????“喝起來(lái)顯然像檸檬水，或許也有一丁點(diǎn)酒味吧,，”用戶薩默爾在啤酒品評(píng)網(wǎng)(ratebeer.com)的頁(yè)面這樣評(píng)價(jià)雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾夏季香蒂啤酒(Leinenkugel Summer Shandy)。這個(gè)品牌在酒館導(dǎo)航網(wǎng)站Beer Advocate獲得了72次“不錯(cuò)”評(píng)級(jí),。用戶阿爾法葛努姆寫(xiě)道：“說(shuō)實(shí)話,，口感并不算好，但非常清爽,?！?/p>

????對(duì)于一款季節(jié)性飲品而言，這樣的評(píng)價(jià)或許就足夠了,。今年夏天,，這款檸檬水味啤酒大獲成功,，一舉成為增速最快，銷量位居第二的精釀啤酒,。夏季香蒂啤酒的銷量超過(guò)了同期在售的其他雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾品牌啤酒的總和,，出貨量較去年同期增長(zhǎng)了24%。在它的帶動(dòng)下,，雅各?雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾釀酒公司(Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company)的年產(chǎn)量現(xiàn)已飆升至近100萬(wàn)桶,。而在1988年，米勒釀酒公司(Miller Brewing Company)收購(gòu)這家釀酒商時(shí),，它的年產(chǎn)量?jī)H為6萬(wàn)桶,。

????更加值得關(guān)注的是，雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾的成功推動(dòng)Tenth and Blake公司第三季度的業(yè)績(jī)強(qiáng)勢(shì)增長(zhǎng),，銷量增速接近兩位數(shù),。這家專門(mén)經(jīng)營(yíng)精釀和進(jìn)口品牌的企業(yè)是米勒康勝啤酒公司(MillerCoors)于2010年創(chuàng)立的。鑒于米勒康勝同季整體的每桶凈營(yíng)收僅增長(zhǎng)4%,，大家或許會(huì)開(kāi)始認(rèn)為,，早就被視為大型啤酒釀造商潛在對(duì)手的精釀啤酒或許能夠抗擊大型啤酒釀造商更大的敵人，即近十年來(lái)不斷侵蝕啤酒領(lǐng)地的葡萄酒和烈酒,。

????米勒康勝啤酒公司早早就開(kāi)始迎合精釀啤酒風(fēng)潮——它1995年就推出了自主開(kāi)發(fā)的精釀啤酒品牌“藍(lán)月亮”(Blue Moon),。早在1988年，米勒就收購(gòu)了雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾,。但在大型啤酒釀造商中,，除佩羅尼(Peroni)和皮爾森(Pilsner Urquell )等進(jìn)口品牌之外，還擁有雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾和藍(lán)月亮的Tenth and Blake公司堪稱異數(shù),；米勒康勝的業(yè)內(nèi)同行都沒(méi)有一家獨(dú)立的精釀啤酒分支,。鑒于雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾為母公司的業(yè)績(jī)做出了如此巨大的貢獻(xiàn)，這些大型釀酒商或許應(yīng)該認(rèn)真考慮進(jìn)軍精釀啤酒市場(chǎng)了,。今夏最暢銷的15大精釀品牌中,，夏季香蒂啤酒創(chuàng)造了“最快速度”，銷量?jī)H次于米勒康勝旗下另一個(gè)精釀品牌——“藍(lán)月亮比利時(shí)白”(Blue Moon Belgian White),。

????夏季香蒂啤酒為什么能夠在今年交出一份如此出彩的答卷呢,？雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾釀酒公司CEO杰克?雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾認(rèn)為，強(qiáng)有力的營(yíng)銷手段居功至偉,。2012年,，雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾釀酒公司首次為夏季香蒂啤酒推出全國(guó)性電視廣告，并在今年夏天發(fā)動(dòng)了一波為棒球和其他電視節(jié)目量身定做的廣告攻勢(shì),。他說(shuō)：“我們特意選擇了一些千禧一代和啤酒愛(ài)好者喜歡觀看的節(jié)目,，比如科幻驚悚劇《行尸走肉》(The Walking Dead)?！崩變?nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾聲稱,，這些努力無(wú)疑提高了這個(gè)品牌的知名度,。“我猜很多人過(guò)去總是認(rèn)為它是一款來(lái)自中西部的啤酒,，這個(gè)詞也不太容易拼讀,，人們不知道我們是誰(shuí)，”他說(shuō),?！暗@種情況正在發(fā)生改變?！?/p>

????這家公司不愿透露這款產(chǎn)品的具體營(yíng)銷費(fèi)用,；雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾表示，對(duì)于他的公司而言,，這筆營(yíng)銷開(kāi)支的確很大,，但要“比大型釀酒商為推廣一個(gè)全新品牌所花費(fèi)的資金少得多?！?/p>

????事實(shí)上,，2013年1至9月份整個(gè)精釀啤酒市場(chǎng)的增幅中，雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾公司旗下的香蒂啤酒系列占據(jù)了9.7%的份額,。另一個(gè)大贏家是藍(lán)月亮比利時(shí)白,，這個(gè)同屬Tenth and Blake公司的品牌占據(jù)了7.2%，是精釀啤酒市場(chǎng)增幅的第四大貢獻(xiàn)者,。百威英博公司（Anheuser-Busch InBev）旗下的Shock Top Seasonal以7.5%的份額位列第三位,。

????事實(shí)上，百威英博也不打算錯(cuò)過(guò)這頓豐盛的精釀啤酒盛宴,。Shock Top與雷內(nèi)恩庫(kù)格爾不同,，是百威英博在圣路易斯“自主孵化”的精釀品牌（就像米勒康勝公司的藍(lán)月亮一樣）。這家釀酒業(yè)巨頭煞費(fèi)苦心地給予Shock Top一種精釀啤酒特有的感覺(jué),，但喜歡較真的人會(huì)說(shuō),，百威英博的公司譜系決定了它釀制不出口味純正的精釀啤酒。百威英博的另一個(gè)精釀品牌是它2011年收購(gòu)的“鵝島啤酒”( Goose Island),。這家公司基本上沒(méi)有干涉這個(gè)品牌的發(fā)展——百威英博首席營(yíng)銷官保羅?池比認(rèn)為,，這恰恰是這個(gè)品牌獲得成功的關(guān)鍵因素?！拔覀兿ＭZ島啤酒保持自身的特性,、文化和創(chuàng)造力?？谖兜恼鎸?shí)性源于一個(gè)事實(shí)——鵝島啤酒依然在它的誕生地芝加哥生產(chǎn)釀制?！蹦敲?，對(duì)于百威英博而言,，在集團(tuán)內(nèi)部建立一個(gè)精釀啤酒分支以管理鵝島和它可能收購(gòu)的其他同類品牌（就像米勒康勝公司旗下的Tenth and Blake分支），是不是一種更合理的運(yùn)營(yíng)方式,？在回答這個(gè)問(wèn)題時(shí),，池比使用了一些容易引起爭(zhēng)端的言辭：“米勒康勝將來(lái)效仿我們的可能性是99.999%，而不是相反,，”他說(shuō),。“Tenth and Blake正在插手圣路易斯的釀酒業(yè)務(wù),，我可不想這么做,。我絕對(duì)不會(huì)成立一個(gè)部門(mén)對(duì)芝加哥的運(yùn)營(yíng)事務(wù)指手畫(huà)腳。讓精釀啤酒業(yè)務(wù)變得跟我們一樣沒(méi)有任何意義,?！?/p>

????"The taste is flat out lemonade ... maybe an eyedropper of booze," writes the user Sammer on ratebeer.com's page for Leinenkugel Summer Shandy. On Beer Advocate, where the brand has a 72 rating ("okay"), the user Alphagnome writes, "Honestly, it's not good ... BUT it's refreshing."

????Perhaps that's all that matters for a seasonal drink; Leinenkugel's lemonade-flavored beer had enormous success this summer. The second-best selling and fastest-growing craft beer, it outsold all of Leinenkugel's other beers combined in the time it was on shelves. Shipments were up 24% over last year. And it has helped the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company go from producing 60,000 barrels a year when the Miller Brewing Company bought it in 1988 to now nearly 1 million.

????More significantly, Leinenkugel's success led to almost double-digit volume growth in the third quarter for Tenth and Blake, the craft and imports division MillerCoors set up in 2010. Compare that to the 4% growth in net revenue per barrel for MillerCoors overall in the same quarter, and you start to think craft beer, long thought an impending threat to the big brewers, may be the solution to big beer's bigger foe: wine and spirits, which have been eating into beer sales for a decade.

????MillerCoors was early into the craft beer craze with the creation of Blue Moon, the internally grown brand it launched in 1995. And Miller bought Leinenkugel back in 1988. But Tenth and Blake, which houses both Leinenkugel and Blue Moon -- in addition to imports like Peroni and Pilsner Urquell -- is something of an anomaly among mega-brewers; none of MillerCoors's peers have a separate craft division. Maybe they should, considering Leinenkugel has given its big daddy such a boost: Summer Shandy, the "highest velocity" of the top 15 craft brands this summer, was second in sales only to Blue Moon Belgian White, another MillerCoors property.

????Why did Summer Shandy do so well this year? Jake Leinenkugel, CEO, attributes it to beefed-up marketing. Leinenkugel did its first national television ads for Shandy in 2012 and this summer did an ad campaign tailored to baseball and other programs "that we thought millennials and beer drinkers were attuned to, like The Walking Dead," he says. Leinenkugel says there's no question that the efforts helped raised new awareness for the brand. "I guess I always thought, it's a Midwest beer, it's hard to pronounce, people don't know who we are," he says. "But that's changing."

????The company won't say what it spent on the new marketing push; Leinenkugel says it was a significant figure for his company, though "a lot less than what a major brewer would throw behind a new brand."

????In fact, Leinenkugel's full line of Shandy beers represented 9.7% of the 2013 growth in the entire craft market through September. Another big gainer was Blue Moon Belgian White, also owned by Tenth and Blake, with 7.2%, the fourth-biggest contributor to the category's growth. Shock Top Seasonal, owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), was third with 7.5%.

????Indeed, AB InBev isn't about to miss out on the craft beer boom, either. In contrast to Leinenkugel, Shock Top is a "homegrown" craft, hatched inside Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis (like MillerCoors's Blue Moon). The company takes pains to give Shock Top a craft sensibility, though sticklers would say that its corporate pedigree disqualifies it as a true craft beer. AB InBev's only other craft interest has been Goose Island, which it bought in 2011 and mostly left alone -- which AB's CMO Paul Chibe says has been key to the brand's success. "We want to have them maintain their identity, culture, and creativity. And the spirit of authenticity that comes from them being in Chicago where they were born." Asked if it might make sense for AB to have an in-house craft division to house Goose and other crafts it might acquire down the line -- along the lines of MillerCoors's Tenth and Blake -- AB's Chibe has some fighting words: "99.999 times out of a hundred, MillerCoors is copying what we're doing, not the other way around," he says. "I don't want a division sitting here in St. Louis like Tenth and Blake is sitting in Chicago. It makes no sense having a craft business that becomes just like us."