Grape Fizz Ale Blurs The Lines, but not Aisles

I figured I was done talking about New Belgium’s Grape Fizz Ale after folding it into last week’s deep dive on grape, and the flavor’s unexpected comeback. But the very next day, I spotted the beer at the flagship Binny’s store in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. Its placement in the regional craft beer section made me stop and think. If this is where it’s being merchandised, can New Belgium reach their goals for the brand?

Despite being referred to as a “brew” on the website and even an “ale” in the brand name, the tagline written on the side panel of its six-pack carton is “a hard twist on a classic”. The word “hard” tends to be utilized with Flavored Malt Beverages: think Hard Seltzer, Hard Coffee, Hard Iced Tea, Hard Lemonade, Hard Mountain Dew, etc. In other words, a familiar beverage type, with alcohol.

Digging a little deeper, I found that the back story shares New Belgium’s intention: “with soda getting trendier than ever, we wanted to make a beer inspired by the nostalgic grape sodas of the 80s and 90s.”

Grape Fizz Ale’s launch is a textbook example of blurring the lines between categories, in this case: craft beer, flavored malt beverages, and soda. The practice is nothing new if we think back to Not Your Father’s Root Beer, White Claw, Vita Coco Spiked, heck there’s even hard still waters now. For anyone trying to navigate where boundary-pushing products like this should actually live on the shelf for target drinkers to discover them, there’s more to unpack here.