Woolworths to buy a stake in brewer

Woolworths Ltd is set to acquire a 25 per cent stake in Western Australian-based brewer Gage Roads for about $2 million.

Gage Roads said on Friday it also would enter into an agreement with Woolworths to supply 350,000 cartons of beer each year to the supermarket chain if the offer is successful.

Under the offer, which is subject to shareholder approval, Woolworths will acquire a 25 per cent stake in the brewer through a placement of 76.4 million fully paid ordinary shares to raise up to $1.9 million.

Following the placement, Woolworths will have an appointee on the brewer's board with Woolworths Liquor Group general manager Steven Greentree becoming a non-executive director.

Gage Roads' chief executive Nick Hayler said the company was delighted to welcome Woolworths as a major shareholder and customer.

He said planning had commenced to maximise brewing capacity from the company's WA brewery operations.

Gage Roads will hold a general meeting in late June at which shareholder approval will be sought.


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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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CARLTON DRY’S LATEST SQUEEZE!

This summer sees the addition of a new beer to the Carlton Dry range – Carlton Dry Fusion Lemon.

The introduction of Fusion Lemon follows the overwhelming success of the Carlton Dry portfolio. Carlton Dry has shown exceptional growth in recent years, with 79% Value growth and 72% Volume Growth*.

Similarly, since its launch in December 2007, Carlton Dry Fusion Lime has grown to become the number one flavoured beer in both volume and value terms^.

The status of Carlton Dry Fusion Lime as the fastest growing beer by incremental volume within the flavoured segment* has led to the creation of Fusion Lemon – a well-balanced, easy drinking beer with the refreshing infusion of natural lemon.

Beer with flavour is a growing global trend and has proven hugely popular in Australia, representing one of the fastest growing segments of the regular beer category with value and volume growth of over 2000%*.

A refreshing beer with an ABV of 4.2%, Fusion Lemon’s subtle integration of natural lemon balances the bitterness of the Carlton Dry base, resulting in a smooth, crisp finish.

The launch of Fusion Lemon will be supported by POS materials (including price boards, pallet toppers, posters, fridge wobblers, tent cards and fridge magnets).

Carlton Dry Fusion Lemon is priced in line with Carlton Dry Fusion Lime, and is available nationally week commencing 16 February.



RRP: $ 15.99 for 355ml 6 pack. Each 355ml bottle contains 1.2 standard drinks.

SOURCE: * Carlton Dry has shown exceptional growth in recent years, with 79% Value growth and 72% Volume Growth. (MAT to Dec 08 vs YA) ^ Since its launch in December 2007, Carlton Dry Fusion Lime has grown to become the number one 'flavoured beer' in both volume and value terms (MAT to Dec 08). *Carlton Dry Fusion Lime is the fastest growing beer within the flavoured segment by Incremental Volume (MAT to Dec 08 vs YA.) *Beer with flavour is a growing global trend and has proven hugely popular in Australia, representing one of the fastest growing segments of the regular beer category with value and volume growth of over 2000% (MAT to Dec 08 vs YA) Note: Brands included in ‘Flavoured Beer’ segment include: Carlton Dry Fusion, Miller Chill & Barefoot Radler. Foster’s calculation based in part on data reported by Nielsen through its ScanTrack Liquor Service for the Beer Category for the Australian off premise liquor market. (Copyright © 2009, The Nielsen Company.)

Great Australian Bars and Pubs

Over on our West Coast, The Roey, Broome’s oldest pub, lives by the saying “if it’s going to happen in Broome, it’s going to happen at the Roey”. If you stumble across a local character by the name of Swindle, pull up a chair and order a coldie because he has enough tales about pearling and gangsters to last a week.

While sunset camel rides on Broome’s Cable Beach are world famous, it’s the tales about beer drinking camels that draw attention at the Whim Creek Pub. Half way between Karratha and Port Hedland, this pub has its own wildlife sanctuary and was once home to a camel with a penchant for beer. Don’t worry about missing the pub – it’s painted bright pink!

The biggest and best known pub in Kalgoorlie is The Exchange. It holds the record for the biggest volume of Jim Beam sold in regional WA. It was originally constructed as a shed in the late 1800s.

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Bright chosen for international promotion

The alpine town of Bright will feature in an upcoming promotion of Australian working holidays in the United Kingdom.

As part of the promotion three young Britons will take the holiday of a lifetime, travelling and working across Australia.

Each of the winners will document their travel adventures on a blog which will be promoted in the United Kingdom to motivate other travellers to visit Victoria.

As part of their travels each of the winners will complete a two-week work placement at Bright Brewery.

“This promotion will showcase all that Victoria has to offer and the blog will be an exciting channel for travellers to visit to learn more about working holidays,” a Tourism Victoria spokesperson said.

“Bright was selected as Victoria’s High Country offers beautiful scenery, a rich and colourful history, gastronomic variety and countless activities all year round.”

The president of the Bright and District Chamber of Commerce Daniel Boissevain said he was looking forward to welcoming the British travellers to Bright.

“During their stay we will be showing them all the amazing experiences on offer locally.

“I’m sure we will give them plenty of adventures to blog about.”

The first traveller will start their placement at the Bright Brewery on 10 March 2009.

Bright Brewery’s head brewer David Cocks said that it will be great to have three young staff joining their team.

“They will have the opportunity to learn first hand how we make our award wining beer along with working behind the bar which is a favourite with tourists and locals alike,” Mr Cocks said.

Chairman of Alpine Region Tourism Board John Kroger said the winners will learn all about brewing beer with unusual local ingredients which will make the experience interested and informative for them.

The promotion is being run by Tourism Victoria, Tourism Western Australia, STA Travel and Tiger Airways.

The travellers will also complete work placements in Melbourne and Margaret River in Western Australia.

The announcement of this program will be followed with details of the three backpackers and the dates of their itineraries. The first backpacker is due to arrive in Bright on March 10th to commence the first two week work placement.

Little World brewing a storm

LITTLE World Beverages, the listed brewers behind the popular Little Creatures beers, increased profit by 28.5 per cent to $2.29 million in the first half.

Australians continued to drink boutique beers, despite the downturn.

The craft brewer also announced yesterday that it had taken a 20 per cent stake in the Byron Bay-based Stone and Wood Brewing Company, which gives LWB a contract to distribute selected products from the fledgling craft brewer.

"LWB has great respect for and confidence in the abilities of the Stone and Wood founders and views the relationship as very complementary, and the business as an attractive long-term investment," the company said. LWB shares closed at $1.38.

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Victorian Bushfire

As Director of Realbeer Australia and resident of the Yarra Valley since the last bushfire known as Ash Wednesday in 1983, I felt compelled to provide a vivid view of the bushfire we are experiencing at the moment. As I tap out my thoughts we have already lost the Hargreaves Hill micro brewery in Steels Creek owned and operated by Simon and Beth Walkenhorst. Simon is President of the Victorian Microbrewers Association and a tireless campaigner for tax concessions to small breweries and support from local communities. He is also a concert pianist who established his tiny brewery on the grounds of his in-laws idyllic ‘retirement farm’.

Down the road in Healesville we have two local micros also under threat. Buckley’s family Brewery and Giant Steps complex owned by the legendary brewer and winery developer Phil Sexton who operates on the main street of town. His coffee shop, pizzeria, and delicatessen entice visitors in town touring the famous for the Healsville Sanctuary, an internationally recognized open planned zoo featuring Australian creatures great and small. Sexton’s superb Sierra Nevadan styled pale ale developed at his Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle, W.A. is brewed on-site and along with award winning wines from his vineyard, Giant Steps, just outside town.

To our American readers, the Yarra Valley is eerily similar in geography to the Sonoma Valley in northern California. The area is ideal for grape growing with four distinct seasons that under usual conditions are moderate in temperature and precipitation. But we aren’t under usual conditions with a pronounced drought in the region for over an eight years and record temperatures registered over the weekend of 50+ degrees Celsius with gale force winds over 120 miles per hour.

Having experienced Ash Wednesday in 1983, the conditions on Saturday were extremely similar but more intense. Atmospheric oxygen reduction made breathing like inhaling from a furnace, and the radiant heat quickly penetrated the feet whatever footwear. Whether the cause be a casually flung cigarette butt or a deliberate torching of a paddock, the fire was man made and positioned in an ideal location, the midland plain at the base of hilly terrain. Add to this a lack of scheduled selective burn offs by local authorities due to overzealous environmentalists created a natural tinderbox for the flames. It is expected that over 1,000 homes have been destroyed with loss of life expected to reach 3000.

But this region is not the only area in Victoria to experience bushfire damage. The picture of the fire-fighter providing water to a koala was taken from the area outside the town of Mirboo North last weekend. Mirboo North is the home of Grand Ridge brewery. Thankfully the brewery wasn’t affected but they did loose their cattle farm/ranch which provided the steaks for the brewery’s restaurant. And as we speak, the Beechworth Brewery is under fire watch as the disaster continues to spread.

Those of us outside the fire wall feel helpless and wonder what we can say or do to help. I implore all beer drinkers around the world to unite and show your support by contributing to the Red Cross appeal offered through Realbeer. For Victorians, the Taphouse in St Kilda will be holding a beer tasting to offer financial assistance to Simon and all the other victims of the disaster.

Charles Coll

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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Australia’s number one low carb beer now in a can

Australia’s fastest growing beer^ Pure Blonde is now available more often.

From 2 February 2009, Pure Blonde will be available nationally on and off-premise in 375ml stylish aluminium cans. It will also be available at events where glass is restricted.

Group Marketing Manager Premium Beer, Ben Summons says the Pure Blonde can increases the options for premium low carb drinkers who have been limited for choice in cans up until now.

“The can provides Pure Blonde drinkers an alternative to glass where there are specific venue restrictions on glass, or for non-glass events,” said Summons.

“Pure Blonde cans are perfect for low carb drinkers seeking a great-tasting, premium beer that is suitable for barbeques, festivals, camping trips or outdoor functions.” The Pure Blonde 375ml can is excellent value, carrying the same wholesale price and RRP as the 355ml stubby, but with an additional 20ml of volume per unit.

“The Pure Blonde can also offers existing can drinkers the opportunity to ‘trade up’ to something more premium that is also low carb,” said Summons.

Since the launch of Pure Blonde in 2004, the low carb beer segment has continued to grow dramatically, having increased 72.4% in value terms and 67.8% in volume terms vs YA.

The launch of Pure Blonde cans will be supported by POS materials (including price boards, pallet toppers and decals).

RRP: $15.99 for 375ml 6-pack. Each 375ml can contains 1.4 standard drinks and 4.6% ABV

SOURCE: * Pure Blonde is ranked first in the full strength low carb segment holding 50.0% Volume share and 49.1% Value share (Off-Premise MAT to 31 Dec 08). ^Pure Blonde is the fastest growing beer (by incremental volume) in Australia having grown +36.2% in Volume terms vs. YA and +39.1% in Value terms vs YA (Off-Premise MAT to 31 Dec 08). ^The Full Strength low carb beer category has grown 72.4% in value terms and 67.8% in volume terms vs. YA (MAT to 31 Dec 08). Note: Brands included in Full Strength low carb segment include: Pure Blonde, Hahn Super Dry, Carlton Dry, Boags Classic Blonde, Carlton Dry Fusion, Platinum Blonde, Tooheys New White Stag, Cascade Green, Amstel Premium, Tooheys Maxim, Michelob Ultra, Haagen Blonde, Carlton Natural Blonde, Pure Blonde Naked, Carlton Low Joule, Xxxx Diet Lager, Bavaria Blonde Lager, Gage Roads kutt, Virgin Blonde. Foster’s calculation based in part on data reported by Nielsen through its ScanTrack Liquor Service for the Beer Category for the Australian off premise liquor market. (Copyright © 2009, The Nielsen Company.

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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Tassie beer brawl spills onto the mainland

IT IS no longer just a parochial battle between the Apple Isle's northern Boag's drinkers and their southern Cascade-consuming counterparts. The stoush between Australia's two biggest breweries has moved onto the mainland, and is about to get interesting, and expensive.

The fierce rivalry between Lion Nathan and Foster's cranked up another notch after Lion Nathan threw tens of millions of dollars into Boag's kitty as it takes on Foster's Cascade to be the Tasmanian beer brand of choice on the mainland.

The Boag's trademark has grown 6 per cent since it was acquired by Lion Nathan, which, according to Nielsen AIS, spent eight times more on advertising for Boag's ($7.4 million) than Foster's spent on Cascade ($900,000) in the 12 months to November 2008.

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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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Coopers provides another excuse not to mow the lawn...

Australia’s largest ‘boutique’ brewery Coopers, I learned this week, has reported a noticeable rise in sales of home brewing kits since July this year when the global economy commenced its turning turtle act. Sales are up 8% by volume, driven mainly by a 26% rise in the international range, at the premium end of its home brew line-up.

Now 8% may not seem a lot at first glance, but bear this in mind: Coopers is the world’s largest producer of home brew kits with 19 different beer styles, including lager, draught, stout, real ale, bitter, dark ale and ginger beer.

But Scott says I’m wrong (about the ease and result, that is). It’s all very easy and the results are of a high quality: “Once (beginners) understand how quick and simple the process is, most soon move to making better quality beers, particularly when they realise that they can make premium quality beers for only 35 cents per stubbie.”

Hmmm, with that kind of cost saving your average Aussie beer drinker would be able to employ a lawn mowing contractor every fortnight - AND still save money to please the other half...

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One pint of beer? That'll be $15, please

IT'S blue-collar Grange Hermitage: Almost as expensive, it comes in a large chilled glass with a frothy head.

It's also known as beer.

And if you think you're getting less change at the end of every round -- you're right.

The price of a brew is breaking records in Perth.

At the Belgian Beer Cafe a large, fully imported Hoegaarden, Leffe Blonde or Leffe Brune will set you back $15.30 a pint.

And that doesn't include a $5 deposit on the glass.

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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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