New products last year accounted for much of the growth across the beverage alcohol sector in 2012 scans (52 weeks to Jan 5). If you include new products, beer's dollar sales were up 5.3%. Without new products, it grew only 0.5%. That's quite different from wine (up 4.2% with new products versus -2.8% without) and spirits (up 5.9% with new products versus -0.3% without), according to Laura Walsh, Client Director at Nielsen, while speaking at BD Live.