E-Malt.com News article: USA: AB InBev to launch tequila-flavoured Oculto beer next year

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is launching a tequila-flavoured beer called Oculto in the U.S. next year, hoping to attract younger consumers who increasingly choose liquor and Mexican beers, The Wall Street Journal reported on November 5.

Oculto, which will make its debut next spring, will be made with blue agave—the same plant used to make tequila—blended with beer aged with wood from tequila barrels.

The new lager won’t contain tequila, but it will have an alcohol content of 6%, more than the 4% to 5% typical of American beers. The product targets a U.S. market that AB InBev has had trouble pursuing since it bought Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo SAB de CV for $20.1 billion in 2013.

Mexican beers are among the most rapidly expanding parts of the beer industry. This year’s shipments of brands such as Modelo Especial and Dos Equis to the U.S. were up 17% through September, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights, a trade publication. Corona is the top-selling import.

When AB InBev bought Modelo, it had to agree to forgo U.S. import rights for that company’s most prominent Mexican beers—Corona, Modelo Especial and Pacifico—to allay antitrust concerns. When it sold the U.S. distribution rights to Constellation Brands Inc., it was left without a Mexican beer in the U.S. market. AB InBev markets Modelo brands in Mexico and other markets worldwide.

Earlier this year, the company began limited U.S. distribution of Montejo, a Mexican lager made by a Modelo subsidiary. Oculto will be the second beer with a Mexican profile in AB InBev’s U.S. portfolio.

In 2012 AB InBev also launched Bud Light Lime-a-Rita, a flavored malt beverage designed to taste like a margarita, and which has 8% alcohol content. It has since rolled out several flavor variations.

The tequila-flavored Oculto will feature a label printed directly onto a clear bottle similar to Corona. The name Oculto is etched into a white skull that recalls the style of Mexican “Day of the Dead” art. The logo turns fluorescent and the skull’s empty eyes glow green when the bottle is cold.

Oculto means “hidden” in Spanish, and each bottle will have a secret message, according to a person who attended an AB InBev gathering of distributors late last month. Details of the brand’s launch date, marketing campaign and will be formally announced next year.

Earlier this year, Heineken USA began selling a tequila-flavored beer in Florida and Georgia called Desperados, which its parent company, Heineken Holding NV, makes and sells overseas. The company, which also sells Mexican beers Dos Equis and Tecate, plans to release Desperados nationally in 2015.

The tequila beers are aimed at beer drinkers that have been defecting to cocktails. U.S. sales volumes of spirits have grown at an annual rate of 2.4% over the past five years while beer has fallen 1.2%, according to Euromonitor.


07 November, 2014