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PUMPKIN BEER | Brew carves out hefty holiday niche
It's a bright patch in beer sales: Pumpkin-flavored beers have been flying off store shelves in recent years.
"They're kind of on fire," said Katie Coggins, beer consultant and buyer at Binny's Beverage Depot, 1132 S. Jefferson. "It's a really nice surprise for us."
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
She said the store is doing twice the business it expected from the seasonal brews. Last week, it sold out of the relatively expensive Southern Tier Pumpking ($7 to $7.50 for a 22-ounce bottle), about four weeks after it hit the shelves.
Pumpkin styles are the fastest growing of the seasonal beers in the Louis Glunz Beer Inc. portfolio, said Anthony Norkus, brand manager for the Lincolnwood-based distributor. The company carries six pumpkin beers, up from two in 2006.
"This is one of the styles that's really stuck, and there's a great demand for it," Norkus said.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery's Punkin Ale sold 400 cases last year. This year, Glunz expects to move about 1,000 cases.
O'Fallon Brewery in Missouri has increased the number of cases made from 300 in 2003 to 10,000 cases this year.
Larger beer companies have taken a swig of the pumpkin business. Anheuser-Busch Inc. makes Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale. MillerCoors' Blue Moon brand produces Pumpkin Ale.