BrewDog releases session-strength Planet Ale as replacement for Pale Ale
Scottish brewer and operator of bars across the world BrewDog has released session-strength pale ale BrewDog Planet Pale, which is brewed at 4.3% ABV.
The brew, which is available to all on-trade operators on draught and in 330ml and 440ml cans and is claimed to be a “sustainable beer” will join the core range and follows the relaunch of Lost Lager, earlier this year.
BrewDog said Planet Pale “delivers session-strength fresh grassy hops with subtle tropical tones of pineapple and lime in the background”. The pale ale includes Citra and Mosaic hops and is a “homage to the West Coast style, with a recessive pale and dry biscuit base, offering support to offset moderate bitterness while allowing the citrus peel to shine”.
The company said that as craft beer continues to evolve in the UK, there is a great opportunity for category growth, and that pale ale is a “key driver” to bring new drinkers into craft.
The new product replaces BrewDog Pale Ale, with a new recipe and brand proposition, to generate excitement and leverage the brewer’s sustainability credentials.
BrewDog head of customer marketing Alex Dullard said: “We want to make great beer that people love while also being great for the planet. Following the relaunch of Lost Lager in the spring, we established that 70% of beer drinkers are more likely to purchase a beer made in a sustainable way, presenting a huge opportunity to grow frequency and penetration with a planet-friendly beer offering, that can be enjoyed responsibly.
“With its sub-5% ABV, new BrewDog Planet Pale, offers a solution for operators that balances session-ability with flavour, providing the sweet spot for this style of beer. The redeveloped recipe packs a significant hoppy punch with a balanced malt base, while the name combines our missions for a greener future with our love of great beer. It is a simple nod to our carbon-negative credentials, coupled with the style and does what it says on the can.”
The launch will be supported by a full marketing rollout, including digital, social media and in-outlet PoS (branded fonts, posters, bar runners, beer mats, glassware and font hangers). Its draught versions are available in 30-litre and 50-litre kegs.
Suncamino floral rum from Cape Town
Claimed to be the world’s first floral rum, Suncamino has been released through an exclusive distribution deal with 31Dover.
Aged for up to 8 years, the rum is infused with hibiscus, honeybush and orange blossom. Suncamino Floral Rum is said to combine the trends of premium aged spirit, natural ingredients and an increased focus on botanicals, and no filtration takes place to preserve as much of the natural flavours as possible.
The rum brand was founded in Cape Town, South Africa, by Inus Smuts and Stewy Van Der Berg. Van der Berg said: “We created Suncamino as a lifestyle rum brand that would push the boundaries that have restrained the category for so long. The very masculine, nautical driven themes of the past had to go, and we’ve created new opportunities for people to relate to their drink.
“When people drink Suncamino, they do so because they want to become a part of a lifestyle that’s represented by the brand – one that is centred around creativity and individuality.”
The rum blend is distilled in Barbados from sugarcane molasses and aged in French oak, ex-bourbon barrels. It then travels to the Cape Floral Kingdom in South Africa, a world heritage site famous for its floral diversity, where its botanist adds a fragrant bouquet of hibiscus, honeybush and orange blossom extracts to complement the rum’s signature notes.
Creative director Inus Smuts explains how the brand plans to make a splash in the UK market: “We want to build something with our consumers that will inspire moments of storytelling, create value and make a difference. We are very fortunate to have 31Dover to fast-track our UK distribution, a passionate brand team, and some great strategic investors, including the likes of Mark Barnard, serial investor and ex-CCO of Diageo.”
The rum is bottled at 40% ABV and has an RRP of £28.95 for 50cl.
The only way is Prosecco
The Only Way Is Essex star Amy Childs is collaborating with premium wine brand Liquid Diamond to launch Amy x Liquid Diamond Prosecco.
The partnership was officially announced on screen in TOWIE episode 5 earlier this week via a brand development meeting between Amy and co-founder Alex Green. Childs’s bottles of the brand’s Prosecco DOC will launch in December and a rosé variant is due to launch in the new year before Valentine’s Day.
Liquid Diamond said it is the first wine brand to use emoji tasting notes, “revolutionising the consumer wine-buying experience and appealing to shoppers who enjoy drinking good, award-winning wines but aren’t sure how to pick it”.
The bottle design has been inspired by healing crystals and “enough sparkle to rival a vajazzle”. Produced in Italy’s Prosecco region, the wine is said to be a fruity fizz with flavours of apricot, apple and pear.
Childs said: “I’m a huge Prosecco fan and when I saw and tasted Liquid Diamond I thought ‘oh my god, it’s the best Prosecco ever’. The bottle is stunning, so I know it will look great when I’m having drinks with the girls and add extra glamour to the bar I have in my garden.”
Liquid Diamond co-founder Alex Green added: “We are so excited to partner with Amy. She’s a huge fan of Prosecco and knows a lot about it. She is rightly known for her glamour and this product is the Prosecco version of her.
“We created Liquid Diamond to make award-winning, great-tasting wines more accessible. Wine brands often forget the majority of consumers feel overwhelmed by the complicated descriptions on labels, which can take the enjoyment out of choosing a bottle. Our partnership with Amy will introduce new consumers to a quality, premium drinking experience and remind everyone how fun the experience of buying, gifting and sharing a bottle of Prosecco can be.”
For the on-trade and retailers, Amy x Liquid Diamond will be available via Beyond Wines and Hills Prospect. It has an RRP of £14 for 75cl.
Chocolate and banana stout launch from Vocation
West Yorkshire-based Vocation Brewery has launched an 11.4% ABV barrel-aged stout called Imperial Banana.
Vocation’s new brew is a chocolate and banana stout that is aged in oak barrels and blends 12-month aged, six month-aged and fresh beer.
Imperial Banana is available in select pubs and bars (on keg) as well as across Vocation’s export business, in both cans and keg. It is priced at £5 per 440ml can in the off-trade.
The double-mash stout uses extra pale malt, jumbo oats, wheat malt and chocolate and has intense notes of dark chocolate and banana. Its ageing in oak barrels provides added flavour, depth and complexity.
Vocation brewing director Matt Howgate said: “We are delighted to be launching our Imperial Banana in time for the autumn, when many drinkers are after a slightly heavier, more complex and decadent brew as the temperatures drop outside.
“Imperial Banana is crafted in small batches from our brewery in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, and explores the boundaries of barrel ageing. By ageing the beer in oak, we are able to access some bigger and bolder flavours, which work well at this time of year. We only use four types of malt in this beer as the idea is for a lot of the flavour to come from the fermentation and ageing.”
Vocation’s range of beers went through a major rebrand in September to bring more personality to the packaging and better reflect the distinct character of each beer inside.
Bankhall Sweet Mash vows to be a banger
Halewood Artisanal Spirits has launched bourbon-style spirit Bankhall Sweet Mash from its Bankhall Distillery in Blackpool.
Following the smaller scale launch of Rebellion earlier this year, Sweet Mash is the latest offering from Vince Oleson (previously from the Widow Jane Distillery in Brooklyn) and the Blackpool team, who have been busy combining US and UK whiskey styles and techniques to reimagine English whisky, according to Halewood.
The company said this “bourbon-style sweet mash” is aged in new, charred American oak casks that have seen a full range of seasons in Blackpool since they were made by coopers in the US in autumn 2020. This process allows more oak character to shine through, while delivering a rich, yet soft, profile. The final sweet mash claims to offer creamy custard, toasted coconut, baked apples and brown sugar on the palate.
Bankhall master distiller Vince Oleson said: “Our new Sweet Mash has seen only nine months in cask but it tells a story, and takes you on a journey much grander. It’s a unique and exciting opportunity for all of us at Bankhall to let the whisky world peek behind the curtain of our adventurous new distillery, and we’re really looking forward to showcasing what we have to offer now, and also what we have planned for the future.”
Halewood Artisanal Spirits international marketing manager for whisk(e)y Andy Wallace added: “We are building a portfolio of artisanal distilleries across the UK, with the ambition of bringing a range of different flavour profiles and styles versus other whiskies in the market.
“Working with Vince and the team at Bankhall has helped us to challenge the usual expectations around English whisky and create something really new and exciting. We’re really looking forward to seeing where the journey will take us”.
Bankhall Sweet Mash has an RRP of £26 for 70cl.
Madri Exceptional lager celebrates first year success
Madri Exceptional is celebrating after securing more than 4,500 on-trade customers in its first year.
The lager is a collaboration between Molson Coors and La Sagra Brewery, which launched in the UK and Ireland in October 2020, has more than 500 installs in the pipeline for the coming month.
It has established itself as one of the top 10 world lager brands on draught in the on-trade by sales value since the reopening of indoor hospitality with the second-highest rate of sale in the category, according to CGA statistics.
According to Molson Coors, Madri is a crisp, clean and refreshing lager and is full of flavour and aroma at 4.6% ABV, with a light golden colour and a smooth, well-rounded taste profile with a short bitter finish.
To support the growth of the brand, Molson Coors said it will launch a multimillion-pound investment during the first half of next year.
Molson Coors marketing controller – premium beers, western Europe – Ryan Mclaughlin said: “Madri has taken outlets by storm since it launched, tapping into the demand for premium options and consumers’ love for exciting new world beers. Given it has only been available for 12 months, with the majority of those having been in a lockdown, its popularity is a real testament to the brand and its great taste experience.
“We launched Madri with the ambition to grow to 2,000 distribution points by the end of the year and we have already exceeded that target. We will be significantly investing in the brand at the start of next year to continue to raise its profile even further and help operators up and down the country make the most of this great brand’s growing popularity.”
Check out ChiQin for a meat-free food option
Pubs with a food offer could consider serving Quorn’s latest product to hit the market – ChiQin.
The meat-free innovator’s new chicken concept will have two new products for its hospitality customers.
The latest in the ChiQin range will take flight on 26 October – those being Quorn Buffalo Wings and Quorn Southern Fried Wings. They join Buttermilk Style Chicken Burger that launched in April this year.
“The ChiQin concept is designed specifically for our casual dining customers, to highlight how Quorn can cater to those diners looking for comforting, messy, on-trend builds on the menu,” said Claire Roper, head of marketing and innovation foodservice. “Chicken is a staple on every menu and diners are increasingly expecting to see meat-free options on the menu, whether they follow a meat-free diet or not.
“Meat-free dishes are no longer on the menu to cater for the minority, whether diners are vegan, vegetarian or flexitarian, 25% believe it is important that the meals they eat out of home do not contain much meat.”
For its launch, Quorn will host a Brewery Supper Club Roadshow with the first event will be held in Manchester on 26 October with operators in the city invited to Manchester Union Brewery.
If you have any new products that are being released to the on-trade, email the details with high resolution images to gary.lloyd@wrbm.com.
