After years of sluggish sales and declining status, beer is back. Major brewers, desperate to improve their lot, borrowed a page from competitors in the wine industry and spiffed up their products
with new packaging, flavors and drinks. They started pitching their brands as cooler, classier and healthier, trying to do for their beverage what Starbucks has done for coffee. And so far the
strategy seems to be working. For the 12 months ending April 22, national beer sales totaled $4.071 billion, up about 1.4 percent from a year earlier, according to ACNielsen. Most of the increase was
due to double-digit sales increases for imported brands and the so-called craft brands. In all, 231 million cases were sold at food, drug and convenience stores combined, up 1 percent from a year
earlier. Fruity malt drinks, organic pale ale, lager and other beer products are driving the increase in sales along with the "craft" beers and imports, ACNielsen says. Anheuser-Busch recently signed
a deal to distribute imports including Grolsch and Harbin. Miller's parent, SABMiller PLC, also sells Pilsner Urquell. Recently, the St. Louis-based beer giant has rolled out several products,
including two organic certified micro-brew styles, Stone Mill Pale Ale and Wild Hop Lager. They've also created a malt beverage, Peels, made with all-natural fruit. That's on top of Anheuser-Busch's
B-to-the-E and Tilt, which has caffeine, ginseng and guarana, a Brazilian stimulant.
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