CHICAGO -- MillerCoors unveiled its new line of hard sodas—Henry’s Hard Soda—this week.
Crafted for beer and nonbeer drinkers, according to the company, with 4.2% alcohol by volume, "Henry’s puts a playful spin on familiar flavors" with its first two releases: Henry’s Hard Ginger Ale and Henry’s Hard Orange Soda.
Henry’s Hard Soda is made to offer "a smooth, moderate body, mild effervescence and a satisfying finish with refreshing, distinctive twists that vary by flavor," the company said. The sodas are made with real cane sugar.
Henry's joins the growing hard-soda trend, which blossomed with Small Town Brewery's Not Your Father's Root Beer. Now distributed by Pabst Brewing, other major beer makers have hopped on the hard-soda bandwagon; the segment now includes root-beer and other hard-soda flavors offered by Boston Beer (Coney Island) and Anheuser-Busch (Best Damn, rolling out now).
The Henry's Hard launch includes two flavors:
- Henry’s Hard Ginger Ale: A balance of fresh ginger flavor and herbal notes delivers a moderate ginger aroma and slightly spicy and fruity undertones.
- Henry’s Hard Orange Soda: A blend of natural Valencia orange flavor provides the right amount of sweetness and a pop of tangy citrus flavor.
The new hard sodas are inspired by the spirit of Henry Weinhard, a brewer known in the Pacific Northwest for making flavorful beers and great soda for more than a century, according to the company.
“One of the main reasons why I love this product is because life is busy with work, kids and bills, but there’s always time to sneak in a little fun with friends,” said Bryan Ferschinger, MillerCoors senior director of innovations. “Beer is great, but now we also have Henry’s Hard Soda, an option that gives a little more flavor and excitement.”
MillerCoors will support Henry’s Hard Soda with a national marketing campaign, kicking off at the end of the month with advertising on primetime networks and high-profile cable partners such as ABC, FOX, TBS, Food Network and Bravo. A custom digital presence in top pop-culture sites, traditional print-media support, dual-language public relations programming and influencer initiatives complement the rollout.
Henry’s Hard Soda is available nationwide at most grocery and convenience stores in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles and 16-ounce single cans.
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