A brewery in Germany believes the United States is a prime industry for its non-alcoholic beer, which is being marketed as an athletics drink. Bavarian brewer Erdinger is wagering that American athletes have a taste for its Alkoholfrei brand. Erdinger also believes Alkoholfrei tastes well enough to reverse a trend of decreasing United States sales for no-alcohol beer. Its claims that Alkoholfrei is a recovery beverage are legitimate, said Erdinger, because of an abundance of carbohydrates and a lack of alcohol.
Erdinger believes Alkoholfrei will be popular in the U.S.
It’s new to make a non-alcoholic beer seem like an athletics beverage although beer has been associated with sports marketing for a long time in the U.S. In Europe, Alkoholfrei has been promoted as a fitness beverage. Erdinger has done this since 2001. Erdinger has been giving out free samples at major competitions and grass roots sporting events. In Europe, Alkoholfrei has become very popular. To get Alkoholfrei in North America, promotion of the product has become stronger while forty-five U.S. states already sell it. In Fort Kent, Maine, the February World Cup biathlon was held. Along with skis and rifles, the European sportsmen had mugs of Alkoholfrei.
Beer is a sports beverage for most
Erdinger Alkoholfrei looks like beer, with an auburn color and foamy head. The non-alcoholic brew allegedly tastes like beer as well. The drink is promoted as something that can help recover sportsmen from a workout or competition with the carbohydrates and vitamins that are in it making it an "isotonic" athletics drink. Along with ethanol, beer generally contains sodium, potassium, carbohydrates and B vitamins, however trainers and sports nutritionists say the amounts of those regenerative compounds in beer are not high enough to make a difference in recovery for severe athletes. At least without the alcohol, Erdinger Alkoholfrei will help sportsmen rehydrate.
The genuine German beer taste may do well
In the U.S., non-alcoholic beer hit the mainstream in the 1990s with O’Douls from Anheuser-Busch and Sharps from Miller. However sales for those brands have been in decline for more than a decade. The flavor of real German beer is in Alkoholfrei. This is what Erdinger is intending to convince Americans that don't like the idea of beer without alcohol. At almost $10 a six-pack for Erdinger Alkoholfrei, whether Americans can accept that price for a German beer with no buzz or a European energy drink without the sugar high remains to be seen.
Articles cited
San Francisco Chronicle
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2011%2F02%2F21%2Fstate%2Fn084141S20.DTL
USA Today
usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2011-02-13-3781689740_x.htm
Business Week
businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LHEP0G0.htm
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