When sales slump for macro brews such as Coors, Bud Light and Miller Lite, the marketing wizards have an easy fix: redesign the packaging, purchase commercial spots and add gimmicks to the cans – a “frost-brew liner,” “cold-activated mountains” and “double-vented wide mouth” – and presto, sales take off again.
Micro breweries, on the other hand, stay relevant by tweaking their recipes and inventing new beers – little experiments in hops, yeast and grains.
But one craft beer in particular has maintained its popularity with little tinkering.
Mexican Logger, from Durango’s Ska Brewing, has grown in popularity every year since its release in 1999. Every year, the brewery produces 15 to 20 percent more Mexican Logger than the previous year, said Dave Thibodeau, founder and co-owner of Ska Brewing.
Ska plans to brew 6,000 barrels, or 186,000 gallons, of Mexican Logger this year, which is about 18 percent of the brewery’s total output.
What’s more, it is a seasonal beer, which means it’s available only from April to September, making its overall sales even more impressive. And therein lies part of this beer’s continued success.
People who love the beer stock up on it in the fall in hopes of having enough to make it through the winter. Then, during the first week of April, Ska Brewing throws another release party, which draws hundreds of thirsty residents out of their winter slumbers for a taste of summer.
The Mexican Logger release party, which was held Wednesday at Ska Brewing’s World Headquarters in Durango, is the brewery’s second-largest event of the year – second only to its annual anniversary party, which includes bands and guest breweries.
“I don’t know that we intentionally designed it to be something everybody looked forward to or build excitement around,” Thibodeau said. “I think it kind of happened organically with a little bit of growth each year.”
The beer has won back-to-back medals at the Great American Beer Festival – a silver in 2015 and a bronze in 2016 in the international-style Pilsner category – the only years it has been entered, Thibodeau said.
The recipe has remained the same, and the only difference in packaging occurred in 2009, when Ska quit bottling the brew and used only cans. The label on bottles included a drawing of an Hispanic logger wearing a sombrero napping under a tree. Some people complained the label stereotyped Mexicans as lazy because the character was taking a siesta, but Thibodeau said that was never the intention. The label was made in 1999, about the same time the Mexican government did away with the siesta, in part as a result of joining the North American Free Trade Agreement, he said.
“We were all fans of the siesta,” Thibodeau said. “... It wasn’t us trying to say Mexicans were lazy.”
The sleeping logger illustration didn’t fit on cans, and therefore was never included, he said.
For the first 10 years, Mexican Logger was available only in Colorado. Ska began shipping it to other states in 2009, and it continues to grow in those markets, he said.
“We run out of it in September, and the first thing out of everybody’s mouth is, ‘You need to brew this year-round,’ including our wholesalers,” Thibodeau said.
But Colorado has such distinct seasons, with obvious differences between winter, spring, summer and fall, he said. When brewers created Mexican Logger, it was intended to be a summer beer – something light and refreshing but with a little more flavor than Tecate, Corona or Pacífico.
“In my mind, there’s aways been a time for this beer, and it’s summertime,” Thibodeau said. “I think our sales would really decline in the winter. I know I wouldn’t drink as much in the winter, but I sure drink a lot of it in the summer.
“It’s kind of fun to have this party and have a good seasonal beer,” he said. “We don’t want to lose the fun of it and have it just become a beer. It’s nice for it to go away and for us to focus on the winter, and it’s a great day when it comes back.”
shane@durangoherald.com
