Richmond Lager

[Polar Beer]

I spent much of my early 20's living and drinking vast amounts of mega brew in Richmond/Fitzroy/Collingwood. All the good pubs had at least one 'Richmond Lager' poster or bottle up on the wall. Often wondered about it and what led to it's demise.

Then to my surprise I see slabs of it in the local bottle O yesterday. Had to grab it. Does anyone know the story with this?

Tastes exactly like all other CUB beer by the way. I liken it to pool water. A hit on GF day though.

Cheers
Paul

 

[Bribie G]

What's the ABV? Fosters often resurrect a former brew and do a bulk batch to sell cheap in liquor barns as an 'opportunity' sale. They often do this with Powers Gold at holiday time and put it out in 30 block cans at ridiculous prices. Problem is that it is shyte quality and only 3% ABV. If the Richmond is a good ABV maybe you are on a winner there! They also do the same with Gulf Lager up North but that's also just a shadow of its former self.

 

[Polar Beer]

4.5% Bribie.
3% would certainly NOT have been a GF day hit

Did some more digging and either this is part of some CUB/Fosters 100 year celebration, where they release limited runs of bygone brands OR, they have a catalogue of brands they bought/killed ages ago which they need to use or lose. Probably both.

The graphic and font on the bottle are the way I recall them from the old posters. So they have been true to their roots in that sense. At 4.5% though, Im certain they have modified the composition of the beer. So really, the novelty factor is all this has going for it.

But if anyone knows the story of the original Richmond Lager, I'd love to hear it.

 

[Tyred]

Unsure, but I found this out.
"
In 1961 CUB took over the Queensland Brewery Ltd and Thos McLauchlin & Co Pty Ltd in Rockhampton. In 1962 it bought the Richmond Brewery in Victoria and abandoned its brands. Loyal drinkers of brands such a Richmond Tiger Beer and Richmond Special Export Bitter were understandably upset but powerless.
"

from http://www.australianbeers.com/history/cub.htm

 

[HoppingMad]

Used to work with a guy (in 2001) who knew a lot about the history of this beer and knew a lot of guys who worked at the Abbotsford Breweries in the old days. He had an empty longneck of it in his office (strangely enough) and I asked him about it as I had never seen it anywhere.

He told me the Richmond Brewery was bought out by CUB and effectively closed long ago, but the Richmond beer brand has been kept active for many years by CUB and now Foster's Brewing Group with production of small batches on a once annual basis.

From memory he also told me the reason that Richmond Lager exists is so they can retain the trademark and licensing to the name Richmond Lager and Richmond Brewery Brand/s - something like that. He knew right down to the litre how much they brewed of it, but I can't remember now. It was small. He said if they stopped production under the Richmond name, then anyone could come in and brew using it or at least challenge CUB's right to use the name. Seems odd and expensive but that was what I was told.

He said that CUB also have kept another of their brewing names, that of the Abbotsford Brewery in continuous use (they also bought out this Brewery many years ago) active by continuing to sell Abbotsford Invalid Stout under that name. Again I believe this is so it they ever want to revive an old Abbotsford beer or use the name for other products, they can. To my knowledge there are no other CUB beers still selling with the Abbotsford moniker.

Back in 2001 (and through the 90s) they used to release a small amount of Richmond Lager cases of product every year - mostly sold locally in Vic. I believe the only place it was ever available on tap annually at that time was at one pub on bridge road Richmond (now a bit of a pokies venue sadly), which is the home pub of the Richmond Footy team.

Hopper.

 

[Barramundi]

can remember my old man drinking abbotts lager when i was a kid but i havent seen that around for years now ...

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Hopping mad has pretty much got it on the money.

Every now and again, Fosters Group will release a very small run of beer branded with the "historic" brands that they wish to keep active. It will either be on a special occasion that has some significance for the brand, or timed so that the excise/marketing approvals/IP etc etc just fail to run out. They don't do it for all their historic brands, just the ones they want to keep "alive" so that they could if they desired, resurrect the brand without any mucking about. And because as H.M said, a product needs to be brewed under the "Richmond" banner. The Melbourne, Victoria, Fosters, Abbotsford, Carlton brands are all covered by active brands - no love for the Yorkshire, Shamrock, McCracken, Castlemain and the other couple of older breweries. But Richmond & Ballarat get regular run along with a few others.

Generally they only make a pallet or two, but sometimes a bit more - and unfortunately, its very unlikely to be a "unique" beer, just a unique package.

He is also mostly tight about the history aspect - actually the early history of CUB/Fosters is pretty interesting, we've been pushing beer out of this chunk of land by the river for a hell of a long time and originally this particular brewery was set up as a co-operative to oppose the power of the group of breweries that were to become CUB....

Cheers

Thirsty

 

[Bribie G]

If you google Richmond Lager you'll find a footy group where they are discussing it and apparently it's 5000 cartons and as stated above, is for brand preservation purposes. Which is no doubt why they still do the Powers. Bernie Power built the Yatala brewery in the 80s. It was very similar to XXXX and was extremely popular in QLD at the time, but CUB were desperate for a brewery as they had outgrown the former Queensland (Bulimba Breweries) site at the North end of the Story Bridge. So they made Bernie an offer he couldn't refuse and took over Yatala and expanded it. All our VB etc etc etc in Qld and probably most of NSW is brewed there.

When you pass it on the M1 at night there is a huge plate glass fronted brewing gallery and you can see the line of coppers boiling away. Speeds my journey back to my beer fridge.

I work in the Valley a few buildings away from the old Qld brewery which of course is now masses of units overlooking the river, thus CUB no doubt got Yatala for free in the long run . They still have rights to a massive electronic billboard next to the bridge where they pollute the night with ads for VB mid etc. :icon_vomit:

 

[Polar Beer]

Awesome. So it's like the beer version of a crap cover song? Buy the rights, keep the label, ruin the content.

Reading the above it seems every now and then CUB fills up a few bottles with what ever they can make without too much trouble. They then flog this with no marketing, presumably so they dont disturb their current brands. I would also suggest due to small numbers they make nothing out of it. If not a loss.
Why? To prevent someone else from doing something better with these brands. Sad.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Awesome. So it's like the beer version of a crap cover song? Buy the rights, keep the label, ruin the content.

Reading the above it seems every now and then CUB fills up a few bottles with what ever they can make without too much trouble. They then flog this with no marketing, presumably so they dont disturb their current brands. I would also suggest due to small numbers they make nothing out of it. If not a loss.
Why? To prevent someone else from doing something better with these brands. Sad.

Is this a different beer from their other stuff, or just a rebadged lot of Melbourne Bitter or VB or something (rarely drink any of the stuff .. is there really much difference between VB, MB & Carlton Draught (and Crown Lager for that matter) (seriously would like to know !)

 

[floppinab]

I wonder a little why they bother hanging onto the brand.

If they're hoping to cash in on the Tiges winning a premiership they'll be waiting a while........ :lol:

 

[Polar Beer]

Is this a different beer from their other stuff, or just a rebadged lot of Melbourne Bitter or VB or something (rarely drink any of the stuff .. is there really much difference between VB, MB & Carlton Draught (and Crown Lager for that matter) (seriously would like to know !)

I think you would need an expert to tell the difference between this and Carlton Draught.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Seriously, what company do you know that would intentionally let its IP lapse so thats its historic brands could be picked up and produced by competitors? If anyone else did this they would be fools and bad business men. Why should a brewery be any different?

and Fatgodzilla - yes there is a difference. The beers are all (well mostly) of a quite similar style, but they do have subtle unique flavour characteristics that you can pick up if you taste carefully. Whether you like what you taste is a completely different thing.

Please try not to let this degrade into yet another "all CUB/mega swills taste like crap" thread...yes, we all know. Thats why we are homebrewers. Someone asked a question about the actual beer, so I thought I'd answer it.

Thirsty

 

[Polar Beer]

Seriously, what company do you know that would intentionally let its IP lapse so thats its historic brands could be picked up and produced by competitors? If anyone else did this they would be fools and bad business men. Why should a brewery be any different?

Could still put the original beer in the bottle. Or even just a good beer. Maybe the idea is to make the brand as unappealing as possible.

Please try not to let this degrade into yet another "all CUB/mega swills taste like crap" thread...yes, we all know. Thats why we are homebrewers.

This is another CUB beer review. The repetitious nature of the "all CUB/mega swills taste like crap" threads has one root cause.

 

[Millet Man]

Seriously, what company do you know that would intentionally let its IP lapse so thats its historic brands could be picked up and produced by competitors? If anyone else did this they would be fools and bad business men. Why should a brewery be any different?

and Fatgodzilla - yes there is a difference. The beers are all (well mostly) of a quite similar style, but they do have subtle unique flavour characteristics that you can pick up if you taste carefully. Whether you like what you taste is a completely different thing.

Please try not to let this degrade into yet another "all CUB/mega swills taste like crap" thread...yes, we all know. Thats why we are homebrewers. Someone asked a question about the actual beer, so I thought I'd answer it.

Thirsty

Some good points Thirsty,

We saw the Ballarat Bitter up here last summer I think to commemorate HMAS Ballarat coming into port or something like that, it was only available in cans and had the novelty aspect for a while. However, the people who actually used to drink the real thing are getting older and the "brand power" so to speak is falling away with them. The IP of the name is kept but the customer recognition of the brand is being lost with time.

If someone can't pick the difference between VB and carlton draught then maybe they've burnt out their taste buds with too many triple IPA's and doppel doppelbocks - and I'd have to agree, "mega swill is crap" threads bore me senseless.

Cheers, Andrew.

 

[deebee]

For the difference between fosters and crown lager, see here:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...ular+taste+test

 

[HoppingMad]

For the difference between fosters and crown lager, see here:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...ular+taste+test

Interesting. Had heard that Crown Lager was 'The brewmaster's choice of the best vat of Foster's' but the thread supplied by deebee seems to suggest the opposite is true - if it's a bad batch of Crown Lager - it becomes Fosters! Either way it's clever marketing on their part.

Back to the topic, would be interesting to know what 'Lager' is really in a Richmond Lager bottle. Guess you'd have to do a side by side taste test - lining up a Fosters (since we've deduced Crown is pretty close anyhow to Fosters), VB, Melbourne Bitter, Carlton Draught, and maybe even a Pure Blonde and see which characteristics it exhibits the most of. Don't think you'd bother with a Carlton Cold since the Richmond Lager is in brown glass. Sadly that's a lot of Megaswill to drink to crack open the mystery, but an interesting exercise.

Hopper.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Fosters and Crown have gone through a few different phases where they have either had an individual recipe or not. They will have always been brewed to be what they are - ie a fosters will be brewed to be a fosters and a crown will be brewed to be a crown, but - effectively they are such similar beers, that crown is basically a "premium" version of fosters. It actually is premium in as much as the range of parameters that are defined as "acceptable" in the beer is much smaller. Essentially, crown will always be "spot on" its target, and wont be released as crown if it isn't. If it misses, it will be blended back with regular fosters.

Not to mention the pretty bottle, gold label and fancy glue....

At the moment, the beers are going through a phase where they have marginally different recipes - still very very similar, but not identical.

Anyway - enough - this is just a morbid fascination with beers that almost nobody on this forum actually likes. If you really really want to know more about these beers, PM me and I will do my best to answer you

Thirsty

 

[Bribie G]

yes there is a difference. The beers are all (well mostly) of a quite similar style, but they do have subtle unique flavour characteristics that you can pick up if you taste carefully. Whether you like what you taste is a completely different thing.

Confession: If I'm out and need to get a tallie or two I always go for Melbourne Bitter. It's subtly hoppy in an aromatic way that VB and Carlton Draught just ain't and has, to my taste, a nice beery aftertaste as opposed to the VB harsh twang, or the xxxx twang of mouse cage, and guess what, I quite like the brew in context.

For example I'm over at the surfside, it's getting hot and I've just done a 10k round powerwalk and got back to the car and there's the good old Blue Pacific drive thru beckoning, I really enjoy getting an icy Melbourne tallie and go to the lookout carpark where I can chug it whilst looking over the ocean to Moreton Island.

Went to Alice Springs a couple of years ago and MB was on special at Liquorland so bought a case of cans and enjoyed every one (43 degrees all week ).

Likewise I've been to Deakin Uni at Waurn Ponds, Geelong, a couple of times and always go the MB at the Waurn Ponds pub as it's a bit far to get into town to the Bended Elbow or Scottish Cheiftans :icon_cheers:

 

[Bribie G]

Me again, had to go out to the IGA so picked up a MB at the bottlo to test out the taste buds. No complaints, sweetish compared to my HB, quite well balanced, but for an all grain (supposedly) beer I can't actually discern anything that tastes like malt. Hmmm.

Followed the MB with a partial-mashed lager with Green Bullet and Saaz.

Now I'm tasting beer !!!!!!!!