Finland’s beer culture is constantly changing, and new launches are an essential part of that development. According to statistics, over 80% of new consumer products fail and disappear from the market within the first year or two. In this blog post, we take a deeper look at how the Keisaris “Mosse” and “Birra” came about.
Keisari Mosaic IPA: 2022’s successful launch in grocery retail
We brought the first IPA in the Keisari series to market in 2018. However, the product ended up in the shadow of other IPAs on store shelves and was discontinued just a few years after launch. At that point, heavily bitter IPAs had started to fall out of fashion, replaced by modern, aroma-hopped IPAs with clearly less bitterness.
We began developing a new IPA by first investing in equipment and acquired a HopGun, a hop cannon. The hop cannon made it possible to use hops at the brewery with entirely new methods, capturing the hops’ aromas more effectively. Hops play a significant role in a beer’s flavour. We tested various hop varieties, and after a year of product development we finally launched Keisari Mosaic IPA. This beer quickly grew popular thanks to its fresh, fruity taste. Keisari Mosaic IPA highlights Mosaic hops and a stylish balance between malt and hops.
Keisari Birra Chiara: 2023’s successful launch in grocery retail
Development of the Italian-style Keisari Birra Chiara began back in 2021, when we ordered corn for the brewery for the first time. Normally beer is made from barley or wheat. Corn is used in Italian-style lagers such as Peroni and Birra Moretti. We wanted to develop a lighter lager that would pair well with Italian food and challenge the aforementioned imported beers. Again we spent a year on product development, until we were satisfied with the beer’s flavour profile. Beyond the taste, our packaging design also succeeded, and we naturally benefited as the importance of domestic origin in consumers’ purchasing decisions began to grow. Drinking domestic beer is also a responsible choice, as the whole value chain employs over 20,000 people. Ahead of spring we had prepared for good sales at launch, but demand surprised us so much that during the first 60 selling days we had to mark the product “sold out” for 30 of them; later on we managed to keep production in line with demand.
Craft breweries in the role of challenger
Craft breweries definitely play a more important role in developing beer culture than their market share suggests. Hundreds of new beers reach store shelves every year, and even more would like to, but shelf space in stores is limited. Craft breweries in Finland have managed to capture a five percent market share from the big breweries, but it’s entirely realistic to aim for over 10% market share, which independent craft breweries in North America hold today.
27 October 2023
Janne Paavola
