Eminent Domain

I recently reviewed an unreleased, unnamed beer from the Leinenkugel's brewery. Well, its identity is no longer a secret. Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat has hit the streets as of March 28th. The website has serving instructions and even makes some food pairing recommendations. This variety will be available year round. There has been a minor shake up in the Leinenkugel line up. Here's what they have to say...

Early Spring of 2006 we do have plans to discontinue Leinie's Northwoods and Amber Light-at least, short term-to make room for the increased production of Leinie's Honey Weiss and Berry Weiss, which are in large demand, and production of a new style of Leinenkugel's. (Northwoods is our brewmaster's favorite and Amber Light is Dick Leinenkugel's favorite.) Our distributors will be able to order Northwoods Lager and Amber Light through February and we expect them to be available through June ('06) in some markets.

It sucks that they have to discontinue anything, but I'm not surprised that Northwoods and Amber Light were on the chopping block. They are probably the least popular beers of their line up. I enjoy Northwoods and think that Amber Light is a decent, if somewhat typical, light beer. It looks like they are focusing on their Summer favorites, which is probably a good idea. I haven't met a beer drinking girl who doesn't like Berry Weiss. I love Honey Weiss. It's my Summerfest beer. It's a good idea to focus on producing these popular varieties and trim off the ones that don't have a big following. Leinenkugel's is making the right move here.

Isn't it weird how most bloggers break actual news stories and I break beer stories? Oh well, it's my area of expertise and the only area where I have actual "sources". I like being unique too.