More breweries than ever are developing a singular, premium American Lager brand. The style ranked #15 among craft micro-styles in 2023, growing 10% in an otherwise sea of red. Credit whatever you want from IPA-fatigue, to Bud Light fallout, to the natural evolution of a craft beer drinker. Regardless, Lager’s fresh momentum is poised to continue in 2024 with many more new additions entering the mix. Having helped develop one of these new brands over the last year 18 months, I found the process of creating the packaging full of fascinating decision points that inform the brewery’s intentions and could determine the brands staying power. Let’s take a look at two of my favorites so far and how they went about it.
We at Saint Arnold released Grand Prize a few weeks ago, which is a throw back to a Howard Hughes owned brewery and Grand Prize was once the best selling beer in Texas. Feedback from both wholesalers and customers has been great but we've definitely heard the "why pay craft/premium price for low ABV light beer" comments too. We haven't tried the volume pricing play yet though and will be a little slow to adapt that. Are the other mentioned at more traditional craft price points?
The other day, someone on TikTok asked for a local light recommendation to try. Once he told me he was from Houston, I headed to your Instagram feed, saw the announcements and told him to seek out Grand Prize.
To answer your question, I'm seeing most of these positioning themselves at Import pricing, so Modelo & Stella, or at least within a buck or so when talking about a 12-pack. I'm not saying that they expect to "disrupt" those brands, but that's the easiest comp on pricing.
One other thing to note about that Destihl label (thanks for mentioning, Doug) -- I had a couple people reach out to mention that the spelling of "Lite" is trademarked by Miller, which protects those marks pretty aggressively. The use of "Light" is stil fair game, on the other hand.
I’m not a big fan of lagers, but I’d buy them in the order in which you’ve got ’em, simply from the aesthetics. I’m in love with the entire Garage Beer brand platform. Mediocre designers (I’d consider myself one) might lean on vintage as a bit of stolen design valor to have the past do the heavy lifting, but I think Garage is just gorgeous design, full stop. Cincy Light is a close-ish second for me. The vibes are more retro than Garage’s. Cold Time is solid, but a bit thin feeling, and the gold on the light blue ain’t great on my 53-year-old eyes. I’m not a fan of any of the decisions made by Destihl Lite. That gives me 2004 more than any other year.
Well I appreciate your honesty nonetheless. The real life version probably will not impact your eyes as much as this mock-up on a screen. Point still taken!
You’re surely right. The rest of my team are early 20s to early 40s, so I have to always speak for the AARP generation when it comes to layout readability. I think it might be that the gold pops so strongly on the dark blue and it's hard for any color to have that much impact on the lighter blue other than, say, white. Looking forward to checking it out in person sometime!
We at Saint Arnold released Grand Prize a few weeks ago, which is a throw back to a Howard Hughes owned brewery and Grand Prize was once the best selling beer in Texas. Feedback from both wholesalers and customers has been great but we've definitely heard the "why pay craft/premium price for low ABV light beer" comments too. We haven't tried the volume pricing play yet though and will be a little slow to adapt that. Are the other mentioned at more traditional craft price points?
The other day, someone on TikTok asked for a local light recommendation to try. Once he told me he was from Houston, I headed to your Instagram feed, saw the announcements and told him to seek out Grand Prize.
To answer your question, I'm seeing most of these positioning themselves at Import pricing, so Modelo & Stella, or at least within a buck or so when talking about a 12-pack. I'm not saying that they expect to "disrupt" those brands, but that's the easiest comp on pricing.
One other thing to note about that Destihl label (thanks for mentioning, Doug) -- I had a couple people reach out to mention that the spelling of "Lite" is trademarked by Miller, which protects those marks pretty aggressively. The use of "Light" is stil fair game, on the other hand.
One to watch out of the PNW is Douglas Lager! Definitely leans hard on retro/classic, but seems aimed at the premium instead of light beer.
They're off to a great start with the name. I will have to get me a few cans as a Douglas.
I’m not a big fan of lagers, but I’d buy them in the order in which you’ve got ’em, simply from the aesthetics. I’m in love with the entire Garage Beer brand platform. Mediocre designers (I’d consider myself one) might lean on vintage as a bit of stolen design valor to have the past do the heavy lifting, but I think Garage is just gorgeous design, full stop. Cincy Light is a close-ish second for me. The vibes are more retro than Garage’s. Cold Time is solid, but a bit thin feeling, and the gold on the light blue ain’t great on my 53-year-old eyes. I’m not a fan of any of the decisions made by Destihl Lite. That gives me 2004 more than any other year.
Well I appreciate your honesty nonetheless. The real life version probably will not impact your eyes as much as this mock-up on a screen. Point still taken!
You’re surely right. The rest of my team are early 20s to early 40s, so I have to always speak for the AARP generation when it comes to layout readability. I think it might be that the gold pops so strongly on the dark blue and it's hard for any color to have that much impact on the lighter blue other than, say, white. Looking forward to checking it out in person sometime!