Energy Beers Get A Bad Rap

From left: Bud Extra, Sparks, and Liquid Core

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I tended bar to help pay for grad school. I learned a lot about beer, and I learned an important lesson from an older guy named Paul who worked weekends with me. Around 11 o’clock on most Friday nights, Paul would get a cup of black coffee and tip a shot of Old Grand-Dad in it. He’d take a sip, smile, and say, “Catch the buzz, stay awake to enjoy it.”

I lost track of Paul over the years, so I never knew if he picked up on the whole Red Bull-and-vodka craze, a younger generation’s version of his late-night party prolonger. But the brewing industry has, with some small but solid success in the higher-priced niche of energy beers. But the rollout of these beers has also sparked a negative reaction by antialcohol institutions, which see these potions as the latest threat to America’s under-21 crowd.

Caffeinated beers have been around for a few years, bouncing from promotion to promotion as companies looked for an effective way to market them. SAB Miller has Sparks, Anheuser-Busch sells Bud Extra (originally labeled a ridiculously unpronounceable Be, which we were told was “B to the E”) and Tilt, and smaller companies have jumped in with brands like Liquid Core, Moonshot, and Rock Star 21, a spin-off from the established Rock Star energy drink.

There have been a few coffee-flavored craft beers with relatively small amounts of caffeine. That’s not the model here. When you open up a Sparks or Tilt, it’s clear from the first citrusy-fruity whiff and thickly sweet flavor that Red Bull was on the formulators’ minds. (Moonshot is the exception, a straight-up light pilsner with the caffeine of one cup of coffee hidden inside.)

Red Bull became an enormous success—they hold half of a U.S. energy drink market worth over $4 billion—by adding caffeine and taurine (along with a barrage of guerrilla marketing) to the sugars and flavor of drinks like Gatorade. Drinkers, bartenders, and spirits companies were quick to add a shot of booze. Red Bull with vodka and the Jägerbomb (a shot of Jägermeister liqueur in a glass of Red Bull) quickly became the hot tonics for the party-all-night crowd.

The energy beers have put the stimulant cocktail in a can, making for one less step in the mixing process, always a plus behind the bar or at a fast-moving house party. It’s also an easy package to pick up at the store. Volume has been relatively small—Sparks sold about 350,000 barrels last year, less than 1 percent of Miller’s total—but, like energy drinks, energy beers sell for a premium: more than $2 a can on most retail shelves, about twice as much as a mainstream beer.

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