THE GIST
Via a tweet from popular sports reporter Darren Rovell, the general public found out on April 13 that Mark Anthony Brands will launch a new, higher-ABV White Claw. Called White Claw Surge, it ups the hard seltzer’s ABV from 5% to 8% and is expected to roll out this month. (White Claw Surge was actually first announced in December 2020.)
White Claw Surge joins newcomer Truly Extra, an 8% ABV version of Boston Beer Company’s Truly Hard Seltzer, which launched nationally last month. It’s also competing against PBR’s Stronger Seltzer—also 8% ABV—which advertises itself as the “spiked-er” version of spiked seltzer, as well as Four Loko’s flavored malt beverages (FMBs) ranging from 12-14% ABV.
These new releases come as companies realize that drinkers were already spiking standard-strength hard seltzers, and they allow brands to cut out that middle man. They also invite a reconsideration of hard seltzer, a beverage category whose popularity has so far been repeatedly linked to health-conscious, “lifestyle” consumers choosing moderate-ABV and low-calorie beverages.
What’s more, these higher-ABV seltzers are sold in 16oz rather than 12oz cans. A press release announcing Truly Extra’s launch notes that the package is explicitly designed to appeal to convenience store shoppers who seek “single serve, higher ABV beverages.” These products demonstrate what we’ve tracked across beer and seltzer: Despite reports of the popularity of “better-for-you” alcohol, higher-ABV offerings like Double IPAs—and now extra-strength seltzers—are on the rise.
WHY IT MATTERS
After just five years of national distribution, hard seltzer is a $4 billion category in the U.S. The spate of new, higher-ABV hard seltzer offerings from some of the largest brands in FMBs upends an oft-repeated tenet of hard seltzer’s rise: That it’s a result of health-conscious drinkers motivated by moderation. In fact, hard seltzer is more likely the beverage of indulgent partying—“Ain’t no laws when you’re drinking Claws,” right?
Aside from the seemingly unchallengeable juggernaut that is Michelob Ultra, hardly any new alcohol brands have successfully cornered the perceived “better-for-you” beer segment. Despite media buzz and financial backing from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., fitness-focused craft beer brand Sufferfest Beer Co. folded in December. The pace of new 100-calorie craft IPA releases has slowed. Non-alcoholic beer, while energized by new brands, remains a drop in beer’s sales bucket at just 0.4% of the overall market.
Consumers might say they’re health-conscious, but that doesn’t necessarily motivate their real-world alcohol purchasing decisions. The fact that two of the fastest-growing alcohol brands in the U.S. find it lucrative to launch in the higher-ABV, higher-calorie space suggests that narrative never mattered at all.
The conventional wisdom is that drinkers choose hard seltzers as a more healthful alternative to beer. But these higher-ABV seltzers pack the same caloric punch as popular IPAs: Both White Claw and Truly Extra have 220 calories per 16oz can. Bell’s Two Hearted IPA (7% ABV) has 282 calories per 16oz, and New Belgium Brewing’s Voodoo Ranger IPA (7% ABV) has 249. The difference is in the carbohydrates: Because of their base ingredients, IPAs contain roughly 16-17 grams of carbs while hard seltzers contain 1-2 grams of carbs.
Survey data collected by the Brewers Association and Nielsen last spring showed a high ABV was considered important to 66% of weekly craft beer drinkers who responded; meanwhile, just 44% of weekly craft beer drinkers said low ABV was important. While drinkers are seemingly split on the ABV question, they’re united in one preference: flavor. Those survey respondents ranked flavor as the most important criteria in choosing a beverage, a priority that’s borne out across alcohol categories from beer to canned cocktails.
Whether it’s surveys or sales data, results consistently show that brands with big ABV and flavor can win over drinkers. And that’s made even more evident by White Claw’s push into this space after accruing $2.2 billion in 2020—the fourth-highest total for any alcohol brand inchain retail, as tracked by market research company IRI.
Breweries and, increasingly, hard seltzer makers are responding to demand for stronger, more flavorful beverages with higher-octane offerings, often subtly—or not-so-subtly—calling out the elevated ABV. Truly Extra displays its 8% ABV at the top-right of the package, ensuring it’s one of the first things a consumer sees when eyeing that can on the shelf.
Beer makers have employed this strategy, too:
Released last summer, Deschutes Brewery’s packaging for its Royal Fresh Imperial IPA prominently displays its 9% ABV; an Instagram post highlights its “whopping 9% ABV” for occasions when drinkers “need something a little stronger.”
Sierra Nevada’s new iteration of its Hoptimum Triple IPA boasts “the highest ABV ever for a Hoptimum Triple IPA release” at 11%.
Firestone Walker Brewing Company released Double Mind Haze, its first extension for the Mind Haze Hazy IPA family, in March, with a press release noting its “high-gravity character” with an ABV of 8.3%.
This supersized approach appears to be paying off. Over the past 12 months, Double IPAs were the third-most-popular Ale beer style ordered from alcohol e-commerce marketplace Drizly, behind IPAs and Hazy IPAs. (Session IPAs and Pale Ales, both with generally lower ABVs, make up just 7% of Ale sales on Drizly combined.)
In brick-and-mortar stores, too, Double IPAs are on a tear: In 2020, New Belgium’s 9% ABV Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA tallied $96 million worth of sales in chain retail stores tracked by IRI—double what standard, 7% ABV Voodoo Ranger IPA sold. Stone Brewing’s Fear.Movie.Lions Double IPA is that brewery’s only major beer that grew chain retail sales in 2019 and 2020.
These beers, as well as the slew of new 8% ABV hard seltzers, are a strong counterpoint to the active-lifestyle, better-for-you mindset that’s supposedly motivating drinkers. Not only do these products ratchet up the ABV, but that means their calorie counts tick up, too.
A 16oz can of the new White Claw Surge Blood Orange flavor, for example, contains 220 calories (though only 2 grams of carbs). Smooj, a popular hard seltzer smoothie brewed by a division of Michigan-based HOMES Brewery, contains 240-300 calories per 12oz can—roughly two to three times as much as a 12oz can of Coca-Cola. Smooj is currently distributed in Michigan and Pennsylvania, with plans to launch in California later this year as part of a national distribution push.
None of this is evidence that calories or carbs don’t matter to some segment of the population. If they didn’t, Michelob Ultra wouldn’t be the second-best-selling beer in the U.S. Rather, the growth in higher-ABV beer and seltzer offerings indicates there’s a massive counterweight to the wellness-minded crowd. These drinkers are looking for ABV bang for their buck, whether in terms of single serve FMBs from a convenience store or a six-pack of Double IPA from the grocery cold box.
And with Michelob Ultra the undisputed champion of low-carb, low-calorie beer, brands realize there is much more opportunity on the flip side of that coin.
Words by Kate Bernot