The paragraph:
If Fat Tire were an actual bicycle, most people would put it on Craigslist and call it a day. But New Belgium can’t toss its former glory on the junk heap just yet. Even as younger drinkers gravitate toward the Voodoo Ranger clan’s bolder flavors and packaging, there are plenty of Gen Xers and Millennials with plenty of money for whom Fat Tire represents the golden era of early 21st-century American craft brewing. People still drink it! And despite its diminished stature, Fat Tire is still a top-20 craft brand overall. So New Belgium went for an overhaul instead, reformulating a “crisper, brighter” liquid and giving it a slick new package that calls attention to its eco-friendly credentials and omits its middling 5 percent ABV and outmoded style. “There’s a challenge to recharge heritage brands,” New Belgium vice president of marketing Kyle Bradshaw told Brewbound earlier this month, adding that the move “feels like a big risk” given Fat Tire’s outsized legacy.
I don’t understand the notion of dramatically changing a flagship (or former flagship) to match current tastes. The “new” Flat Tire lost any trace of its (dumb term coming!) “Belgian-ness” in the redesign, so why not try to push the newer formulation under an unique name and see if it catches on like the Ranger line did? Then they could have kept Fat Tire as a smaller run for the die-hards, the way they do with Tripel and 1554. Sam Adams’ redesign of Boston Lager is, um, not too my taste, and it wasn’t until Yeungling arrived in my neck of the woods that I realized that they were trying to match Yeungling Lager — why not instead have launched the reformulation as a separate name and keep Boston Lager for the folks who have enjoyed it for decades? If you think the new formulation is a winner, why not launch it on its own rather than possibly “New Coke” your existing brand? Is there evidence it worked for Fat Tire or Boston Lager? Or will they eventually return to the previous recipe, a la Newcastle Brown?
Re: Sierra Nevada: as a steady Pale Ale drinker and Bigfoot and Celebration fan, I like the idea of the Hidden Scroll line, but wonder if it will gain traction around the country? Supermarkets and basic liquor stores by me will carry Pale Ale, the Hazy Little Thing brands, and Torpedo brands, but not the seasonals or high abv stuff — I have to go to much larger liquor stores for those. I’m in a place where there are dozens of local breweries and dozens more regional breweries from neighboring states. I don’t know if the larger liquor stores will take a chance on Hidden Scroll, and from what i see regarding the availability of other nationals, I think it’s not likely. I hope I’m wrong.
Hi Bill — Agreed. It is not at all clear for me if we will see any of the Hidden Scroll beers at Chuck’s Hop Shop here in Seattle. And what they’ll do to get the attention of shoppers.