We still have a pretty decent amount of summer left, but as we all know, fall is going to be here before we know it. Personally, we like the slight cool down, but there’s something else we love about fall: the booze.
Among autumn liquor trends, apple flavored booze has been a long-time favorite. However, according to industry trends, flavored malt beverages are an impressive growth segment right now and bigger alcohol companies are banking on that this fall with more apple flavored options.
Fortune recently reported that Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors are beginning to ship out extensions of their flavored malt beverage lines in autumn-friendly apple flavors like Apple-Ahhh-Rita and Redd’s Wicked Apple. Both offerings have pretty impressive alcohol by volume (ABV) percentages at 8% ABV. Consumers (especially Millennials) are asking for higher ABV beers and more flavors, so the big boys are definitely listening.
“[Redd’s] is how we are defending ourselves against spirits,” Jenna Shklyar, a MillerCoors brand manager told Fortune. “This is our way to gain back market share and for us to attract Millennial consumers.”
Shklar also says that apple is an ideal flavor for the company to play in because consumers are looking for the apple profile and flavor, and cider and flavored malt beverages are perfect for that.
You know how big craft beer is becoming? Growth for the flavored malt beverage segment is actually stronger than craft beers, if you can imagine that. For the record, if you’re not sure, flavored malt beverages are just beers that are either mixed with another alcoholic drink, or some sort of flavoring or mixer, like lemonade.
Big brewers may have faith in putting out apple flavored malt beverages right now, but when it comes to other varieties, they’re still trying to figure that out. They seem to be studying Millennial drink preferences very closely to determine their next move in this growing category… and we’ll be watching.