Carling C2 wins top award for mid-strength beers

The lager, produced by Coors Brewers, won the award for taste in the under 2.5% alcohol by volume category at the recent World Beer Awards.

The judging panel was chaired by beer guru Roger Protz, who said that the overall quality of the beers in this year’s competition had been impressively high.

Andy Cray, director of customer marketing for Coors, said: “The launch of Carling C2 is one of the biggest brewing innovations for years. We think this could be the biggest development in the UK beer scene since the introduction of extra cold dispense five to10 years ago, which is now the norm.

“Drinkers have traditionally steered clear of lower-strength lagers because of the taste. Thanks to new developments in brewing technology, we’re finally at the stage where we can produce a mid-strength lager that tastes just as good as a regular pint,” he said.

Nearly 1,000 different recipes were tested over a 10-year period before Carling brewers came up with a 2% alternative on a par with the taste of a full-strength pint.

“This award is an important milestone for Carling C2 and goes a long way towards breaking down consumer perceptions of mid-strength beers and establishing a benchmark for other category entrants to meet. Coors Brewers will use the award throughout 2008/9 to cast a ray of light on this category and deliver the potential to our customers that we believe it holds.”

The World Beer Award will be used on packs in the off-trade to promote Carling C2 as well as featuring in a bespoke POS kit for every C2 stocking outlet in the on-trade. This will also be supported by consumer direct mail, offering free packs of Carling C2 to drive trial.