Beer drinkers need the coldest, non-diluted beverages. Drinkers like the convenience of stacking non-alcoholic beverages on top of alcoholic ones to space out their liquor consumption.

These two trends led to bev marketers creating new merch just in time for summer.

Miller Lite’s beer cube trays are “designed specifically to freeze ice cubes made of the finest pilsner.” The cubes, in the shape of Miller Lite cans, are small enough to plop into any beer can or bottle. For $7.99, consumers get a 30-cube twistable tray, packed in a box that notes, “Great taste, even in the summer heat.”

While the cubes are cold, the Miller Lite offer has been hot – and getting hotter. A first drop of 450 trays sold out in two hours, 45 minutes on Tuesday, another drop in 30 minutes on Wednesday, and then just 15 minutes (July 05, 2023) (Thursday). Two more drop were scheduled for this morning (Friday) and Monday.

The brand points out that last summer, complaints about “warm beer” were mentioned nearly 77,000 times on social media, an increase of 2766% year-over-year, according to Brandwatch Social Listening.

Meanwhile, the non-alcoholic Hop Wtr has introduced the Hop Spcr, which allows consumers to stack one beverage can on top of another. Hop Wtr has awarded 25 sets of five Hop Spcrs — allowing six cans to be held in one hand — to winners of a week-long sweepstakes.

And it’s no mistake that the brand’s Spcr publicity photo shows a Hop Wtr can atop a beer can. Hop Spcr “was created to space out drinking by inserting a dose of hoppy hydration between brews,” the brand says.

“The vast majority of Hop Wtr consumers drink alcohol, and one in four drink Hop Wtr during or after drinking alcoholic beverages,” Jordan Bass, co-founder of Hop Wtr, tells Marketing Daily. “We took that insight and ran with it to keep Hop Wtr fans hopped and hydrated for one of the biggest drinking weekends of the year [July 4].”

To promote the Hop Spcr sweepstakes, which resulted in more than 900 entries the brand ran an infomercial-type video on Instagram and TikTok.

The organic campaign as well as Hop Spcr itself was created by the Multiply agency.

“The idea hit after seeing college kids double stacking and sometimes taping together their beverages,” Multiply told us. “After starting with a napkin sketch, we quickly worked with a 3D printer to design the spacer in CAD.  It took three prototypes with slight variations in size and type of plastic to arrive at the final product. It’s comfy in your hand and really grips the cans great.”

Each of the five Spcrs comes in a different color to represent a different Hop Water flavor: classic, mango, lime, blood orange, and peach.

Complaints about warm beer led Miller Lite to create trays “designed specifically to freeze ice cubes made of the finest pilsner.”