Many beer geeks spent the end of 2016 debating their list of the year's best releases -- Voodoo's ManBearPig imperial stout? Tree House's King JJJuliusss double India Pale Ale? Ocelot's Talking Backwards triple IPA? -- and looking back at the rising tides of sour beers and fruit-flavored IPAs. But one of the biggest beer developments of the past 12 months is this: Wal-Mart now sells its own "craft" beer.
Go ahead and laugh. I'm assuming most beer lovers don't spend much time thinking about the craft ales and lagers in the cooler at Wal-Mart, especially if the selection is as mediocre as the one at my local store in Washington, where the few sixers and sampler 12-packs of Flying Dog, New Belgium and Dogfish Head are dwarfed by 30-packs of Natural Light and Tecate. But market research firm Placed Insights ranks Wal-Mart as the most popular store in the country, with more than half of all American shoppers visiting one of the company's 4,600 stores in a given month. That's a lot of eyes falling on those products.
Teresa Budd, a senior buyer for Wal-Mart's adult beverage team, says the company began to notice its craft beer sales growing a few years ago, especially compared with sales of mainstream domestic beers. The company put out an offer to suppliers around the country, seeking to produce an IPA, a pale ale, an amber ale and a Belgian-style ale, Budd says, because "those were the top four best-selling craft styles at the time." After samplings and tastings, "making sure it's exactly what we want," Wal-Mart began producing beer in "collaboration" with a company called Trouble Brewing in Rochester, N.Y.
The beers launched in six-packs and a 12-can variety pack in early 2016, and they're found in 3,000 stores across 45 states. Budd says the response from consumers has been enthusiastic, and the line may expand with new or seasonal beers in the future.
Trouble Brewing offers no clue on the label to tell you that Wal-Mart was behind its creation. A shopper heading down the aisle to look for Samuel Adams or Miller High Life might see the ersatz-hipster labels of Cat's Away IPA and After Party Pale Ale, or the distressed fonts and "torn"-look packaging of the Pack of Trouble variety 12-pack, and assume they were made by some new craft brewery. It's also hard to ignore the price: $7.96 for a six-pack and $13.86 for the variety pack. That's $3 to $5 cheaper than other craft beers on the same shelf.
No American brewery with the name Trouble Brewing actually exists. The applicant listed on filings for the four beers with the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is "Winery Exchange Inc.," now known as WX Brands, which "develops exclusive brands of wine, beer and spirits for retailers around the world," according to its website. The brewery address given on the TTB documents is Genesee Brewing's business office.
Genesee is not a craft brewery, which the national Brewers Association defines as small, independent and traditional. It's owned by Costa Rica-based Florida Ice and Farm, which brews that country's Imperial Lager and other industrial brands. Its flagship American beers, Genesee and Genesee Cream Ale, are cheap college-party staples, and it's tough to convince people that your brand is hip and craft when those are the other products coming out of the tanks.
Wal-Mart's Budd says there's no intention to deceive consumers, pointing out that Wal-Mart doesn't put the company name on its private label brands, whether camping gear or cat food. "We were intentional about designing a package that conveyed a look and feel you'd expect of craft beer," she says.
The only question left is "How does it taste?" I convened a team of Washington Post staff members for a blind tasting of beers bought at Wal-Mart and asked them to write down their thoughts. The results were not very positive: Trouble Brewing's Red Flag Amber Ale was described as "flabby," "knock-you-over-the-head syrupy sweet" and "good for flip cup." Trouble Brewing's After Party Ale was "bland nothingness" and "lacking an identifiable taste."
Trouble Brewing's most popular brew was 'Round Midnight Belgian White, which didn't strike anyone as an outstanding witbier but received complements on its spice and fruitiness, as well as easy drinkability.
None of those beers is going to light up online beer forums or find its way on to "Best Beer of the Year" lists, but that's not the point. These are inexpensive brews that could be gateway beers for domestic beer drinkers looking to dip a toe into the world of craft beer. If they like Trouble Brewing's version of a Belgian witbier, maybe they'll be open to trying one from Allagash or Bell's, or they'll grab a six-pack of Flying Dog instead of Bud Light. Either way, Wal-Mart just put craft-style beers in front of millions of new potential craft beer customers, which should be a positive for brewers of all sizes.
Style on 02/07/2017