Aussie ale: out of the shadows

There’s more to Australian beer than Foster’s. The country, in common with Britain and the US, is undergoing a beer revolution. Small craft breweries are bringing much-needed choice to parched throats, and home-grown drinkers and visitors can enjoy far more than the “amber nectar”.

As well as the beer awards — made at a glittering affair with a four-course dinner — Beer Expo at the Melbourne Showgrounds provided a new shop window for small brewers. It was hosted by Beer and Brewer, an impressive consumer magazine dedicated to all things beery in Australia and New Zealand. I had the pleasure of hosting a series of talks and tastings and was able to sample the beers of the craft fraternity.

Brewer takes bush berry beer to Poms

Boutique beer maker Barons Brewing will be playing to the poms' passion for beer when it returns to the UK this week to again represent Australia at the world's largest beer festival.

Having brewed up a storm at the JD Wetherspoon International Beer Festival last year with its Baron Black Wattle Original Ale, head brewer Richard Adamson hopes to retain top honours with its new Barons Bush Berry Porter.

Like last year's winning drop, the beer will be brewed with native Australian spices.

This year's pint is made with the bush berry, or passion berry.

"Brewing last year was a huge honour and very exciting," Mr Adamson said.

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Where are all the Australian Beer Festivals?

In putting this website together it became obvious that there are very few Beer Festivals taking place in Australia over the coming year. A search in our own Beer Festival Search Box reveals just 3 Beer Tasting events for 2009!

Why is this?

Australia is known for its love of beer. The national holiday, Australia Day, wouldn’t be the same without a set of bbq tongs in one hand and a cold stubbie in the other.

I think the problem is twofold. Firstly, Australians are very parochial about their beer. If you’re a Queensander then you drink XXXX, a Victorian and you drink Victoria Bitter and so forth. Such loyalty to a brand allowed the second problem to develop; no competition. For too long the majority of the beer market in Australia has been owned by just two brewers: the Fosters Group and Lion Nathan.

When a population drinks just a handful of beers and the brewers are happy to supply just a handful of beers then it is no wonder there are very few Beer Festivals - what is there to celebrate?

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Foster's faces $700m write-down

Last August, Foster's wrote down the value of its intangible wine assets by $471 million and reallocated $575 million of goodwill from the $3.2 billion acquisition of wine group Southcorp in 2005 to its beer division.

But Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst Ian Abbott has warned that Foster's still holds a total of $2.2 billion of wine-related intangible assets on its balance sheet and could be set to announce further write-downs of up to $700million.

"Given that the global economy has deteriorated in the six months since the previous review of carrying values, we believe there is a risk of further write-downs," Mr Abbott wrote in a report to clients.

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Budweiser to be produced in Australia?

Coopers, Australia’s largest independently-owned brewer, is hopeful that they will soon be producing America’s most popular beer at their South Australian brewery.

Budweiser, which is the highest selling beer in the world, is imported into Australia and distributed by Premium Beverages - which Coopers has an 80 per cent share of. As they push toward a key sales threshold, the privately-owned business is seeking to arrange a deal with the world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, to brew the beers in Australia.

“We needed to reach a threshold of more than 500,000 cases … at the rate we’re selling, we could say we would have hit it by mid 2009,” Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, told The Advertiser.

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Keeping up with the Coopers

The current economic slowdown is not limiting plans by Coopers Brewery to install new production equipment at its Regency Park brewery.

Coopers' MD, Dr Tim Cooper, said that in the next 12 months, the brewery would be installing a new multi-pack packaging machine, rebuilding the pasteuriser, adding a new filter to the brewery's lager line and purchasing more kegs.

Additional kegs will be ordered to help cope with keg sales volume, which has continued to grow at 4.3% overall for the first six months of this financial year and a startling 19.8% outside Coopers' traditional stronghold of South Australia, Cooper said.

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How beer can benefit your health

Aging and longevity.
Italian research¬ers analyzed data from 34 scientific investigations into alcohol and health conducted in the US, Europe, Australia, Japan and China. The studies involved more than one million people. They found that moderate drinking of any kind—wine, beer or spirits—lowered the risk for death by 18% in women and 17% in men. However, death rates were higher among men drinking more than four drinks a day and women drinking more than two.

Dementia.
Scientists who study memory loss and dementia divide the process into three stages of advancing severity—age-related memory loss, mild cognitive impairment and, finally, dementia. Recent studies: Italian researchers studied 121 people ages 65 to 84 with mild cognitive impairment. Those who had at least one alcoholic drink a day developed dementia at an 85% slower rate than those who didn't drink at all. And Harvard researchers, in a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that moderate drinking decreased the risk for Alzheimer's by 54% compared with not drinking.

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St Arnou Pale Ale

The Pale Ale is the fourth draught beer to be released into bottles by St Arnou, as part of the company’s plan to incrementally release all five draught beers into bottles between January 2007 and June 2009.

“The growth of the Pale Ale category has seen our draught sales across the country grow astronomically,“ sid Nick Allardice, the national manager for the package beer.

“Therefore we knew the time was right to launch it in bottles. We launched it in an amber version of our internationally acclaimed bottle. As the warmer months approach we believe our Pale Ale is a perfectly suited for summer occasions. It is a clean crisp beer with a nice balance of fruit and a hint of honey. “

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Mildura Brewery 'Storm' Cloudy Ale

Another small brewery pumping out tasty beers. Bring them on.

Apparently based on an American Pale Ale style, this rather tasty orange/light brown coloured beer has a quite hoppy aroma, reminiscent more of the Little Creatures style, but not quite as overt. The palate has a citrus character & a richness that I'd more commonly associate with wheat beers. Refreshing simple beer that went perfectly well well chilled with some honey soy marinated pork ribs & roasted sweet potatoes with garlic.

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Bluetongue Australia's Fastest growing Domestic Beer

Bluetongue Brewery had an outstanding year in 2008 and is now the fastest growing domestic Beer in Australia . Bluetongue Brewery set out to produce a range of beers suitable for the Australian palate, delighting with original flavours that tantalise the taste buds with an unexpected and fresh beer experience, which Australians have embraced. The Bluetongue range offers beer lovers the opportunity to experience a truly unique Australian beer from Lager to Light, with some ginger in between. With a new Brewery opening in 2010 – the vision and scope of Bluetongue will continue to thrive.

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Sydney's Biggest Backyard With Bluetongue Beer

This Australia Day, Sydney’s Hyde Park is hosting a huge program of entertainment and activities including live music, a wine garden, a 10K run, the Lord mayors Citizenship Ceremony and the much anticipated Sydney’s Biggest Backyard.

Celebrating the tradition of Australian BBQ’s the Hunter Valley’s Blue Tongue Brewery will feature an entire month of promotions for Bluetongue beer including the official sponsorship of the Biggest Backyard Event on January 26th. Bluetongue Bars will be set up throughout the event giving samples and allowing attendees to meet the brewers to talk about beer and food matching.

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Brewers' droop

Beer usually holds up better than other categories during tough economic times, said Benj Steinman, editor of trade publication Beer Marketer's Insights, and that trend had been holding true during this recession for some segments of the industry.

Beer is "recession-resistant, not recession-proof," Steinman said.

With the latest numbers, it appears demand has been hit hardest in the U.S. and Europe.

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Funds squeeze takes cheer out of beer plans

RYAN Leslie hopes to see his company's "effen" lager in every bottle shop in Australia within three years, but the irreverent Traralgon entrepreneur is having trouble getting credit to bankroll his growth plans.

"We're retarding our marketing and our product manufacturing for fear of not having the funding to support more growth," Mr Leslie says. "Funding is a real Achilles heel for us."

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Light beer tax cut could cull violence

Light represents less than 7 per cent of the packaged beer market and has been in freefall for years, with no sign of this trend changing.

Part of the problem is that beer drinkers are switching back towards full-strength (or high-alcohol) beers, particularly the so-called premium beers -- the fastest growing beer category.

Barely one in five male drinkers nominates light as their preferred drink.

At present, the tax on a standard drink of light beer containing 2 per cent alcohol is 19 cents.

This is almost four times higher than the tax per standard drink on cask wine, containing 12.5 per cent alcohol, which is only 5c.

Put another way, the tax on a stubby of light beer is 20c while the tax on a glass of cask wine is only 5c a standard drink.

A change to the tax system -- scrapping the tax on light beer -- gives us our best chance of encouraging drinkers to switch to low-alcohol products.

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Beverage giants face a year of change

IN 12 months those left standing in the Australian beverage sector will be talking about how 2009 was the year in which everything changed.

Ownership of the two biggest softdrink makers, Coca-Cola Amatil and Schweppes, is set to change hands, while Foster's may make a company-changing decision on the fate of its wine division and arch-rival Lion Nathan is looking to diversify into non-alcoholic beverages.

Meanwhile, global wine and spirit giant Constellation -- owner of the Hardy's and Leasingham brands -- is downsizing its Australian operations and overall domestic wine production is running well ahead of demand, creating a seemingly bottomless lake of unsold plonk that can only be sold at fire-sale prices.

Just to raise the stakes, the economic downturn now threatens to derail the long-running "premiumisation" trend that has seen drinkers switch to ever-more expensive fluids.

As the biggest player in Australian booze, it is fitting that Foster's will get the ball rolling, with chairman David Crawford pledging to make an announcement on the fate of the wine division by mid-February.

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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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