100 bottles of Michelob on the wall…

Okay, much to my chagrin, I’ll admit it. It’s getting a little hard to keep track of all the Michelob beers. 

The family of brews from St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. already includes Porter, Marzen, Pale Ale, Wheat, Honey Lager and Amber Bock — on top of the basic Michelob rolled out in 1896 and Michelob Light, which followed in 1978.

Now, Anheuser-Busch appears poised to stock its Michelob cabinet even tighter. It has received label application approval from the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for Michelob Red Ale, Brown Ale, Dunkel Weisse and Bohemian Pilsner. The approvals were first reported on Brewblog.com, a blog sponsored by Miller Brewing Co. of Milwaukee.

The Michelob beer family is making a bid for swankiness and trying to tap into growth in high-end beers. Its Michelob advertising tagline, “crafting a better beer,” is a broad wink at the fast growth of craft brews.

Anheuser-Busch boosted its media spending on Michelob beers to $41.7 million last year, up 4.9 percent from nearly $39.8 in 2006, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. The trade publication quoted figures from research firm TNS Media Intelligence.

In a presentation to analysts in February, August A. Busch IV, chief executive of Anheuser-Busch, said the Michelob franchise represents “a huge growth opportunity within the craft beer segment.” 

But A-B’s rapid rollout of new products in the last few years has added new degrees of complexity at the wholesaler level and has caused some analysts to wonder whether the big beermaker is sufficiently focused on its flagship beers. The average A-B wholesaler now carries 147 brands — more than double the number carried five years ago.

“This portfolio is massive at this point,” said Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, in a recent interview. One question, he said, was how many brands A-B could successfully sell and manage.