Analysts have worried that the malternative market has gotten too crowded.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. on Monday rolled out the latest addition to its family of Bacardi “malternatives,” hoping the juiced-up, raspberry-spiked beverage quenches what the world’s largest brewer believes is consumer thirst for more flavors.

Bacardi Silver Raz joins a lineup that includes Bacardi Silver and Bacardi Silver O3, the latter launched in March by the St. Louis-based brewer and named for its makeup of its flavoring of three oranges. Anheuser-Busch unveiled its rum-flavored Bacardi Silver a year ago.

Flavored malt beverages, or “malternatives” that are malt-based like beer but flavored to taste like liquor, account for about 2.6 percent of the beer market, though sales are expected to dip more than 14 percent this year, said Marlene Coulis, Anheuser-Busch’s chief of new products.

With Bacardi Raz, Anheuser-Busch seeks a larger chunk of the malternative market, specifically those based on brands of popular distilled liquors, including the offerings involving rum-making Bacardi. Such “spirit-branded” offerings, Coulis said, have grown by 70 percent since the advent of Bacardi Silver O3 just months ago, with Bacardi Silver the No. 2 brand in the spirit-branded category.

“As we see this category consolidating, we feel there’s definitely room for additional growth,” Coulis said. “Our objective is to stay aggressive in this category.”

While such niche products may not contribute sizably to Anheuser-Busch’s bottom line, malternatives including the Bacardi-based line doesn’t hurt in helping round out the company’s portfolio, RT Jones analyst Julie Niemann said.

“I think this is basically an attempt to offer a broad array of one-stop shopping from friendly distributors,” she said. “Is it going to have wide acceptance? I think it’s a very narrow audience.”

Malternative sales in supermarkets and drug stores grew 36 percent last year – a rapid rate, but less than the 79 percent expansion in 2001, Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. has said. Analysts have worried that the malternative market has gotten too crowded as brewers and distillers rush new products to market. A shakeout started last fall when rum-flavored Captain Morgan Gold was taken off the market, and older lemon- and lime-flavored drinks generally have lost steam.

“It’s probably too early to tell whether (malternatives) have run their course or gone the way of ‘dry’ or ‘ice’ beers that were trends or fads,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Association of Brewers, a Colorado-based trade group. “But malternatives very well may have a place on the shelves.”

Raspberry-flavored malt products, Papazian speculates, might cater to those who in recent years have sought out fruit-flavored beers as vogue, if not refreshing.

Coulis said Bacardi Silver Raz, billed as a “refreshingly clean and not-too-sweet premium malt beverage” with raspberry flavoring, would be targeted toward “contemporary adult” drinkers ages 21 to 27 – a demographic “very much on the cutting edge and trying new things.”

Raz will be packaged in six-packs of 12- and 24-ounce bottles – and 16-ounce plastic containers – at Anheuser-Busch’s brewery in Baldwinsville, N.Y., where the company already produces its existing Bacardi malternatives.