Smoothly does it
Any new smoothflow version of a classic cask beer is sure to re-start murmurings among the cask beer die-hards about big business nailing down the coffin lid for yet another once-great British brand.
So why is Wells & Young's coming out with Courage Best Smooth?
It is the first new on-trade format for the Courage portfolio of brands since it was acquired at the beginning of 2007 by the Bedford brewer, a company otherwise seen as a champion of cask beer.
Chris Lewis, Wells & Young's director of marketing, defends the launch by saying that it was made in response to demand from consumers, primarily in Courage's heartland of the South East, and does not signify a turn away from cask ale. He claims that the bulk of the production of Courage Best will still be cask, and says: "Consumers do drink smooth beers. If you don't offer it, you are missing out on the opportunity smooth represents of giving consumers a bridge between lager and real ale."
Still, late 2008 seems a strange time to be making a move to smooth - a decade after most of Courage Best's nitrogenated brethren from Worthington, Boddingtons and Tetley came into being. With sales figures pointing to a resurgence of cask ale, some have claimed Wells & Young's is hopelessly wide of the mark.
Lewis, though, justifies the timing. While demand remains for nitrogenated keg beers, competitors' neglect for marketing their brands has left the market fallow, he claims. "There are smooth brands on bars that don't deserve to be there," he says.
Meanwhile, people of a certain age may have fond memories of Scottish & Newcastle, when it owned Courage, recruiting comedy musical duo Chas and Dave for a particularly successful advert for the brand. But that, the last decent stab at promoting the beer, was in the 1980s - meaning it is long overdue for an advertising burst.
When it comes to persuading lager drinkers to broaden their repertoire, it is clear that Wells & Young's is establishing a portfolio of products that attempts to cover all the bases of the beer playing field.
Its director of marketing splits beer drinkers down into 70 per cent who are lager consumers and 30 per cent who typically choose ale.
Of this 30 per cent, Lewis estimates, 15 per cent drink cask and 15 per cent drink smoothflow products out of habit. "My job is not to compete with those other brewers operating in that cask-drinking 15 per cent," he says.
"My job is to get more people to come into cask and increase the size of the pie. One way of doing that is through smoothflow extensions to strong cask brands."
Marketing support
The Courage portfolio under Wells & Young's is being supported with a £2m marketing spend, which includes a redesign to incorporate a generic Courage logo across the whole range.
A promotional campaign for Best Smooth is planned to break in January, and is likely to involve outdoor and print advertising.
