Sundown Lager and Summer Ale show that it's beer season

Nope, I rely on brewers to tell me when it's time to break out the budgie smugglers. Summer is the beer-drinking season, the hot months allowing Aussies to do what they do better than almost anyone else on the planet – drink lots of super-cold lager after a day on the beach, around the barbie or after mowing the lawn.

I know it's summer because this is the time of year the brewers unleash their summer seasonals on a thirsty public. Two to lob into bottle shops this week are James Squire's Sundown Lager and Monteith's Summer Ale.

But with this limited release the brewery has taken Australia's favourite beer style – golden lager – and replaced much of the bitterness with hop flavours.

"We have used two Aussie hops, galaxy and summer saaz, plus a bit of English East Kent goldings, to create the grassy aroma," said head brewer Chuck Hahn. "It's very sessionable."

Bucking the trend of putting out light and fluffy seasonals is Murray's Craft Brewing, which produces its distinctive Anniversary Ale to celebrate its birthday.

With an alcohol content of 10 per cent, Murray's Anniversary Ale 3 is intended as a special occasion drink. Only 1000 have been bottled.

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This beer is no blonde joke!

Two years ago with the help of celebrity reinforcement from Paris Hilton, who came to Sydney to ‘find’ the face of Bondi Blonde who is Jaime Wright. Bondi Blonde hit the market brewed by Bluetounge another great beer from Sydney. The Beer has made quiet an impact in the low carb market with plenty of blokes thinking they will still look ok in their budgie smugglers on Bondi beach- but many of them need to get of the pies as well and put that shirt, and pants back on. Anyway the beer is great its a pale lager and contains 4.5% alcohol and as we mentioned a few lines up is a low carb beer and contains only about a third of the carbsfound in the normal full strength beer. It uses only natural ingredients and is preservative free so it’s the perfect beer for summer, well all year round.

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Australia could re-define beer to beat tax loophole

Australia could change its legal definition of beer in order to stop brewers using a tax loophole to pass off sweet, pre-mixed alcoholic drinks as the thirst-slaking brew, according to a report.

Some drinks companies have sidestepped the tax by producing drinks brewed using the same methods as beer but with all the "beer characteristics" removed and sugar and colouring added, the Sun-Herald newspaper said.

The products, known as "malternatives", are also packaged like a flavoured beverage and sell for as little as two Australian dollars (1.25 US) a drink -- significantly cheaper than the "alcopops" that fall under the new tax regime.

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Beer boom for northern Tasmania

Multinational brewer, Lion Nathan, is sticking with plans to double the production of its boutique brewer, Boags, in northern Tasmania.

It's almost a year since Lion Nathan acquired Boags, and plans to increase its supply of Tasmanian malting barley to 12,000 tonnes are year are still on track, according to supplier, Joe White Maltings.

Rob Wicks from Joe White Maltings says premium beer is one of the few areas of the beer market in Australia where demand is growing.

"We have long term contracts with Lion Nathan and they've certainly indicated that they're looking to expand this market, actually to double this market over the next few years so we're very excited about that."

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Lion set to slake a hard-bought thirst

AUSTRALIA'S long-running beer wars is set to intensify with news that Lion Nathan has increased its marketing budget to give it a head start on rivals, defying trends by other marketers to slash spending.

In the three months to the end of September, Lion pumped an extra $6 million in marketing behind the launch of its mainstream low-carb beer, Toohey's White Stag, a new campaign for XXXX Gold, the rebranding of Boag's and the launch of its Natural Beer Promise, promising certain beers are brewed using only natural ingredients and free from artificial additives.

The company also revealed that "innovations" such as Barefoot Radler and low-carb beers such as Hahn Super Dry and Boag's Classic Blonde now account for 10 per cent of sales.

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Beer flows again at Burra's Unicorn Brewery

Unicorn Brewery beer flowed in Burra on Sunday after a 106-year absence.

The Unicorn Brewery ales are currently on sale in three Burra hotels – the Burra, Commercial and Kooringa – and negotiations are underway to supply the ales to restaurants and hotels throughout South Australia and Victoria, with the ultimate aim of creating a national brand.

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Aussie men eschew beer, beef for cheese plates-survey

The beer-drinking, blunt-talking Australian male of legend is under threat, replaced by men more likely to drink champagne and talk fashion and hair than football results, according to a new survey.

The survey found 75 percent of Aussie men were more likely to bring champagne and a cheese platter to a barbeque, rather than the traditional box of beer and raw meat for cooking.

One-in-two men also now favored yoga or pilates exercises to football and cricket at the weekend, the survey of 500 men for boutique brewing company Barons found on Tuesday.

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Matilda Bay's Fat Yak fills a hole in pale ale range

Fat Yak is Matilda Bay's answer to Little Creatures, another small West Australian brewery, although Matilda Bay is West Australian in spirit only these days, given its beer is made in either Melbourne or Hobart.

Fat Yak is Alpha's more gentle cousin – still highly flavoursome, but not as brutally bitter. And at its launch in Melbourne last week I had no trouble helping a few volunteers plough through several kegs.

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Microbrewers plead for tax breaks

Small breweries are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with their much larger rivals as consumers cut back on discretionary spending and opt for cheaper, mass produced beer.

Cameron Hines, who runs the Mountain Goat Brewery in Richmond and is also Founder of the Australian Association of Microbrewers, said the industry was struggling to gain a foothold because of the dominance of the two big producers.

"In the past few months I've heard of three microbreweries that have closed in Victoria," Mr Hines said. "We are in a market dominated by a duopoly. We don't have the economies of scale … we are using the very best ingredients to craft the best beer, yet we are taxed at the same rate."

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Lion Nathan in Talks With CC-Amatil About Merger

Lion Nathan Ltd. and Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. have been in merger talks the past six months that might create an A$11 billion ($7.1 billion) beverages company covering everything from beer to water, juice and soft drink, the Australian Financial Review reported.

The talks also include Lion Nathan's majority stakeholder Kirin Holdings Co Ltd. and The Coca-Cola Company, the newspaper reported, citing people it didn't name. Macquarie Capital Advisers is working with Coca-Cola Amatil while Caliburn Partnership is advising Lion Nathan, the Review said.

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Foster's fattens its amber fluid

Foster's Group has finally been punished for its decade-long foray into the poncey drink market. Months after admitting its $7 billion foray into the wine sector had been a costly mistake, Foster's has given up on its lame attempt to make Cascade look like a European beer.

"We got it wrong," conceded a Foster's spokesman, Troy Hey, who said the brewer was reversing the move taken last year to cut the size of Cascade Pale Ale stubbies from 375 to 330 millilitres.

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Beer Country

There are, by my count, 36 craft breweries in Victoria. There’s 687 wineries, so there’s lots of potential for growth! I don’t know how many breweries there are in Australia. There’s always new lovelies opening, with many only available locally.

The biggest threat to all this craft beer that I see is the rise of the “premium beer” market. All those bland brews pushed by Fosters and Lion Nathan, or, increasingly, imported. There are big banners for Peroni and Budweiser in the city at the moment. And then there are the craft collaborators.

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Beer still dominates in tough financial times

EVEN in tough economic times, drinkers reach for a cold one to quench that hard-earned thirst, recent figures show.

Australians also appear to have expensive taste, with the figures showing the demand for boutique beer has grown by 11.3 per cent in last year.

The biggest beer drinkers are between 18 and 30 years, a demographic which responds well to change, innovation and clever advertising, the survey found.

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Australia - a good country for beer

I’ve spent the last few weeks in Australia, mainly for the Commercial Radio Australia conference, but also mainly on holiday. (I spoke at the CRA about making money from digital radio - my speaking notes are online if you wanted to take a look). But, since I’ve promised ‘beer’ in this blog for a while now, here’s my take on the beer.

Australia is a country with a resurgent craft beer industry. One thing I didn’t expect, when going into Melbourne’s tourist information centre, was a leaflet on craft beer makers; but that’s exactly what was on offer (complete with a foreward written by an Australian MP).

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Molson Coors builds 5 per cent stake in Foster's

US brewing major Molson Coors yesterday declared it had built up a 5 per cent stake in Foster's Group and gave strong indications it had designs on the company's beer division.

Foster's bought an equity stake in Carling O'Keefe in 1987, and remained an equity partner following the merger with Molson until 1998, when it sold out to Molson for $1.1 billion and the North American rights to the Foster's brand.

The US licence has since moved to Britain-based brewer SABMiller, but Molson retains rights to brew, market and distribute the Foster's brand in the Canadian market.

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Wattle Barons think of next? Well it's a beer passion apparently

While all Barons Premium Range beers are excellent examples of their styles, it is the Native Range which has put Barons on the map and Adamson's skill at incorporating uniquely Australian ingredients in his beer recipes has marked him as a rising brewing star.

He's already flirted with his next creation, the evocatively named Passionberry Porter.

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