Iron Jack Lager

[TheWiggman]

"Lion announces biggest launch of 2017 with Iron Jack". Now if that doesn't get you brewers excited I'm not sure what will.
I was at the pub with some colleagues on Friday and we got onto the topic of beers (as you do). I was stoked Melbourne Bitter was on tap and meanwhile others had Fat Yak, Great Northern and some other rubbish. The Fat Yak drinker noted he was surprised Iron Jack wasn't on tap given it was getting a big rollout, and this was a news to all of us who hadn't heard of it. He slammed it however as being watered down and zero character, later quoting it as tasting like "a glass of water with a teabag of malt dipped in it".

https://theshout.com.au/lion-announces-biggest-launch-2017-iron-jack/

The article is written as though it is a satire - I had to checked whether I was reading The Onion. This is in fact a beer which has gone into retail and a lot of though has gone into the beer thanks to the Brand Director. Some gems from the release which remind me a lot of Broo -
"“We have identified that well-being and moderation are going to be the drivers of the category going forward. So for us, this beer is going to be all about targeting the classic beer drinker who is thinking more about moderation than he has before and also to help him to continue to engage with the beer category."
“The target drinker will be in the regional and large population belts in the outer metropolitan areas who head off to the bush regularly or get in their 4WDs on the weekend for a short trip into the bush to live that outdoor lifestyle.
“This is a new product – people are looking for more ways to be able to moderate and they want more brands to meet their mid-strength needs, we think we are meeting a need by having more offers in the mid-strength space alongside XXXX Gold, Hahn SuperDry 3.5 and Heineken 3."
"“The values of masculinity are what we have built around this brand – positive masculine values and positive statements of intent to appeal to every man."

So bad news girls, if you're not a 4WDing outer-city dwelling XY-chromosome classic drinker looking for ways to moderate then this isn't the beer for you. And as for having a "need" of more mid-strength offerings... as far as I'm concerned it's saturated by like-flavoured (using the word loosely) rubbish anyway. Great Northern, VB Mid, XXXX Gold, Heineken 3, Superdry 3.5, Peroni Leggra. Is there a NEED for another beer designed to taste like nothing and simply act as something to hold and consume while you're conversing with friends? I don't think so.
Anyway as I've said before, if the intent is to brand a beer and worry about how it tastes later it flies in the face of why I drink beer and thus I can't relate. I'm not sure how much further beers can be watered down before they start getting classified as a different beverage. I feel like I'm doing the brewing industry a disservice by even mentioning this beer (thus giving it publicity), so apologies for that.

 

[Nullnvoid]

I had this rubbish when I was out to lunch today. Mate ordered a jug of it. Made Lazy Yak taste like a full flavoured beer!

Absolute watered down rubbish.

 

[madpierre06]

Seriously.....really feel like belting my head into the 4 x 2 outside leaning up against the shed. When did this merchandising, pony-tail coke sniffing drivel, corporatised advertising botch up of the English language get to be taken seriously. Simply reading that makes me want to vomit over the gumby that wrote this, are they genuinely serious??? If the beer reflects the pus that is in the promo, then there's a poor reflection on what these gumby's think of the intelligence of those who they are hoping will buy it. The onl;y phrase missing is "the beer drinking experience"!!!!!

So looking forward to tomorrow, yarrrrrrrrr!!! I get to drink and talk like a pirate!!! These scurvy *******s'll be walking the plank.

 

[clickeral]

My 100ibu no chill Rye IPA watered down to 3.5% and 50IBU was very sessionable maybe I should market that

 

[manticle]

I make no comment on the beer as I haven't tried it but that is some of the most poorly written, marketing jargon filled **** I've read for a while.

I think they've missed both new and old audiences and I'll be unsurprised to watch it fail. Someone, somewhere has made cash from it which is a shame because I doubt anyone else will.

 

[Stouter]

Talked to a couple of friends that were drinking this only last week. They thought it was great, but they also drink lots of other commercial mid strength, namely Great Northern. Each to their own, though I do wonder what motivates them to keep drinking the stuff when there's so many better options. Maybe all that marketing over the years has conditioned them to indifference.
Makes me feel much better about all the time I spend cleaning my gear and researching for better home brew!

 

[Dae Tripper]

It is better than XXXX Gold at least.
Funny I thought it may have been full strength and made the mrs drive home. The best of a bad bunch at the pub (first time out in a long while) but was getting pretty old by the 3 schooner.
As above extremely flavorless, yet crisp, and didn't have the classic Lion Nathan tang.

 

[Bonenose]

Saw a mob of it at the bottle shop the other day, assumed it some style of UDL from the name

 

[Dave70]

We have identified that well-being and moderation are going to be the drivers of the category going forward. So for us, this beer is going to be all about targeting the classic beer drinker who is thinking more about moderation than he has before and also to help him to continue to engage with the beer category.

This snippet was only to be circulated as an internal e mail to the sales staff, surely. Lion is to beer what Holden / Ford is to motoring.

Classic beer drinker? Moderation? Hands up everybody who looks forward to a mighty session of three standard (mid strength) drinks..Good grief..

 

[Pnutapper]

I was just reading about this yesterday. I like this blogger's style - he often writes some good stuff.

https://beerisyourfriend.org/2017/08/25/five-things-about-legendary-brewing-companys-iron-jack/

 

[TheWiggman]

I'm still blown away by the sales of Great Northern. I'll drink most free beers handed to me but Great Northern is simply unenjoyable. It was a 35°C day in summer at a friend's party and I ran out of my home brews. This was free in the esky, and without going on about it I had the 1 and stopped drinking. Crisp / refreshing / perfect for a hot day - no. Metallic and watery. I would prefer a XXXX Gold any day, which in my opinion has struck the perfect spot of being the 'least unenjoyable beer' across the board. I would wager that most beer drinkers on this forum don't dislike it, they just don't like it. Any of us could drink it all day, but would prefer alternatives. Great Northern on the other hand [in my opinion] tastes bad, which is remarkable for how little taste it has.
True story - I was at a Rutherglen pub 2 years back searching the taps for a beer I would like (settled on Carlton Draught would you believe). Great Northern was fairly new on tap. A bloke buying rounds said to one of his mates "Gold? You should try Great Northern, a lot of Gold drinkers I know are switching". This is precisely the market I can see the Iron Jack promoters are targeting. There must be a few of them out there, because I'll be stuffed if I know how GN has managed to stay on the market.

What intrigues me about all this is the ebb and flow of what the big brewers think people want to drink. Remember some time ago when making ales was the rage? XXXX Gold Australian Pale, Toohey's Darling Pale Ale, Carlton Pale Ale, VB Original Ale all trying to get into the mystical 'craft' scene and trying to win back some of the drinkers who dared to wander off the lager path . It seems like they've completely abandoned the idea of easing flavour into beers in favour of taking it out. And it looks as though the punters seem to be supporting it.

 

[Dave70]

This is the highest selling beer in the US. I've heard it described as a mix of Club Soda with splash of Everclear and a pinch powdered urine for to add colour and flavor.
Lion aren't in the business of expanding our palettes to the joys of a well made, flavorful beer any more than McDonald's are in the concerned with making the best tasting hamburgers. Bland products with broad appeal with advertising so aggressive you've bought the product without even realizing sell. Thats what matters.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Masculine? More, The Nanny State beer evolution.
I've tried to make megaswill like beer lately but still cant seem to make it with near to no flavor. Maybe drop the malt back to 1/3 and 2/3rd dextrose with about 5 grams of first wort hops and an OG of 1.030 FG 1.004 might do it?

 

[SnailAle]

I'm from a family of the typical drinker, lashing out is putting down the XXXX and great northerns to try a furphys.

Look at me like im ordering a pink flamingo if I have anything with flavour or character. Having said that where my brother will have 10 stubbies of great northern I'm happy with a couple of IPA's and a cup of tea haha

 

[wide eyed and legless]

It would be a Hobsons choice for me a heavily hopped beer where no malt comes through, or a bland commercial beer, both as bad as each other.

 

[mongey]

tired one of these on the weekend. best thing I can say about it is that its a **** beer , but its beer i guess

 

[sp0rk]

Honestly tastes like a shot of Carlton Draught in a glass of soda water, was not a fan

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

It would be a Hobsons choice for me a heavily hopped beer where no malt comes through, or a bland commercial beer, both as bad as each other.

Just to be a pedant, that's either a dilemma or a Morton's Fork, but not Hobson's choice

 

[Bribie G]

I serve my beer from my Russell's Teapot.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

To put beer in it you'd have to find it, that would stop it being Russell's teapot and make it just a teapot (albeit full of beer). BTW the great man himself drank only Scotch. Well that's not true, for years he subsisted on a liquid diet but the only alcoholic component was Scotch.

I'm a bit of a Russell fan: my academic career was going to have been in mathematical philosophy (until I worked out that the only jobs available were teaching philosophy). A treasured posession is a copy of his "History of Western Philosophy" that was printed just after WWII in Britain, the slip cover of which is printed on the back of a wartime map.