MillerCoors Introduces Alcoholic Ginger Ale And Orange Soda

You may have heard of Mike's Hard Lemonade and Angry Orchard Hard Cider, but now beverage giant MillerCoors is releasing a line of hard sodas.

The Chicago-based brewing company, which produces Blue Moon and Coors Light, among many other brews, will begin production of Henry's Hard Ginger Ale and Henry's Hard Orange sodas.

Besides hard root beer, which is experiencing a moment, these are some of the first alcoholic soda to hit the market — especially on this scale. "We're seeing very strong trends in craft sodas and other flavorful offerings with alcohol, and we see huge consumer appeal that will allow this to be a strong national play out of the gates," Bryan Ferschinger, director of innovation at MillerCoors, told AdAge.

MillerCoors' target audience is GenXers, who grew up drinking soda. In the past, the brewing company explored fruity flavors with drinks like Redd's Apple Ale and Smith & Forge ciders.

The hard sodas contain 4.2 percent alcohol by volume and are sweetened with pure cane sugar. They will be sold in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles for $8.99 and 16-ounce individual cans beginning in January. There are only two flavors for now, but more are on the horizon, according to Ferschinger.