BrewDog and Beavertown have taken a leaf out of Jubel’s book, both adding fruit-flavoured beers to tap UK shoppers’ growing thirst for European-style brews.
BrewDog has expanded its mid-strength lager, Cold Beer, with a 3.4% abv Peach variant.
Made using loral hops, the “sessionable” lager had a “subtle peach flavour”, said BrewDog.
It will launch exclusively into Tesco on 25 March (rsp: £4.25/4x440ml).
“We’ve seen from the wider market that fruit lager delivers a differentiated shopper to traditional lager, opening up a new need state and in turn, new shoppers,” said BrewDog head of customer marketing Hannah Corker.
“Already delivering a fresh crisp taste, a fruit flavoured extension of Cold Beer feels like the natural next step to continue to growing brand love and introducing new shoppers to the BrewDog brand,” Corker added.
Beavertown, meanwhile, has added a range of fruit-flavoured beers. Called Cosmic Drop, the 4% abv range has debuted with “easy-drinking” Berry Punch and Watermelon Punch.
The former is a “striking red” liquid, “bursting with blueberries and raspberries”, while the latter is a “light pink” watermelon-flavoured beer.
Both have hit selected Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores, with a wider rollout into supermarkets and pubs planned for the coming months.
It comes after Tesco this month identified “European-style fruit-led beer” as “Britain’s fastest-growing beer trend”, reporting a 250% uptick in volume sales of these styles in the last year.
European fruity beers, including Belgian strawberry brews Fruli and Bacchus Kriek, Radler, a shandy style beer from Germany and Damm Lemon from Spain, had “gradually become more popular over here” in the past 15 years, said Tesco.
Jubel became the UK’s first dedicated fruit lager brand when it launched in 2018, inspired by founder Jesse Wilson’s enjoyment of beer pêche (lager with a shot of peach syrup) during a ski trip to France.
“I thought that style of lager could be the perfectly refreshing pint in pubs and that’s where our business grew, with word of mouth spreading rapidly, to the point where it seems our flagship peach lager is now the fifth-biggest craft beer in the on-trade based on CGA reported volumes,” said Wilson.
The range now boasts five different 4% abv variants – peach, mango, blood orange, lemon and grapefruit – and has seen its volumes grow in Tesco by more than 300%, according to the retailer.
“We are incredibly excited that retailers like Tesco see this as the biggest trend to hit beer since the craft beer movement, and we’re pumped to be pioneering it.”
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