the current Wiedemann's is more like it was in the 1800's than when the brand expired in the 80's, i.e., before the restoration of the name.

Gary

G.M. Gillman wrote:Wiedemann's actually is back:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2012 ... now-stores

The formulation is not quite like the original, but then too, other beers change over time and I'd like to think the current Wiedemann's is more like it was in the 1800's than when the brand expired in the 80's, i.e., before the restoration of the name.

Gary

I love the places where it is available: Party Source and Party Town. Ontario regulators would have a fit if a retailer were implying that alcohol was a "party supply"!