Operating under the motto “Off-centered beers for off-centered people,” it should come as no surprise that Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, Del., is not bashful about creativity. Dogfish Head’s lineup includes 34 beers with ingredients and brewing processes inspired by a range of ancient recipes, music, collaborations and Founder and President Sam Calagione’s own ideas.
Still cautious from the economic downturn, consumers created an uneven environment for beer once again in 2011. The year’s performance reflected a category of contradictions with trends torn between the ongoing price consciousness of some shoppers and the insatiable taste for variety — even if it carries a higher price — from other demographics.
According to the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), companies continue to make capital investments in packaging machinery. Shipments for packaging machinery in the United States increased 12 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, bringing shipment totals to $5.5 billion versus $4.9 billion the prior year, according to a PMMI report released in November.
For the fourth consecutive year, digestive health is the top trend in the health and nutrition segment, said Gregory Leyer, global business development director of consumer healthcare for Danisco, now a part of Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont, during the Pre & Probiotics 2012 Virtual Conference on Feb. 1.
With a lineup of six SKUs that are sweetened with a tablespoon of honey in each bottle, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Honeydrop Beverages has a synergistic tie to the creatures that provide its natural sweetener.
In the summer of 2007, an English man posted a video of his one-year-old son biting the finger of his three-year-old son on YouTube. The video, known as “Charlie Bit My Finger – Again!,” went viral reaching 417 million views as of Feb. 9. At the time of publication, it was the most viewed video on YouTube that is not a professional music video, according to Wikipedia.
When Dogfish Head Craft Brewery opened its brewpub in 1995 in Rehoboth Beach, Del., Founder and President Sam Calagione brewed on a homemade machine dubbed “Sir Hops Alot.” To keep up with the restaurant’s demand, Calagione used “Sir Hops Alot” to brew two to three times a day, five to six days a week.
Technology advancements have given us 3-D TVs, virtual tradeshows and smartphones with electronic personal assistants, but it’s a shame that this magazine does not have an interactive smell component this month.
Voss Artesian Water from Norway kicks off its second annual 31 Days to Make a Difference campaign on World Water Day, which is March 22, ending on Earth Day, April 22.
Tire technology is not a category that is immune to ongoing technology advancements. To gain some insight into this progression, I visited with Gary Enterline, product category manager for Greenville, S.C.-based Michelin Americas Truck Tires. Dedicated to the improvement of sustainable mobility, Michelin designs, manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle.
Inspired by Dr Pepper Snapple Group brand Snapple juice drinks, Jelly Belly Candy Co., Fairfield, Calif., launched a new line of Jelly Belly jelly beans packaged in miniature Snapple bottles.
The drug store channel showed higher-than-average growth last year with unit sales increasing 2.2 percent versus a retail industry average decline of 0.6 percent in food, drug, convenience and mass merchandise stores, excluding Walmart, according to Susan Viamari, consumer insights expert at Chicago-based SymphonyIRI Group.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, is introducing smaller-sized cans and bottles for its Select 55 brand.
Efforts to lower the calorie counts in beverages have helped spark a number of innovations from many facets of the industry, including equipment manufacturers. As more beverage-makers look to take down the calories in their products through sweetener blend formulations, suppliers of processing automation equipment also are working to develop equipment to handle these new formats.
As beverage-makers continue to develop products that do more than satisfy consumers’ thirst, the number of beverages that carry a functional claim continues to increase. According to “Functional and Natural Ready-to-Drink Beverages in the U.S.,” a report by Rockville, Md.-based market research publisher Packaged Facts, sales of energy drinks, ready-to-drink (RTD) teas and sports drinks have helped the functional and natural RTD beverage market grow to $23 billion.
