Brewers in the United Kingdom are responding to declining beer sales by establishing brands that they believe will appeal to women, the Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 15.

Counteracting research findings that show many women don't like the smell and aftertaste of beer, some brewers are launching products that they believe will succeed in attracting female customers. These include Diageo PLC's Guinness Red, a sweeter version of traditional Guinness, and Coors' Blue Moon, which has been available in the U.S. and is served with an orange slice to accentuate its fruit flavor.

Coors this year established a unit called "Eve" within the company that officials say is designed to create "a world where women love beer as much as they love shoes." But some industry observers consider it an uphill battle to attempt to reverse declining beer sales in the U.K. through more sales to women. "They don't consumer the volume -- and that is crucial -- that men do," said Nielsen Co. alcohol consultant Graham Page.

While beer sales in the U.S. are up slightly in the first half of 2008, consumption in England has declined with the lagging popularity of pubs, caused in part by a smoking ban at the establishments as well as government scrutiny of alcohol promotions at pubs.

Officials at Coors, the U.K. unit of Molson Coors Brewing Co., have found that the products they develop will need to compete with wine and vodka, both of which have become more popular among women in recent years. In ignoring the female market in the past, Coors chief executive Mark Hunter said, "We've done something fundamentally wrong here."