HOUSTON -- Bud Light Platinum, a higher alcohol version of the world's best-selling beer, goes on sale in Texas on Monday, a week earlier than the rest of the country, Silver Eagle Distributors confirmed for the Houston Chronicle.
With a slightly sweeter taste, Bud Light Platinum--officially slated to hit store shelves nationwide January 30, 2012--provides beer drinkers an upscale light beer option as a companion to their social agenda, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, a unit of Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, said.
Brewed at Anheuser-Busch's Baldwinsville, Cartersville and Los Angeles breweries, the new beer comes in a 12-ounce, cobalt-blue bottle in six packs and 12 packs.
The Platinum version is 6% alcohol by volume (ABV), a percentage point higher than regular Budweiser. The new beer also will contain 137 calories and 4.4 grams of carbs, said the report. Top-selling Bud Light, by comparison, weighs in at 4.2% ABV with 110 calories and 6.6 grams of carbs.
"There are opportunities for light beer to expand into new occasions, and we think Bud Light Platinum is the beer to take us there," Mike Sundet, senior director for Bud Light, said when the new beer was announced in November 2011. "Bud Light's ability to innovate and its social personality makes it the ideal brand to introduce Bud Light Platinum to a growing number of image-conscious beer drinkers."
Advertising Age earlier this month described the release of Bud Light Platinum as part of an effort "to win over younger drinkers who have been gravitating to spirits." The publication said A-B InBev would spend heavily on advertising and is expected to buy at least one spot for Platinum during the February 5 Super Bowl.
Silver Eagle Distributors, based in Houston, is the nation's largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products and one of the largest Grupo Modelo distributors in the nation. The company also distributes a broad selection of import brands, microbrews, craft beers and several nonalcohol beverages and waters. It serves close to 11,000 accounts throughout 16 counties in Texas.
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