Germany: Pre-mixed beer market segment growing fast

Some people may feel ill at the thought of apple or orange-flavoured beer, but that is the latest trend in the brewing industry in Germany.

In a nation famous for it brewing traditions, a declining number of people are drinking Germany's classic pilsener beer, and newcomers are turning to drinks that beer-drinkers would have turned their noses up at only a few years ago, China Daily released July 28.

Lager and lime has long been a popular drink in Britain, and now a growing number of German breweries are mixing their beer with Coca Cola, lime cordial, caffeine or combining it with an energy drink. Anything goes and the range of pre-mixed beer products has grown fast this summer.

Pre-mixed beers currently make up only 3.5 per cent of the German market, far less than several leading beer brands, but it appears to be the start of a trend.

"It is a dynamic segment of the market. Its main feature is the wide range of products," says Birte Kleppien, spokeswoman for the German Brewers' Association in Berlin. She expects sales of pre-mixed beers to boom.

The north German beer maker Beck's has announced plans to bring out two new beer-mixes called Chilled Orange and Level 7. Their names show that the target group is not elderly men, sipping lager-style pilsener in a leafy beer garden.

Beck's already leads the field in mixed-beer products. Last May, off-licences began stocking their shelves with Green lemon, which has 2.5 per cent alcohol content and comes in a clear glass bottle.

"We were the first brewery to achieve prominence with its range of pre-mixed beers," says Michael Hoffmann, spokesman for Beck's.

Hoffmann says Beck's new Chilled Orange has a zesty orange taste and Level 7 is an energy drink with guarana and an extra portion of caffeine.

Beck's was not the first brewery to dare to pre-mix beers. Veltins, another German brewer, brought two products with lemon and cola flavours onto the market five years ago.

Sales were good and the company added another drink to its range, V+Energy, "a strawberry flavoured drink aimed at consumers between 18 and 25 years of age," says Ulrich Biene, spokesman for Veltins.

Another Veltins beer is flavoured with passion fruit, "with a light, fruity taste." This beer has 4.8 per cent alcohol content.

Another German favourite with a long tradition is the shandy; beer mixed with lemonade. Many German breweries have had shandies in their product ranges for years, but surprisingly, Veltins only launched a shandy aimed at the "traditional beer drinker" last year.

The Holsten brewery in Hamburg has gone so far as to make an alcohol-free variety of its popular shandy called Cooler with a lemon flavour.

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