Asahi denies considering Foster's tie-up

Japanese beer maker Asahi Breweries Ltd (2502.T) denied on Monday a newspaper report that it was considering a partnership with Foster's Group (FGL.AX) to enter the Australian alcoholic drinks sector.

The Age newspaper, reporting on the possibility, said Asahi was likely to wait until Foster's, which already distributes Asahi beer, completes a review of its operations.

If the beer business was spun off, Asahi is believed to be considering a partnership beyond the distribution contract, the article said, without giving a source.

On Wednesday, British confectionery maker Cadbury Plc (CBRY.L) agreed to sell its Australian beverage business to Asahi for 550 million pounds.

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Löwenbräu Keller Restaurant, Sydney

But one thing is for sure, the delighting taste of the German food from this very special restaurant in Sydney still lingers in my memories. Although it’s been close to 3 years, this backdated post is still my best experience of a German dining. Let’s go to the Löwenbräu Keller Restaurant at The Rocks, Sydney, Australia!

Over there, you will enjoy a great ambience of German culture with those amazing German bands singing to the rhythm. One thing that you will never miss at any German restaurant is of course none other than their specially brewed beer. You’ll be seeing the hot Claudia Schiffer look-alike waitress serving mugs and mugs of beer to the patrons. What a sight!

In case you do not know where is the exact location, you should just browse through their very own website. It is strategically located somewhere near to Darling Harbour and the famous Opera House. If you are at these landmark, you are very close to this restaurant already.

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Roast Peaches with Hoegaarden Ice Cream

The recipe called for Hoegaarden beer, but at the moment I'm in country NSW, and all the ingredients I require weren't quite available. Instead of using Hoegaarden, I used Haagen. Haagen is an Australian beer which is brewed in traditional German style. It made for a very beer-y ice cream, and I assume that is the whole point of the ice cream flavour. I'm sure that Hoegaarden can be substituted for any type of beer...pick your favourite and off you go. After tasting it, I immediately thought of Beez Neez, the honey flavour in the beer would make the ice cream take on a slight beer/honey flavour.

Hop shortage sweet for growers

A GLOBAL shortage of hops is playing havoc with the tastebuds of boutique beer drinkers but has reinvigorated the local hops market.

As a result, some small brewers had to use another variety of hops, effectively changing their style of beer.

"Or they have had to move totally away from that style of beer and create a new beer with whatever hops are available," Mr Meddings said.

Australia's biggest hop company, Hop Products Australia, is doubling its acreage under hops at Rostrevor Hop Gardens, near Myrtleford in northern Victoria.

Mr Lord said there were thousands of hop varieties, with about 60 commonly grown for beer.

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QLD Brewer Release No-Carb Beer

The Burleigh Brewing Company of Queensland today (December 10) launched Bighead — Australia’s first no-carbohydrate beer.

“For the past year, our customers have been asking us when we were going to create a low-carb beer and today, we’ve not only delivered, we’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations with a beer that is truly unique,” she said.

Bighead is a full-flavoured, full-strength lager with a smooth clean taste with zero carbohydrates and only 88 calories per bottle. It is named after its place of origin Burleigh Heads, which was originally dubbed Burly Head (meaning big or brawny head) by surveyor James Warner in 1840.

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White Rabbit flies Little Creatures flag

THE team behind Little Creatures beer has unveiled major expansion plans for 2009 including a new drop from an east-coast brew house.

White Rabbit will be made at a newly built brewery at Healesville in Victoria's Yarra Valley from March.

Four months ago, a new, larger German-built brew house began production on the Fremantle site, and the old brewery was shipped to Victoria for installation on the White Rabbit site, where construction was completed three weeks ago.

Mr Cearns said launching the new White Rabbit brand instead of setting up a second Little Creatures brewery on the east coast reflected an older ethos of craft brewing.

"We like the idea of the return to breweries when they were part of the village and the neighbourhood -- it had a personality and a soul and the characteristic of the region," Mr Cearns said. "When you start spreading your production everywhere it becomes harder to control and manage the palate of the beer. The water and ingredients can be different, so you're not getting consistency."

White Rabbit aims to be a "distinctive, exceptional beer", Mr Cearns said.

"The White Rabbit brewery will be the same size Little Creatures was initially. It will be a hand-sell, on a small scale," he said.

"It will only brew once a week at first -- the brewery will have a capacity of 1 million litres per annum but we've got to work our way up to that volume over several years."

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Only natural as big brewer hops to it

THE brewing giants have been taking it on the chin for a while. When it comes to beer, small has been seen as good, big as bad. The emergence of a raft of microbreweries across the country has grabbed the beer-drinking public's attention and tastebuds.

The biggest move is the scrapping of sulphur dioxide, which was used to absorb oxygen when bottling or kegging. Caramel, which provided colour, has also been dropped.

But Taylor says beer drinkers won't notice any difference in taste or look. "We've simply taken out some additives, improved the way we do things and gone back to the basics of brewing with only five natural ingredients. We're providing the consumer with choice and we're waiting to see what they think, but we're not changing the beers."

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Beer is the new wine

I recently had some beers and a meal at a place called Little Creatures dinning hall in Melbourne Australia.

For the uninitiated, Little Creatures is a craft beer which has it’s origins in Australia and has recently opened a flagship ‘dinning hall’ - seen below.



You get a taste in little groovy pony glasses of all their different beers, then choose one you like. One of their ‘Little Creatures Beer Experts’ comes and sits down on your table with you and they explain all the different types of beers. A real sit down for 10 minutes. A rare treat when the usual situation is waiting 10 minutes for crappy service in bars and restaurants. They teach you how to taste each beer and the slight nuances of each. They even provide an idea what type of people generally like the different types.

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Aussie beer beats Brits to award

AUSTRALIA has left Britain with yet another wound to lick, taking out an international gong for best beer.

"This is just another example of something the Poms invented yet have lost to the Aussies,'' Barons Brewing managing director Scott Garnett said.

Barons Black Wattle Original Ale was voted the most popular beer out of 50 nominations at the JD Wetherspoon international beer festival in Britain last month.

A day later, the Wallabies savaged England 28-14 at Twickenham.

Barons Brewing was one or four international contenders in the competition which was run in 717 JD Wetherspoon pubs across Britain and voted on by 8500 customers.

The brewer was invited to represent Australia after producing the first beer in the world made with native Australian spices.

"To win number one beer at such a huge festival is a great result for Barons and Australian beer,'' Mr Garnett said.

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