Speeding up the 'pour-fect' pint

With beer drinking on the decline, brewers are working on ways to entice people to pay more for the perfect pint

BIRMINGHAM, England (CNN) -- You used to know where you stood with a pint of beer. But times are changing, and glitz, glamour and speed is the image brewers are after now.

Western Europeans are no longer drinking the amount of beer they used to, so brewers are moving their sales strategies away from trying to sell more beer to selling more expensive beer.

"We have got to constantly push for innovation," says Coors marketing manager David Griffiths.

"Probably around a quarter of our business now comes from brands that didn't exist a year ago, so you have to keep moving forward and finding new and different offerings to keep consumers interested in our market.

VIDEO Brewers are trying to improve lagging beer sales with innovative products, as CNN's Liz George reports. (March 5) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

"There's lots of different ways consumers can spend their disposable cash these days, so we've got to work hard if we want them to spend it in the beer category."

Coors, which recently took control of Bass Brewers, has come up with a "smart" beer that stays cool right to the bottom of the glass. New technology at the pump creates ice crystals, keeping the temperature low for longer.

Coors isn't the only brewer racing to innovate. Carlsberg enlisted the help of the University of Birmingham to research the fast-pour pint and says it's found the answer with its new Vortex tap, which it claims will pour the perfect pint in 14 seconds, at the perfect temperature, and with the perfect 1-inch head.

"At the end of the day, when you come to selling beer across the bar, it's the presentation of the beer and the quality of the beer that will count," says Andrew Barker of the University of Birmingham.

Ice crystals are helping to keep Coors' new "smart" beer colder for longer

Carlsberg's Vortex pump not only about boosting bartenders' pouring speed, it's also part of a $39 million marketing spree designed to take the brand up-market.

And in this brave new brewing world, it seems nothing is sacred. Even Guinness is ditching its two-minute perfect pint, aiming instead for a 15-second pour.

"We've seen trends lately with beer, it's all been dominated by premium beers, that's the rising trend, especially in the UK, and you see a similar thing happening in the U.S.," says Ann Nugent of Euromonitor.

"So it's really your fashion-conscious, brand-led, high-spending consumers, young consumers, that are the cutting edge of the innovation. They're the first ones that'll go for that kind of thing anyway. And that's where it's likely to continue to develop."