Abdulla Alkaabi

Shane Epley
Kalin Ledford

Sean Smith
Dr. Turner
BMGT 4930-003
11/05/2019
Moonshot Caffeinated Beer
During the early 2000’s, the beer and energy drink industries were growing rapidly. Their

growth was independent of one another, but the former executive vice-president of Boston Beer
Company, Rhonda Kallman saw the growth of these two beverage categories as an opportunity
for a new kind of beer. This new kind of beer was a caffeinated beer called Moonshot: a pilsner
beer with 45 milligrams of caffeine (later increased to 69 milligrams) created by Kallman and Dr.
Joseph Owades (Wesley 7-8).

Dr. Owades and Kallman [a]previously worked together to create a new company called
New Century Brewing (Wesley 5). Their first product launch was a beer called Edison which was
an “independent light beer” that was fairly successful, eventually making it into local high end

restaurants and boutiques (Wesley 5-6). Edison was created when light beers were beginning to
take off, and Kallman and Dr. Owades successfully advantage of the opportunity. After creating

Edison, Kallman realized the potential for Moonshot, the caffeinated beer. Energy drinks were
one of the fastest growing beverage categories at the time, and it was becoming particularly

popular to mix energy drinks with alcohol (Wesley 6-7). Kallman realized that people may be
interested in a premixed combination of caffeine and alcohol in beer form. She felt that innovation

in the beer industry was limited, and her idea for caffeinated beer was one of those few
opportunities (Wesley 7). She once again called on Dr. Owades to help her formulate this new

beer, and in 2004[b] they were successful in creating the first caffeinated beer called Moonshot

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1Mub0-TClwyCE_tCGmAuCcX8JIBi3_NzIxeJIxlJfgPE/mobilebasic 10/31/19, 3N51 PM

Page 1 of 4
 beer, and in 2004[b] they were successful in creating the first caffeinated beer called Moonshot
(Baron).

Moonshot came into the market at a mid range price point when compared to other big

brands such as Bud Light and Corona. It cost $6.49 for a six pack while other (non-caffeinated[c])

beers fell between $4.99 and $7.99. It also managed to stay light on calories with 128 per
serving which also fell somewhere in the middle for beer and only 18 more calories than Red Bull

(Wesley 10).

The external environment was already tough to begin with since Moonshot was a smaller
beer brand. Smaller breweries had a hard time competing with the bigger brewery companies such

as Anheuser-Busch who had resources, capital, shelf space, and brand recognition that smaller
breweries couldn’t compete or keep up with (Baron). Kallman Moonshot was innovative enough

to break through this sea of beer options. She believed very strongly in Moonshot’s potential to
Moonshot Beer Summary of …
almost sell itself based on its unique concept. Based on this assumption and the trend in the
market, this beer and energy drink combination had incredible potential. In April of 2004, just
before the launch of Moonshot, beverage additives were expected to grow 3.4%, and energy

drinks were included in this. Red Bull had grown 10%, and energy drinks were growing in

popularity especially among 18-25 year old men. [d]Despite all of these optimistic looking trends,
Moonshot never really took off.

Soon after releasing Moonshot, Busweiser released B^E, t[e]heir version of caffeinated
beer. It was $1.50 more per 6 pack than Moonshot, and it added a competitor when there wasn’t

one previously (Wesley 10); however, Kallman hoped that the recognizable brand name would
get people to try caffeinated beer and “create awareness for Moonshot” (Wesley 8). Unfortunately,
the opposite happened, and the people who tried B^E were extremely dissatisfied with the way it

tasted which tarnished [f]people’s perception of caffeinated beer (Wesley 8). Optimistically, this

meant that B^E was not a major threat to Moonshot since people didn’t like it, but it threatened
the reputation of caffeinated beer. The final and most influential external factor on Moonshot was
the FDA warning in 2010 that caffeinated alcoholic beverages were unsafe and threatened to seize

such beverages if they didn’t stop production or if they didn’t reformulate (Center for Food Safety

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1Mub0-TClwyCE_tCGmAuCcX8JIBi3_NzIxeJIxlJfgPE/mobilebasic 10/31/19, 3N51 PM

Page 2 of 4
 and Applied Nutrition). Moonshot and all of the other caffeinated drinks such as B^E has to make
a decision on what to do. New Century Brewing chose shut down in 2011, and Moonshot would
no longer be made.

Edit with the Docs app

Make tweaks, leave comments, and share with
others to edit at the same time.
Works Cited[g][h]

Baron, Anat. Beer Wars.NO THANKS

Featuring GET THEand
Sam Calagione APPRhonda Kallman.Gravitas Ventures LLC.

2009.

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Caffeinated Alcoholic Beverages.” U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, FDA, 17 Nov. 2010, www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-
petitions/caffeinated-alcoholic-beverages.

Day, Sherri. “Business; Energy Drinks Charm the Young and Caffeinated.” The New York Times,
The New York Times, 4 Apr. 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/business/business-energy-
drinks-charm-the-young-and-caffeinated.html.

Wesley, David. “New Century Brewing: Moonshot Caffeinated Beer”. Supervised by Professor
Chris Robertson. Version (A) 2005-08-18. Ivey Publishing. 2005. Hbsp.harvard.edu. Accessed 22
Oct 2019.

Introduction/Background- Kalin
Internal Characteristics- Shane
External Characteristics- Kalin
Problems-Abdulla
Solutions- Sean

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1Mub0-TClwyCE_tCGmAuCcX8JIBi3_NzIxeJIxlJfgPE/mobilebasic 10/31/19, 3N51 PM

Page 3 of 4
 [a]new century brewing
[b]ref
[c]add caffeinated price comparison
[d]mergent online
[e]look up other caff beer start dates
[f]p8,
input customer comments about taste
[g]https://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-format/
[h]https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_gui
de/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1Mub0-TClwyCE_tCGmAuCcX8JIBi3_NzIxeJIxlJfgPE/mobilebasic 10/31/19, 3N51 PM

Page 4 of 4