The Boston Beer Company — makers of Samuel Adams, Twisted Tea, Truly Hard Seltzer, Angry Orchard and Dogfish Head — has debuted a new nonalcoholic beverage (<0.5% ABV) with General Admission.
This fruit brew combines the flavor attributes of nonalcoholic beer and fruited seltzer water, the company says.
General Admission launches in four fruit-forward flavors: Lemon-Lime, Orange Ovation, Grapefruit Groove and Raspberry Remix.
General Admission is currently available at retail in Albany, NY, and Raleigh, NC, and throughout the state of Indiana. It’s also available online at drinkGA.com.
“The nonalc category is seeing explosive growth and it is becoming a sizable piece of the industry. In fact, non-alc is now bigger than hard cider,” says Tim Kerrigan, The Boston Beer Company’s assistant head of innovation. “Knowing that, we wanted to create a new type of product that offers a much broader view of what we believe nonalc can be. We believe it’s actually alcohol drinkers that are the primary consumers of nonalc products, and we must find a way to make something that appeals to everyone, whether they drink spirits, beer, wine or only nonalc. That was the inception point for General Admission, and we’re excited to see how consumers will respond to this unique brand and its distinct proposition.”
While some Boston Beer new products launched nationally, others will released in a limited number of test markets to iterate and learn before expanding distribution. Additionally, General Admission is the first brand from Boston Beer that will use direct to consumer shipping as a method of product distribution.
“With General Admission, we’ll be testing not only how drinkers respond to the product itself, but also how we can best leverage a direct to consumer platform as an impactful sales tool for the future,” Kerrigan says. “Because General Admission is nonalcoholic, we have the opportunity to simultaneously test and market our hypotheses on both a regional and national scale, both at traditional retail locations and through the growing e-commerce channel — it’s really a win from all angles.”
