Beer mixes it up with cocktails

ST. LOUIS -- Going against the grain in courting the young cocktail crowd, beermaker Anheuser-Busch Cos. is launching a new "brew" to go head-to-head with classic mixed drinks -- traditional suds spiked with caffeine, fruit flavoring, herbal guarana and ginseng.

The world's largest brewer's nationwide rollout this week of B-to-the-E -- the "B" standing for beer, the "E" for something "extra" and shown as an exponent of B -- came as beermakers look to piggyback strides liquor companies have made in luring young consumers to flavored and mixed drinks.

Anheuser-Busch test marketed B-to-the-E in the fall, eventually assessing in 55 U.S. cities whether the new "beer" appealed to 20-something consumers craving something zippy in their highly social, fast-paced lifestyles.

"It's producing a lot of excitement for this beer category in that consumers and bartenders are not looking at this as a typical beer," in many cases with B-to-the-E served up over ice, said Dawn Roepke, the St. Louis-based brewer's brand manager of new-product development. "It's going right up against mixed drinks."

Slightly sweet but tart and coming in the aromas of blackberry, raspberry and cherry, B-to-the-E is to be marketed toward "active 21- to 27-year-old experimenters looking for new tastes and options."

B-to-the-E comes against the backdrop of the company's existing line of Bacardi liquor-branded flavored malt beverages -- or malternatives -- and the ever-increasing line of alcohol-free energy drinks, often used as mixers in clubs.

Anheuser-Busch -- maker of Budweiser, Bud Light and low-carb Michelob Ultra beers -- trumpets itself as the first major brewer to infuse beer with caffeine, ginseng and guarana, the latter a caffeine-bearing herb used in a popular Brazilian soft drink.

By the numbers

Anheuser-Busch said each can of B-to-the-E packs 17 grams of carbohydrates, along with 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, 54 milligrams of caffeine and 145 calories. By comparison, Anheuser-Busch's Bacardi Silver Low-Carb Black Cherry has 2.6 grams of carbs and 96 calories per 12-ounce serving.

While pricing may vary among taverns, B-to-the-E before taxes generally will fetch $1.29 for a single can or $4.99 for a four-pack of 10-ounce cans, Roepke said. A bottled version is to arrive by the end of February, she said.

Departing from its typical national launch, Roepke said, Anheuser-Busch will focus its marketing muscle on print, Internet and outdoor media -- not "in-your-face" spots on television or radio.

"Our goal is to fit into consumers' lives," Roepke said, noting the targeted demographic "really likes to discover things for themselves."

Jim Arndorfer, a Chicago-based reporter who covers the beer and spirits industry for Advertising Age magazine, said that only time will tell if B-to-the-E grabs the younger audience and makes inroads in a U.S. beer industry that lately has been losing market share to spirits.

"A couple of years ago, brewers rolled out flavored malt beverages -- Smirnoff Ice, Anheuser-Busch's Baccardi drinks -- and sales of those shot up quickly but quickly cooled off," with some brewers even pulling their spirit-based offerings off the shelves, Arndorfer said.

Generally, he said, "new product successes are few and far between."

Anheuser-Busch has heard skeptics before, notably those who questioned the company's rollout of Michelob Ultra a few years ago. But that beer became a hit for the diet-conscious consumer, forcing other beermakers to respond with their own carb-friendly brews.

As for B-to-the-E, rival Miller Brewing Co. has no immediate plans for a similar product, but "certainly we'll follow the results of the product and be keeping a close eye on it," spokesman Pete Marino said.

Messages left with the Colorado-based Adolph Coors Co. were not returned.