Brewers Asked to Create Beer for Women

Seems to me that A-B, Millers, Coors, Strohs, etc, have already been making beer for women.

This story is really only relevant to the British drinks market, where only a small proportion of beer drinkers are women, and brewers (especially big brewers) target their marketing exclusively at men.

CAMRA has been running misguided and inept campaigns trying to attract women beer drinkers for years. I shudder whenever I remember the dire 'Ninkasi Goddess of Ale' campaign last year.

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ...an interesting page Paul. I use Bliss all the time.

My "woman" and I have been to the UK numerous times -- twice through southern England in the past year (London; then from Kent to Somerset). She knows how to enjoy a good bitter or ale and she enjoys drinking a Guinness almost as much as I do. However, I can't say that I paid too much, if any, attention to the beer advertising campaigns when we were there. Are these television ads? Printed? Both?

-- VAXman- OpenVMS APE certification number: AAA-0001 VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)COM "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"

CAMRA campaigns don't have huge budgets and paid ads of any sort are rare (certainly TV would be incredibly expensive - I'd send my card back tomorrow if CAMRA started wasting my subscription on TV ads). They concentrate on PR opportunities which attract lots of free media coverage, especially at the Great British Beer Festival which has just finished in London, and then supply posters, beermats etc. which tie in with the current campaign. The many beer festivals organised by local CAMRA branches are also expected to campaign on the current theme, which they generally do despite the possible reservations of some of the members.

The campaigns team is very pleased with itself when a current campaign gimmick gets lots of free publicity, but unfortunately the kind of stuff that gets lots of coverage in British tabloid newspapers tends to make ordinary CAMRA members cringe. I'm not sure the campaigns actually achieve much either.

Big breweries spend lots of money on advertising, and some of these ad campaigns are very good (much better than the beers they're promoting). Guinness advertising has been winning awards for over 50 years, and the current Scottish Courage campaign for John Smith's Smooth is very entertaining (unlike the beer).

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

I can agree with you there. I found John Smith's in a great many pubs. To me John Smith's it seemed like the "Budweiser" of UK bitters and not very good.

-- VAXman- OpenVMS APE certification number: AAA-0001 VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)COM "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"

John Smith's was originally a cask conditioned beer, and is still pleasant enough in that form. Unfortunately, like most of the big brewing companies Scottish Courage have become obsessed with nitrogen injected keg 'smooth bitters' during the last 10 years, and the cask version is now a rare sight outside Yorkshire.

The 'Budweiser' of UK beers is in fact Budweiser, which is heavily marketed on its American image despite being brewed at the old Watneys brewery at Mortlake, London. A-B UK has been running the 'Born on' TV ads recently, which feature shots of big Mack trucks hauling crates of beer from some plant in the Midwest - not a sight you often see on the M25. You'll find bottles of Bud in most British pubs. I can't remember what the US brewed stuff tastes like but the British brew is pretty uninteresting despite the 5% ABV strength. It also costs a fortune for no obvious reason.

Budweiser Budvar can also call their beer 'Budweiser' in the British market following a number of court cases, and you sometimes see both on sale in the same bar,

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

I saw one of those posters at the GBBF last week. Staggeringly dumb.

It was interesting to note, however, that during the Thursday night session (the last one I attended) as a lot of people started arriving after work, there was a decent proportion of young women in the crowd. Yes, many of them were gravitating to the Schultheiss Weisse premixed beers, but I saw plenty drinking all sorts of good beers. I saw plenty of women drinking beer at various good real ale pubs as well

I'm sure the proportions are heavily skewed toward men amongst beer drinkers in the UK. But anecdotal evidence shows me that it's a far better situation there than in the States.

-Steve

GBBF is pretty unusual. It overwhelmingly attracts 'normal' people (office workers, tourists, students) rather than beer bores like me. CAMRA see it more as a fundraiser and publicity generator than anything else.

That said, most local CAMRA festivals attract a reasonable number of women (maybe 25%). It's very noticeable that all the ugly ones leave early on, and by the end of the night all the remaining ones are absolutely gorgeous.

I suspect the proportion of female drinkers is higher in the 'real ale' world than among the general population, where awful alcopops and white wine rule.

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

I dunno. At the Great Taste of the Midwest last weekend there were a *lot* of females. Not quite 50/50, but the crowd was so normal-looking (for the white-bread Midwest) that I didn't really notice until somebody pointed it out to me. Breweries also had a very high percentage of women pouring, and at that festival pourers generally come from the business AFAICT.

Just don't ask me about how skewed toward fat white middle-aged facially-haired guys homebrew conventions are. ;-)

-- Joel Plutchak Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots

"Resorting to personal harassment is a tactic of desperation."

Yep, and I've got the pictures to prove it. Plenty of young attractive ladies.

Yes again. No mistake, that. Sex sells, and breweries know it. God bless em.

Argh, you were at the Fest? I might have tried to meet you if I'd known...

And the URL is? :-)

Yes, there were plenty of women of a variety of ages and pulchritudes. Might have even been a couple of "pros", since some guy tried to pitch two women on me at the end. They didn't look the part, but "were selling".

God bless 'em for having such lovely women serving even when the beer is essentially free. There was one particular lass this year that took my breath away, as happens about every other year or so...

Yes, me, and Mr. Plutchak....and about 5000 others I'd guess.

look for a story in Celebrator Beer News.....

interesting....

Yep, and which brewery was the young lady serving at? Chuck C.

Yeah, but I've already met a few of those 5000, and the rest I don't know from Adam/Eve, but having talked to Joel on occasion, it might have been nice to actually meet.

With pics? Remember the original subject... :-)

I'm not positive (I don't take notes, and you know what the fests are like), but I think it was either Lafayette, or Kuhnhenn -- it was on the other side from New Glarus, but a couple down; I didn't save my tent chart, so I'm not sure what was straight across to help me judge it.

Two years ago it was an Oriental girl with very long pigtails at Copper Dragon (damn good beer too! wish they'd come back), and four years ago or so it was a beautiful blue-eyed waitress at St Louis/Schlafly. Further back than that I'm can't remember specifics... :-)

I saw Joel early on before the fest officially opened (did you have to wait in that line? It looked hellishly long)...never saw Joel again. He was working pouring beer somewhere....

well I just send in the pics. I don't get to choose which ones they run...but I will certainly submit some of the previously discussed ones.....

Kuhnhenn was the biggest surprise of the fest. I loved that Raspberry Eisbock, and Simcoe Belgian Grand Cru!!

Hereford and Hops Steakhouse and Brewery, perhaps? Great beers also. Got the recommendation from John Harrison at Delafield Brewhaus....who also brews great beers. Not that Kuhnhenn did not have a very attractive young lady serving also, cause they did. I think she is married to the brewer....who obviously has high standards in beer and women. Nice guy too.

no doubt the place was full of eye candy....only problem being it got crowded real quick. Key is to get in there at 11 am or noon and check things out early....Cheers, Chuck C.

i'm thinking there needs to be more beer hunks. i mean, if you're gonna sell beer to women, get rid of the alcoholic "guys night out" men and give us a man of substance (minus the beer belly). cause i know *THAT*'ll make me drink more beer.

honestly, they should send me over to europe. i could teach those women a thing or two about women who love their beer. :)

Lauren! (take out the "nojunk" to reply) beer drinking, sax playing, baseball junkie on a rampage ... beware!

Might try to meet up then...

Yeah... Celebrator is my favorite beer, so there's my incentive.

I haven't decided what other places to go like that, but Andechs is a possibility. I suppose the Hofbrauhaus is de rigeur too. I'm tempted to go to Dachau, as I hear they have a lovely brewer/pub, but I'm not sure my companions will want that.

I say the geographical availability of fine beers makes a significant difference. Examples: Great Taste of the Midwest event mentioned later in this thread, and 80% of good breweries or beer bars in the Pacific Northwest packed with nice-looking ladies.

All my female friends (barring the breeders) are microbrew drinkers, at the very least domestic micros. Not that they'd turn down a Smirnoff Ice if that's the panty dropper they were offered. Just sayin'. The girls like good beer.

fr0glet, a "Seattle 7" and black beer lover