A mate mailed me this article. Dont know if its been posted before but it certainly reinforces why we do what we do!
Seeing amber
> By Keith Austin
> Sydney Morning Herald
> September 3, 2003
> An Aussie writing duo tips a bucket on tasteless local beer staples.
> Humans have been brewing beer for something like 6000 years. It was first
> stumbled upon by the Sumerians, who lived in the area around the Persian
> Gulf now known as Iran and Iraq.
> Six thousand years and still we get it wrong, as anyone who has tasted
> Budweiser will confirm. Budweiser, by the way, is the world's best-selling
> beer brand. Seems there's no accounting for taste.
> Or perhaps there is, for drinks writers Ben Canaider and Greg Duncan
Powell
> have come up with a tasting guide called Beer Slabs, Stubbies and
> Six-Packs. Here's what they had to say about Budweiser: "We don't know why
> this is in the book; it's almost not a beer ... it's made to be sessional
> [an undemanding beer you can drink over and over again] but is simply
> tasteless."
> Brave words but wait until they get stuck into those Australian beers that
> we all take for granted. Victoria Bitter, Crown Lager, Tooheys New and
> Carlton Cold all come in for a serve.
> Canaider and Duncan Powell are men on a mission to educate the
> beer-drinking public and are unapologetic about their verdicts. Sitting in
> the ABC canteen in Harris Street, Ultimo, after an early morning radio
> appearance they are a practised double-act.
> Canaider explains that although researching the book was fun, "the
> depressing bit was realising that a lot of those standard Australian beers
> are really, really bad. We didn't set out to can them just because we
> could. It just happened that way."
> Having covered beer styles, beer ingredients, how beer is made and devoted
> chapters to sessional beers, premium beers, boutique beers, heavy beers,
> light beers and weirdo beers, the writers say they will be happy if they
> manage only to get people to differentiate between ales and lagers.
> Duncan Powell explains: "Heaps of people want to talk about beer, it's the
> sort of subject that everyone's got an opinion on but it's not a developed
> opinion. They haven't really thought about the beer they drink, much."
> To which Canaider adds: "Oh, we love it but we don't know why. The fact
> that a lot of Australians don't know the difference between ale and lager
> is outrageous.
> "We're hoping that even if we get people to understand that difference,
> even if we can get them to do that and think a little bit more
> intelligently about the beer they drink ..."
> Duncan Powell: "We reckon that there's a beer for each different thirst,
> not just The Beer I Always Drink. That's very tribal ..." Canaider: "Yeah,
> that's the parochial, tribal element. That's, you know, when you first
> start drinking beer and that's what your mates drink. Or you don't drink a
> beer because you used to know some dickhead who used to drink it ..."
> Duncan Powell: "Actually I was at the snow and watching all these
boofheads
> ordering beer and they're not ordering tribally any more in those sort of
> situations. They're defining themselves by what beer they order. You know,
> the poncy private school bloke ordered a Crown Lager ..."
> Canaider: "What did the fake ski instructor drink? The bloke with all the
> gear?"
> Duncan Powell: "Ah, they always drink imported stuff. They're all defining
> themselves by the beer they choose but they're still not thinking about
> what it tastes like. It's all about packaging ..."
> Canaider: "And brewers are uniquely aware of that. It's like building
beers
> backwards. It starts with the marketing department. 'We want a beer like
> this, can you go and make it?' "
> Duncan Powell: "Here's the ad, can you make the beer?" Canaider:
"Exactly."
> So how did they feel after sampling more than 100 beers for their book? Is
> there such a thing as too much of a good thing? "After doing the
tastings,"
> says Canaider, "I just wanted to have a bit of a rest for a while ...
> although having a beer by yourself after you've done the mowing, that's
> pretty good. But I've got a little balcony so there's no point mowing that
> ... do you mow a lot?"
> "I do mow a lot," Duncan Powell shoots back. "I love it out on the mower.
> Emu Bitter is really quite good for that. And Boag's Original. That's a
> good product. A good mowing product."
> Ah, yes, Boag's Original Bitter, described by the duo as having "shitloads
> of flavour" in the book and yet remaining unpopular and hard to get.
> "Sometimes we wonder if they are deliberately kept from a wider audience
in
> order not to show up the shithouseness of our mainstream amber staples,"
> they write.
> It's a conspiracy theory that comes up more than once in conversation: "We
> reckon," says Canaider, "the reason is that the brewers have never wanted
> to alienate their market by making beer that's too good.
> "If you've got people on a drug, on a good supply and the quality's shit,
> the worst thing you can do is change the quality."
> We could do worse than end with the dedication [to beer] at the front of
> the book: "Thanks for helping us through adolescence, for teaching us how
> to meditate, for giving us an understanding of women and providing us with
> what self-confidence we have ..."
> Amen to that.
> The Nectar
> Cascade Pale Ale (Tasmania)"The hops have the requisite high notes as well
> as roasted-nut oiliness. The thinking person's sessional beer."
> Cooper's Original Pale Ale (South Australia) "Once you've acquired a taste
> for it, you're addicted."
> J. Boag's Original Bitter (Tasmania) "This serious sessional beer is
worthy
> of its name original ... loads of flavour."
> Emu Bitter (West Aus) "Tastes like it wasn't made with perfect,
> multi-filtered, mineral-adjusted water ... it's an emu by a billabong."
> Pilsner Urquell (Czech) "If you're bored by contemporary pilseners with
all
> their buttoned-up clean flavours and polite manners get some of this into
> you."
> The Piss
> Boag's Strongarm Bitter (Tasmania) "The beer finishes in a sour, watery,
> bar-towel sort of way."
> Carlton Cold (Victoria) "Manages to magnificently replicate the look,
> flavour and texture of mediocre Victorian pub tap beer."
> Foster's Lager (Should not appear in an article on beer) "Supremely
> inoffensive ... tiptoes across your palate as if it doesn't want to wake
up
> your senses."
> Hahn Ice (South Australia) "Almost characterless ... a kind of thoughtless
> way of getting beer into you."
> Miller Genuine Draft (US) "Cold-filtered to within an inch of its life to
> remove all those beer flavours that have for so many thousands of years
> made people want to drink beer."
> From Beer Slabs, Stubbies and Six-Packs by Ben Canaider and Greg Duncan
> Powell (A$22.95, Random House)
>
>
>
>
Seeing amber
> By Keith Austin
> Sydney Morning Herald
> September 3, 2003
> An Aussie writing duo tips a bucket on tasteless local beer staples.
> Humans have been brewing beer for something like 6000 years. It was first
> stumbled upon by the Sumerians, who lived in the area around the Persian
> Gulf now known as Iran and Iraq.
> Six thousand years and still we get it wrong, as anyone who has tasted
> Budweiser will confirm. Budweiser, by the way, is the world's best-selling
> beer brand. Seems there's no accounting for taste.
> Or perhaps there is, for drinks writers Ben Canaider and Greg Duncan
Powell
> have come up with a tasting guide called Beer Slabs, Stubbies and
> Six-Packs. Here's what they had to say about Budweiser: "We don't know why
> this is in the book; it's almost not a beer ... it's made to be sessional
> [an undemanding beer you can drink over and over again] but is simply
> tasteless."
> Brave words but wait until they get stuck into those Australian beers that
> we all take for granted. Victoria Bitter, Crown Lager, Tooheys New and
> Carlton Cold all come in for a serve.
> Canaider and Duncan Powell are men on a mission to educate the
> beer-drinking public and are unapologetic about their verdicts. Sitting in
> the ABC canteen in Harris Street, Ultimo, after an early morning radio
> appearance they are a practised double-act.
> Canaider explains that although researching the book was fun, "the
> depressing bit was realising that a lot of those standard Australian beers
> are really, really bad. We didn't set out to can them just because we
> could. It just happened that way."
> Having covered beer styles, beer ingredients, how beer is made and devoted
> chapters to sessional beers, premium beers, boutique beers, heavy beers,
> light beers and weirdo beers, the writers say they will be happy if they
> manage only to get people to differentiate between ales and lagers.
> Duncan Powell explains: "Heaps of people want to talk about beer, it's the
> sort of subject that everyone's got an opinion on but it's not a developed
> opinion. They haven't really thought about the beer they drink, much."
> To which Canaider adds: "Oh, we love it but we don't know why. The fact
> that a lot of Australians don't know the difference between ale and lager
> is outrageous.
> "We're hoping that even if we get people to understand that difference,
> even if we can get them to do that and think a little bit more
> intelligently about the beer they drink ..."
> Duncan Powell: "We reckon that there's a beer for each different thirst,
> not just The Beer I Always Drink. That's very tribal ..." Canaider: "Yeah,
> that's the parochial, tribal element. That's, you know, when you first
> start drinking beer and that's what your mates drink. Or you don't drink a
> beer because you used to know some dickhead who used to drink it ..."
> Duncan Powell: "Actually I was at the snow and watching all these
boofheads
> ordering beer and they're not ordering tribally any more in those sort of
> situations. They're defining themselves by what beer they order. You know,
> the poncy private school bloke ordered a Crown Lager ..."
> Canaider: "What did the fake ski instructor drink? The bloke with all the
> gear?"
> Duncan Powell: "Ah, they always drink imported stuff. They're all defining
> themselves by the beer they choose but they're still not thinking about
> what it tastes like. It's all about packaging ..."
> Canaider: "And brewers are uniquely aware of that. It's like building
beers
> backwards. It starts with the marketing department. 'We want a beer like
> this, can you go and make it?' "
> Duncan Powell: "Here's the ad, can you make the beer?" Canaider:
"Exactly."
> So how did they feel after sampling more than 100 beers for their book? Is
> there such a thing as too much of a good thing? "After doing the
tastings,"
> says Canaider, "I just wanted to have a bit of a rest for a while ...
> although having a beer by yourself after you've done the mowing, that's
> pretty good. But I've got a little balcony so there's no point mowing that
> ... do you mow a lot?"
> "I do mow a lot," Duncan Powell shoots back. "I love it out on the mower.
> Emu Bitter is really quite good for that. And Boag's Original. That's a
> good product. A good mowing product."
> Ah, yes, Boag's Original Bitter, described by the duo as having "shitloads
> of flavour" in the book and yet remaining unpopular and hard to get.
> "Sometimes we wonder if they are deliberately kept from a wider audience
in
> order not to show up the shithouseness of our mainstream amber staples,"
> they write.
> It's a conspiracy theory that comes up more than once in conversation: "We
> reckon," says Canaider, "the reason is that the brewers have never wanted
> to alienate their market by making beer that's too good.
> "If you've got people on a drug, on a good supply and the quality's shit,
> the worst thing you can do is change the quality."
> We could do worse than end with the dedication [to beer] at the front of
> the book: "Thanks for helping us through adolescence, for teaching us how
> to meditate, for giving us an understanding of women and providing us with
> what self-confidence we have ..."
> Amen to that.
> The Nectar
> Cascade Pale Ale (Tasmania)"The hops have the requisite high notes as well
> as roasted-nut oiliness. The thinking person's sessional beer."
> Cooper's Original Pale Ale (South Australia) "Once you've acquired a taste
> for it, you're addicted."
> J. Boag's Original Bitter (Tasmania) "This serious sessional beer is
worthy
> of its name original ... loads of flavour."
> Emu Bitter (West Aus) "Tastes like it wasn't made with perfect,
> multi-filtered, mineral-adjusted water ... it's an emu by a billabong."
> Pilsner Urquell (Czech) "If you're bored by contemporary pilseners with
all
> their buttoned-up clean flavours and polite manners get some of this into
> you."
> The Piss
> Boag's Strongarm Bitter (Tasmania) "The beer finishes in a sour, watery,
> bar-towel sort of way."
> Carlton Cold (Victoria) "Manages to magnificently replicate the look,
> flavour and texture of mediocre Victorian pub tap beer."
> Foster's Lager (Should not appear in an article on beer) "Supremely
> inoffensive ... tiptoes across your palate as if it doesn't want to wake
up
> your senses."
> Hahn Ice (South Australia) "Almost characterless ... a kind of thoughtless
> way of getting beer into you."
> Miller Genuine Draft (US) "Cold-filtered to within an inch of its life to
> remove all those beer flavours that have for so many thousands of years
> made people want to drink beer."
> From Beer Slabs, Stubbies and Six-Packs by Ben Canaider and Greg Duncan
> Powell (A$22.95, Random House)
>
>
>
>
