Budweiser and Beam to collaborate on limited edition beer

If craft brewers can collaborate, so can the industry’s big players. AB-InBev and drinks company Beam Suntory announced on 3 April 2018 that, through their brands Budweiser and Jim Beam, they will collaborate on a limited-edition “Budweiser Reserve Copper Lager.”

The beer will be released in September this year to celebrate the upcoming 85th anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition. Prohibition in the US came to an official end on 5 December 1933.

According to the press release, the beer is brewed with two-row barley and aged on Jim Beam bourbon barrel staves to create a toasted oak aroma and deliciously nutty taste with caramel rye and vanilla notes.

Sadly, the press release does not mention how many bottles or cans of the Copper Lager will be made available to consumers.

The collaboration between a brewer and a drinks company is not a novel marketing initiative as it comes on the heels of a similar spirits and beer tie-up between Scottish craft brewer Innis & Gunn and privately-owned Scottish distiller William Grant & Sons. In February, the two companies announced the launch of “Kindred Spirits,” a limited-edition stout aged in used Tullamore Dew barrels. William Grant acquired the Irish whiskey brand Tullamore Dew from the Irish cider maker C&C Group in 2014.

Pernod Ricard USA, via its Jameson Irish whiskey brand, also collaborated with seven US craft breweries in 2016 as part of its “Caskmates” programme.