Are They Scared Of Flavour?

[Ash in Perth]

I was running a small beer tasting at my work tonight (bottle shop) and we had the following beers going:

Coopers Stout
James Squire Porter
Leffe Blonde and then the Trippel
carlton black
tooheys old
(i did my best not to promote the last 2 as much)

I asked virtually every beer shopper that came into the store. 1 in 10 tried one. The usual comments were: Carlton draught is good, ill try the black.
Is leffe blonde low carb? (refering to pure blonde)
Coopers stout, is that like the pale ale?

I even had one customer look at the beers i had on tasting and say 'i prefer boutique beers' and then go and buy a carton of boags st george!

Ash

 

[mike_hillyer]

What's the Hobgoblin promo. "what's a matter lager boy? afraid you'll taste something" enough said!

I was running a small beer tasting at my work tonight (bottle shop) and we had the following beers going:

Coopers Stout
James Squire Porter
Leffe Blonde and then the Trippel
carlton black
tooheys old
(i did my best not to promote the last 2 as much)

I asked virtually every beer shopper that came into the store. 1 in 10 tried one. The usual comments were: Carlton draught is good, ill try the black.
Is leffe blonde low carb? (refering to pure blonde)
Coopers stout, is that like the pale ale?

I even had one customer look at the beers i had on tasting and say 'i prefer boutique beers' and then go and buy a carton of boags st george!

Ash

 

[jimmy01]

Hi Ash

Its a sad fact that the average Aussie beer drinker is scared of flavour. Even many who think that they know beer, stick to the blandness of Corona, Crown etc. Hence the Boags St Geo "boutique" drinker you encontered. Can't really blame them as they have been conditioned to decades of same same bland lagers by the big commercial brewers.

I guess us enlightened ones just need to keep spreading the word.

cheers
Dave

 

[hughman666]

i actually drank commercial beer last night for the first time in months. my new work has drinks on friday so i stayed back and had 2 beers. first was a carlton pure blonde. the label says double hopped but to be honest it was like drinking fizzy water with a hint of non-descript lager. second was a tooheys extra dry. even worse than the pure blonde. i left early so i could come home and drink a couple of nice wheats on tap :chug:

 

[Slurpdog]

I don't mind my friends not my drinking homebrew. All the more for me!

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

I'm with you slurp.. Ha Ha


Ash I would have hung around and tried one of each...


And old mate with the St Geo can keep it I tried one at a recent liquor trade show and I liked the first taste, sip, but by half way I was looking at the potted palms to stash it in..

:beer:

 

[Batz]

So true with the general beer drinkers

Boutiqe beers...Boags :blink: not a lot of help for that guy <_<

Batz

 

[mike_hillyer]

Great to hear that we there are a few of us who like the taste of beer. That wallpaper lager dominates the Australian landscape which is sad when you do trip over coopers' sparkling or toohey's old and its good beer. Is there a real ale community in Australia who cask beer? I like to keg and bottle my homebrew but I also cask some in Perth winter with a fair degree of success (I can drink it).

 

[BoilerBoy]

'I guess us enlightened ones just need to keep spreading the word."


How many of you have found that in trying to enlighten the average Aussie beer drinker that there is a whole world of beer and taste out there you might as well have burn't or pissed on the flag or something.

When it comes to beer it seems to be a fine Aussie tradition to glory oneself in ignorance!

I was exactly that myself once and am continually humbled by how much I dont know now.

However, at the risk of generalization, it would appear the average Aussie at close examination doesn't really like the taste of malt and hops :huh:

Cheers
BB

 

[Jazzafish]

I've converted a few friends...

All you need to do have something like an aussie ale or an ordinary bitter as a stepping stone and progress from there. The differance between VB and a LCPA is huge for someone not expecting or experienced in flavour.

The other point is the better beer is the dearest, turns people off paying the premium price, even if it is worth the money.

Not too long ago I converted a "I don't like black beer" friend to a porter lover by drinking a few bitters at a BBQ then having a porter with the chocolate cake.

Also telling them about the lack of hangover helps... they start brewing in no time!

 

[muga]

I recently had my 21st birthday (Oktoberfest theme) on and had 200L+ of homebrew on tap along with some cartons of the usual beer you would find most people drinking at a BBQ (carlton draught, tooheys new, extra dry, etc.) and almost everyone preferred the home brew and I now have several of my mates starting to brew themselves, at first everyone was cautious of the home brew 'because of past experiences' but after tasting it, it was hard to keep all 3 taps running.

The only down side to the whole thing was that I'm stuck with 2x cartons of extra dry and 1x tooheys new.. they will age in the fridge for a little while to say the least.

 

[em1998]

Yeah I can second all that being quite young all my mates think that Boags Crownies etc are the beez neez..

After they come over a pour their own beers they can't get over the different taste.

Guess drinking New and Xdry all the time does that to a person.

I have encouraged them into drinking beers like James Squire etc to appreciate the real taste of beer.

Definatly a positive on the old home brew is the lack of hang over a big night and 1 keg later between a few friends was a good impression.

 

[Rocket]

I must confess and say im a lager lover. But saying that I will usually only drink German lagers as you can actually get a malt flavor in them (free of adjunct and the like). Bitburger is in at the moment but I do tend to down them easy and get a bit intoxicated fast. I love dunkels and dopplebocks almost all styles of lager with a rich malt flavor. Ales are creeping on me only because I'm brewing a few to get my stocks up and a hefe-wiezen will be on the future list to.
As for St George I get more flavor soaking a cardboard box in water and what about that low carb stuff, not my cup tea I reckon people only drink it so they asume they will not gain weight.

 

[andrewl]

I'm slowly convincing mates that the homebrew way is a way better beer than anything you can buy over the counter... It doesn't take much effort as most of them generally drink extra dry, new, or the green cans (won't mention names)... But recently I've found that if we have a bit of a gathering a mate will ask for a couple of brews to be bought over to taste.
Only if I could convert them all so I could start drinking all their stocks! <_<
Small price to pay I suppose.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[colinw]

Ha! I'm wearing that t-shirt right now! (Got it at the Bristol Beer Festival)

 

[mike_hillyer]

I certainly recognise the taste in German lagers and don't mind a beer world with Toohey's Extra dry in it but give me the full beer spectrum not just very light yellow lagers.

I was over-joyed to find Feral's Belgium White on tap at the noble falls pub. Selling that well they are bringing up the Pale Ale. I immediately made it my local.

 

[Ash in Perth]

I am an ale drinker but there is nothing wrong with a good german or czech lager. real lagers are sometimes as good as a good ale, but i dont think the average commercial beer coulfd even be called a lager becaseu i doubt they lager it for more than a week or so.

I was at ferals today and the Pale Ale is great! one of the best american style pale ales i have tried.

 

[mike_hillyer]

I make you right Ash, real Eurpean lagers are as good as anything and then it's down to choice. I wouldn't put mass produced "beer" in the same bracket. (I am a self confessed beer snob ) I find them artifically chemically after drinking real beer.

Ferals on a sunny winters day is very good back drop for real beer. The Pale Ale is a very good drop.

I have been meaning to go to the Iron Bark and sample the range again. I had a beautiful Porter their about 4 years ago. It was mid strength but absolutely bursting with flavour.

 

[Ash in Perth]

Yeh iron barks 'blokes brown' was great too. huge malt flavour.

A customer i was speaking to a bit later on in the night at work was talking about the new tooheys platinum. he said "at first it tastes like chemicals bu after the 3rd bottle you cant taste it any more"

would you buy a beer that you know 'tastes liek chemicals'? i havent tried it yet and refuse to because thats one more bottle that goes towards them thinking they have made a good beer.

 

[peas_and_corn]

I haven't bought beer for a while now. This year I have bought a carton of coopers pale long necks, umm... some gift beer, umm... a carton of squire IPA and Hop thief, and I think that's about it.

The IPA and Hop Theif was impressive.

Now, I have enough home brew to keep me... the problem now is drinking at pubs! the bar we go to after work on fridays has coopers pale, VB, carlton draught, on tap and I think crownies in bottles. I don't have much choice.