# Vb Back To Full Strength



## petesbrew (4/9/12)

http://www.news.com.au/business/aussie-bee...i-1226464247134


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## fcmcg (4/9/12)

That's it...
I'm ditching brewing AG on my HERMS and going back to drinking VB :lol:


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## doon (4/9/12)

The complaint letter attached to the article was written by the blokes wife. Kind of says it all about vb drinkers


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## dougsbrew (4/9/12)

a snipet - 

He will today write to beer drinkers in a full page letter saying CUB "had got it wrong" when it decided to tinker with the classic brew.

haha, thats what happens when you let accountants take control of the brewing.. 
and i bet they wont return to totally original recipe, ie- source the highest aa hops and extract the bageezas out of the grain.


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## [email protected] (4/9/12)

Yeah and VB drinkers have such sophisticated palates that can tell the difference of 0.3%alc  
Wonderful marketing


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## Nick JD (4/9/12)

"Mike! Change that order with CSR from sixty five to seventy tonnes this week, mate!" 

Fixed.


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## QldKev (4/9/12)

_Increasing the alcohol content is likely to anger health groups, but CUB said the increase was minimal as each VB would remain at its current 1.4 standard drinks.
_


I wonder does this mean they are on the serving size 'down sizing' with the full strength beers, will it be a 355ml or really bend the drinkers over for a 335ml? 


QldKev


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## dougsbrew (4/9/12)

good point kev. or maybe their accountant is struggling with maths..


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## markymoo (4/9/12)

nah its just good old rounding...

375mL at 4.6% = 1.358 std drinks rounded up to 1.4
at 4.9% - 1.446 std drinks rounded down to 1.4


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## Liam_snorkel (4/9/12)

I guess the long necks wont be going back up to 800ml


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## tallie (4/9/12)

QldKev said:


> _Increasing the alcohol content is likely to anger health groups, but CUB said the increase was minimal as each VB would remain at its current 1.4 standard drinks.
> _
> 
> 
> ...



And we all know how well that went down last time.

It seems more to do with rounding. Based on this, I get 1.36 std drinks at 4.6% and 1.449 std drinks at 4.9%; both of which round to 1.4 (just!).

Cheers,
tallie

Edit: too slow - beaten by markymoo


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## petesbrew (4/9/12)

They're just getting bigger funnels for the cats to squat over.


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## fraser_john (4/9/12)

Might grab a couple of long necks now and then a couple when they swap back to the "old" recipe.

Do a double blind taste test at the next club meeting and test out peoples palates to see if they can distinguish between them and what the feeback was, apart from :icon_vomit:


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (4/9/12)

petesbrew said:


> They're just getting bigger funnels for the cats to squat over.



Someone was going to say it sooner or later


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## Fatgodzilla (4/9/12)

dougsbrew said:


> good point kev. or maybe their accountant is struggling with maths..




all accountants I know struggle with maths .. that's not our forte. We have computers to do the maths. We specialise in the rounding off though!


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (4/9/12)

Fatgodzilla said:


> all accountants I know struggle with maths .. that's not our forte. We have computers to do the maths. We specialise in the rounding off though!



And creative reorganising!


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## Nick JD (4/9/12)

I just heard on JJJ the manager of VB (that's what they called him) say that it was going to cost them ten million dollars to go back to 4.9%.

I've sent them an email telling them to get Brewmate, "lock ingredients" and reduce your volume until you have the correct percentage.

Not sure if they'll do it - as I billed them for 9.5 million, so they would have money left to change the labels.


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## tallie (4/9/12)

Nick JD said:


> I just heard on JJJ the manager of VB (that's what they called him) say that it was going to cost them ten million dollars to go back to 4.9%.
> 
> I've sent them an email telling them to get Brewmate, "lock ingredients" and reduce your volume until you have the correct percentage.
> 
> Not sure if they'll do it - as I billed them for 9.5 million, so they would have money left to change the labels.


$10M is the amount of extra excise tax they'll need to pay. Whilst the immediate wholesale price will remain unchanged, I'm sure they'll pad out future price increases to eventually absorb it.

Cheers,
tallie


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## Nick JD (4/9/12)

tallie said:


> $10M is the amount of extra excise tax they'll need to pay. Whilst the immediate wholesale price will remain unchanged, I'm sure they'll pad out future price increases to eventually absorb it.
> 
> Cheers,
> tallie



So they offered cheaper VB when they changed it to 4.6%? 

Sounds like they robbed Peter to pay Paul, and now Peter's asking for it back. Zero net change.

Ten million of free advertising though. Even people who HATE the stuff are talking about it.


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## tallie (4/9/12)

Nick JD said:


> So they offered cheaper VB when they changed it to 4.6%?
> 
> Sounds like they robbed Peter to pay Paul, and now Peter's asking for it back. Zero net change.


No, apparently it was going to be reinvested in the brand :huh: . In fact, they actually jacked up the price at the same time  . I wonder where those investment advisors are today...



Nick JD said:


> Ten million of free advertising though. Even people who HATE the stuff are talking about it.


Any publicity, etc, etc. Mind you, I get the feeling the horse might have bolted with this one.

Cheers,
tallie


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## Nick JD (4/9/12)

tallie said:


> Any publicity, etc, etc. Mind you, I get the feeling the horse might have bolted with this one.



Same. Seems to me they should have pushed the VB Gold branding a whole lot harder, seeing as XXXX Gold has such a huge market share. 

I respect their decision to make bogans 0.3% more drunk again though. 

Just emailed them with some recipe revisions for VB since they are in a state of flux. Not sure if they'll go with it, but I suggested changing the yeast to Wyeast 1214, leaving the sugar content the same but upping the malt bill to an OG of 1.070 
and using EKG instead of PoR for the same IBUs. 

Victorian Triple, or VT. I'd buy that shit.


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (4/9/12)

Nick JD said:


> Same. Seems to me they should have pushed the VB Gold branding a whole lot harder, seeing as XXXX Gold has such a huge market share.
> 
> I respect their decision to make bogans 0.3% more drunk again though.
> 
> ...



Nah, it'd be "Victoria Batter" - because that's what the bogan would be doing to his de-facto once he'd had one.


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## petesbrew (4/9/12)

Nick JD said:


> Same. Seems to me they should have pushed the VB Gold branding a whole lot harder, seeing as XXXX Gold has such a huge market share.
> 
> I respect their decision to make bogans 0.3% more drunk again though.
> 
> ...


+1 on the EKG suggestion, but I think you're better off saving your energy for trolling, Nick.

Victoria triple... facepalm


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (4/9/12)

Victoria Double - VD.

"You can get it any old how"


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## petesbrew (4/9/12)

Lord Raja Goomba I said:


> Victoria Double - VD


As they obviously won't go for that one, they'll make the alc 8% and call it V8... imagine the sales then.


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## Rowy (4/9/12)

Can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear I'm afraid....................You can get it bashing the missus..............you can get it driving the commodore.................you can get it at centrelink........................as a matter of fact I've got it right now


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## Nick JD (4/9/12)

petesbrew said:


> +1 on the EKG suggestion, but I think you're better off saving your energy for trolling, Nick.
> 
> Victoria triple... facepalm



Calling people trolls when they are just being silly on a thread about VB is trolling in itself. 

You need to increase your humour content by 0.3%.


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## Wal05 (4/9/12)

Rowy said:


> Can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear I'm afraid....................You can get it bashing the missus..............you can get it driving the commodore.................you can get it at centrelink........................as a matter of fact I've got it right now




Hahaha...love it!!!


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (4/9/12)

You can get it torching a skyline (happened to my mum recently).


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## Jay Cee (4/9/12)

tallie said:


> No, apparently it was going to be reinvested in the brand



They invested that extra coin to work out how they could dumb down the James Squire range even further. And it worked. JS is now crap, and has a much higher market share ! 

Clever folks, those Japanese executives.


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## NickB (4/9/12)

Wasn't in Alex Hills was it LRG? Saw a car on fire a couple of weekends ago when spending a whole day at open homes....


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (4/9/12)

Jay Cee said:


> They invested that extra coin to work out how they could dumb down the James Squire range even further. And it worked. JS is now crap, and has a much higher market share !
> 
> Clever folks, those Japanese executives.



Yep - Lion Nathan Kirin managed to get their competitors to drop the abv% in their 'marquee' label and invest it in their company.

Smart Japanese execs indeed. :lol:


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## petesbrew (4/9/12)

Nick JD said:


> Calling people trolls when they are just being silly on a thread about VB is trolling in itself.
> 
> You need to increase your humour content by 0.3%.


Never called you a troll, just suggested that trolling was time better spent than the wasted recipe suggestion!
I'm just annoyed my troll on the comments site never got in.


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## Jay Cee (4/9/12)

Lord Raja Goomba I said:


> Yep - Lion Nathan Kirin managed to get their competitors to drop the abv% in their 'marquee' label and invest it in their company.
> 
> Smart Japanese execs indeed. :lol:



Oops, yea, that statement was quite a brain fart, and I havent had a drink in days :lol: That may be the problem. <_<


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## troopa (4/9/12)

The calculation on standard drink size wouldnt be from rounding but from going from 375ml to 345ml the same as most craft brews no?
And the $10mill lsnt excise but the cost in re-hasing thier bottling plant to cope with the boom in sales from all us guys going back to drinking cats piss

These are my thoughts .. but i really dont care as its not allowed in my house anyway


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## domfergo (4/9/12)

I for one am happy, I knew I left the 4.9% label painted on me keggerator! I have been putting off fixing this with the 4.6% label for years h34r: 

My keggerator 

Recon I will cop some slack for that pic 

Cheers

Mass


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## Bribie G (4/9/12)

AFAIK Fosters Lager is 4.9 and no doubt comes from the same mash - they just have to modify the stage where they turn on the cold water tap on the way to the packaging line. 

"Company memo. From 8th September the staff in the finishing line are hereby instructed to turn on the cold water tap for 3 minutes as opposed to 3.5 minutes, in other words just treat it like Fosters Lager. This does not suggest however that the hop extract tap should be interfered with in any way. i.e. Fosters Lager sessions should not involve turning on the extract tap at all. Just to clear things up. Happy brewing."


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## ballantynebrew (4/9/12)

Wow 0.3% maybe they should call it vb blue ribbon


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## Thirsty Boy (4/9/12)

Bribie G said:


> . . . and no doubt comes from the same mash - they just have to modify the stage where they turn on the cold water tap on the way to the packaging line.



nope


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## Wimmig (4/9/12)

VB Gold. I dare not think of the offers i heard made to keep it on the shelf.

Where did VB Original go? A long standing Tradition of dogshit in a bottle.


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## Jay Cee (4/9/12)

In a James Squire glass :icon_cheers:


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## yum beer (4/9/12)

Nice to see VB has returned to Full Bogan, or perhaps Very Bogan.

For sale: amount of brewing gear now seemingly useless....


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## bum (4/9/12)

petesbrew said:


> As they obviously won't go for that one, they'll make the alc 8% and call it V8... imagine the sales then.


I don't know what you do but what ever it is your talents are wasted.


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## petesbrew (4/9/12)

bum said:


> I don't know what you do but what ever it is your talents are wasted.


Aw shucks. I'm flattered.


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## mje1980 (5/9/12)

Orr fukk, this news is fukken grouse eh? Now wen im drivin me v8 4b i can get even more pissed eh?


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## Zizzle (5/9/12)

First line of one the comments is gold:

"Only in a nation of alcoholics could the incoherent ramblings of a expletive hindered man child be considered worthy of a full article."


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## Ducatiboy stu (7/9/12)

I did read somewhere that CUB has never altered the recipie for VB...they seem to have short memories


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