High-octane beer attracts a good buzz

Kim Dong-cheol, holding a bottle of Cass Red 6.9 By Hwang Young-jin

Cass Red 6.9, Korea’s first high-alcohol beer had its beginnings in a brainstorming session three years ago, said Kim Dong-cheol. The brand director at Oriental Brewery was curious about why beer was not popular at Korean-style restaurants.
“For the first round of drinks, or il cha in Korean, people drink soju instead of beer,” said Kim. “We asked why and they answered that beer fills the stomach too fast, causes too many bathroom visits and it’s difficult to get drunk with it.” Conventional beer in Korea has about 4.5 percent alcohol volume, whereas Cass Red has 6.9 percent.
The development of Red was not immediate, said Kim. He had doubts that a beer with a high-alcohol content would attract drinkers because of the well-being trend. “It was when all the low-alcohol sojus were being released,” he said.
Soju is a traditional spirit that usually has 25 percent alcohol by volume.
So the development team decided to aim at soju instead of beer drinkers, especially those who wanted something stronger.
“At first we started with 6.1 percent and slowly tried higher levels; 6.5, 6.9, 8.65 and so on. The highest alcohol percentage we could get without sacrificing the fresh feeling was 6.9.” Then there was a new obstacle. People associated the figure 6.9 with sexual slang. The company president didn’t like the sound of the new percentage and ordered the alcohol volume of the newly developed beer be 7.2. Others came out with an alternative ― not labeling the alcohol volume as high as it actually was.
The company, however, stayed with its original plan because promoting Cass Red without its most important feature, its high alcohol content, would be meaningless.
The color of the bottle is another factor that makes Kim proud.
“Most beer bottles use ‘cool’ colors,” said Kim. “But, Cass Red uses red. Once again criticism arose during the development, but I figured the product had to be totally different from conventional brands. More than 300 colors have been tested.”
The development phase was not that difficult when compared to the actual launching of the product to the general public, said Kim. “We handed over the initial shipment to the wholesalers on March 15, which they distributed the following day.” The original batch was 4 million bottles. But Kim had ordered about 10 million more be made, without reporting to management. “I said I was ready to lose my job if my decision was wrong.” Kim had to have additional production ready because it takes about two months to produce a new batch. “If the 4 million bottles were not enough we had to wait for two months.”
It turned out that Kim had made the right decision. On March 22, wholesalers were asking for more. At the end of March even the extra 10 million bottles were not enough. “People in some areas had to wait [for the new batch],” said Kim.
However, sales at bars and restaurants are lagging because in those places it is up to the owner which brand will is served. “There is no difference in profit between conventional beer and Cass Red. If I were the bar owner, I would serve lower alcohol beer.”
However, at home Cass Red is getting popular. “If you drink soju, your kids tend to think you are an alcoholic or something, but with beer that’s not the case. Beer has a more modern image. So, drinkers are transferring their favorite alcoholic beverage from soju over to beer.” Cass Red has about the same amount of alcohol as a “bomb shot,” or boiler-maker.
Sales have been much better than expected, with Cass gaining 0.5 percent of the domestic beer market as of March.

By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer [yhwang@joongang.co.kr]