啤酒巨头拥抱小众精酿潮流

    规模庞大的跨国企业大多占有无尽的优势。但有些时候，大公司也得学习如何从小处着手。面对精酿啤酒的异军突起，这一点对于啤酒酿造大公司显得空前真切。

    正如丹尼斯·威尔森上个月在财富网站发表的文章《啤酒酿造巨头披上精酿啤酒外衣》（Big Beer dresses up in craft brewers' clothing）所述，2011年精酿啤酒销量增长13%，而同期全美啤酒总销量缩减了大约1.3%。尽管精酿仅仅只是整个市场中很小的一块，但大型啤酒酿造公司也不能无视这些增长数据。

    日前，《财富》杂志（Fortune ）采访了SABMiller执行董事长格雷厄姆·麦凯，探讨这家全球第二大啤酒酿造商如何利用大众对精酿啤酒的兴趣发财。精酿啤酒是小型独立酿造商引领的一项运动——“小型”和“独立”都是SABMiller所不具备的特性。为了在精酿啤酒市场中获得一杯羹，MillerCoors（SABMiller和Molson Coors的合资企业）于2010年成立了一块独立的业务，名为Tenth and Blake。这块业务负责蓝月亮（Blue Moon）、Leinenkugels等品牌的运作，并在2012年2月收购了Crispin Cider。以下是经编辑的采访摘要。

    《财富》杂志：您如何看待精酿啤酒的全球前景？美国正在发生的情况是美国特有的，还是更为普遍性的现象？

    格雷厄姆·麦凯：在某种意义上，这是美国特有的。美国市场已经经历了大规模整合，几大品牌占据了主导地位。它的发展趋势是减少调味，提高可重复性，降低饱感，清爽型口味日渐流行。走上这一发展道路的不只是美国，但美国在这条路上走得最远。

    是什么因素推动了这一趋势？

    美国对于可重复性的不懈追求。显然，每个现代社会都有点这样。另外，消除苦涩和浓烈口味也是啤酒行业数十年、乃至数代人的核心要务。如果回到三、四十年前，看看那些如今依然存在的大品牌，如今这些品牌在美国出售的产品苦味水平为7-9（根据国际苦味单位测量）,三、四十年前的苦味水平在17、18或19的水平。欧洲陈贮啤酒的苦味水平介于20-25。

    然而，消费者回过头来却说：“我们来找点乐子吧，品尝一点不同的东西。”因此，出现了精酿啤酒的增长。但这个趋势只是本地现象，它与市场营销对立，而且有违国际化和大型化的潮流，但它更关注体验，也更了解酿造者。

    There are countless advantages that come with being a massive, multinational enterprise. But sometimes, a big company needs to learn how to act small. Amid the rise of craft beer, this has never been more the case for big brewers.

    As Denis Wilson noted on Fortune.com last month in "Big Beer dresses up in craft brewers' clothing," craft beer saw a 13% increase in volume in 2011, while overall U.S. beer sales were down by about 1.3% by volume during that same period. Despite the fact that craft is a very small segment of the market, large beer companies cannot ignore these growth figures.

    Fortune recently spoke with Graham Mackay, the executive chairman of SABMiller, about how the world's second-largest brewer is trying to capitalize on the interest in craft beer. It's a movement marked by small, independent brewers -- two things that SABMiller is not. To grab a portion of the craft-drinking segment, MillerCoors (a joint venture of SABMiller and Molson Coors (TAP)) launched a separate division in 2010 called Tenth and Blake. This operation oversees brands like Blue Moon, Leinenkugels, and it acquired Crispin cider in February 2012. The following are edited excerpts of our conversation.

    Fortune: What's your global outlook on craft? Is what's happening in the U.S. specific to this country or broader?

    Graham Mackay:It's U.S.-specific in the sense that the U.S. had gone in a particular direction of large-scale consolidation, dominance by a relatively small number of big brands, and trends toward less and less flavor, more repeatability, less satiating, and the rise of light beers. The U.S. was not the only one moving in that direction, but it moved furthest in that direction.

    What drove that?

    The endless quest in the U.S. for repeatability. Obviously, every modern society has a bit of that. Also, the elimination of harsh and intense flavors has been the central sweet spot of the beer industry for decades, if not generations. If you go back 30 or 40 years and look at the formulations for the big brands that still exist, their bitterness levels in the U.S. are 7 to 9 [measured in International Bitterness Units].  Those brands, 30 or 40 year ago, were up at the 17, 18, 19 kind of level. European lagers are somewhere between 20 and 25.

    The consumer has gone back to saying, "Let's get a bit of interest, let's have a bit of difference." So, there's been the growth of craft beer. But it's also local, anti-marketing, anti-global, anti-big, and more focused on experience and knowing the brewer who produces it.