steamrail

[Thirsty Boy]

Sounds something akin to what they have done to the Australian Dairy Farming Industry. The Australian Government is as much to blame for sitting there and watching all the dairy farmers go to the wall.

And yet - I see Jonesy's milk plugged by every good coffee shop I go to.

Sure - Coles and Woolies between them have fucked over a shitload of dairy farmers, and I come from the country and grew up with dairy farmers as my school mates. I know some of those people who have been fucked up personally. BUT - they weren't craft brewers, they weren't even craft milk growers - they were just suppliers to one of 3 or 4 mega brands and they got fucked over when 3 or 4 turned into 2. Actual craft suppliers - people who had a stated interest in provenance, organics etc etc - that sell to artisian vendors, markets, directly to artisian cheesemakers... they've never been doing better, because consumers want this craft shit now..... NOW is the time to actually be craft. People care, people check, people are willing to pay more - the ones who dont??? They would never have bought your stuff in the first place.

So the government didn't watch all the dairy suppliers go to the wall - it watched all the inflexible, single minded, single business model, not watching the future market, why wont you protect me from my own lack of vision... dairy farmers go to the wall. Some are thriving - the unskilled and shortsighted aren't.

Remember - there are pioneering craft brewers who forged and made sucessful their business when there was no shelf space for craft, when the only beer brands were the majors, when no tax changes had been made... nothing, no help, dig a well in the desert and hope to christ water comes forth. If you need to have a bitch and a whine that the majors are pushing into your terrritory - then you dont deserve a place beside the craft pioneers who ******* carved your territory out of the mega forrest in the first place.

Quit bitching, make good beer, sell it. And if you cant - **** off and stop whining, because there are people in the market who can, who could do with the dollars that people are temporarily giving to you. They aren't frightened of shitty Coles beer that no one has even tasted... they've already taken on and beaten back VB. If those guys call themselves Craft Brewers, and Steamrail scares you.... you dont deserve to call yourself craft anymore than Steamrail does.

Have a little respect Craft Brewers of Australia - your customers aren't so ******* stupid that they'll fall for this shit - and if you want for customers, those who would fall for this shit....... well, taste yourself a VB or TED and then brew something like that. You'll hit your target audience right in their center of mass.

 

[Weizguy]

Thirsty... Testify, brother!

You often hit the nail on the head with your in-depth analysis of the beer consumer's response to the market.
Yeah, I fell for the Sail and Anchor beer, and they got my money (for a 4-pack I believe).

You are what you eat (or drink). Why be watery gutless dumbed-down p!ss?

 

[spog]

TB, your post #61 B.I.N.G. f@#king .O cheers...spog....

 

[slash22000]

Ran out of homebrew. Bought a slab of the "Lucky Amber" on special (cheaper than any other macroswill and figured it can't be any worse). Now I'm not a professional reviewer or anything but I'm going to go through their claims in my own opinion.

"Lucky Amber is a ...

... full-bodied ... No, it isn't, if I couldn't taste it you could almost convince me it was water

... powerful ... No, it isn't, not in taste, aroma or in alcohol at 4.5%

... Amber Ale with ...

... richness and length ... Wrong and wrong, I've haven't tasted a less flavoursome beer since Budweiser

... featuring a nutty and toffee flavour ... I can't detect this at all. The only thing I can taste is some vague kind of earthy, bitter hop and almost a "grainy" flavour; how grain smells before it turns into beer

... Deep amber to copper in colour ... Well, I can't fault them on this, it is brown

... this beer provides good mouthfeel ... I assume by "good mouthfeel" they mean "What VB drinkers expect beer to feel like"

... and a lingering malt-driven finish." ... Nothing about this beer lingers. At all. It's crazy, it's like they've brewed some kind of non-beer. The only thing I can liken it to is the single time I tried Budweiser - it's almost like bitter water

On the bright side, it's not Australian lager and for that I can't complain. I'd rather drink this than Tooheys/VB/etc. But please do not fall for the "craft" label, I sincerely believe they should be sued over that shit.

Take your money elsewhere if you were thinking of buying the amber ale. Can't speak for any of the others.

 

[GalBrew]

Well for the sake of of being thorough, I decided to try a single bottle of the golden and pale ale. For what they are they actually don't smell too bad, but they have ZERO flavour. They are very light in body, to the point of being watery and really just taste like soda water on the finish. I would much rather drink a VB or a Tooheys Old than these Steamrail beers (I don't even feel the need to try the amber). I don't even know how to classify these beers, they pretend to be craft but they are substandard to megaswill in terms of production quality. So take home message is that they are in fact cat's piss and I would not even drink them for free, they are that bad.

 

[pimpsqueak]

http://www.brewsnews.com.au/2013/02/who-is-australian-beer-connoisseurs/

I'm not even going to bother trying one.

 

[GavinO]

I'm sure I read an online article from 'The Age' stating that it was brewed in Laverton, Vic. I have tried the gold digger ale - didn't mind it.

 

[sp0rk]

By Independant Distillers
tried them all, very dissapointed

 

[lukasfab]

had the golden and the pale on the weekend

first thought when i took first drink of the golden from the glass was dishwashing liquid?

not a great deal of flavour from any of them, maybe thats why they seemed over carbed?

crap, never again

 

[mrTbeer]

Just because its new doesn't mean it's craft.
The Pale and Amber taste alright and $50 box isn't bad.
Good to see Megaswill ALES I reckon.

Companies make beer for profit, it's not rocket science.
Do some research on every consumer commodity and you'll see that there are dozens of fingerprints from all over the globe.
Even the Fruit from an honesty box has used Incitec fertilisers been picked by a Swiss backpacker and been transported by a Toyota to the front gate using oil form the Middle East. All the while profiting the Maltese owner who makes his real coin selling to Coles. For fecks sake.

 

[mrTbeer]

Don't agree with $2 Milk Wars but it's a poor analogy to Craft beer.
All milk brands are homogenised or identical.
Whereas a 18yo can taste the difference between an ale and a VB, even if they don't care to articulate it.

 

[mjadeb1984]

Just enjoying a Steam Rail Amber with a mate, finding it an easy drink, actually a nice drink on a summer evening in Perth...not the usual pick for a summer drink but it's refreshingly light/drinkable, usually find ambers and pales to be too heavy in the summer months. Can't comment on the "big boys" making it, makes a reference on the label to an "english settler on the north coast of WA" but it's made in Vic????

Just want to bring attention to this mystery poster who has not posted anything since. Could be a word for word review from a liqorland catalogue. Thoughts?

Australia needs a legal definition for Craft Beer and Craft Breweries and a singular representative body. The debate over definition and industry group representation has been going on for years....

Agreed.

 

[bum]

My thoughts are that it would be a fairly shit catalogue that openly brought the provenence of a product into question.

 

[mjadeb1984]

Just saw a article on the project about fake online reviews and I guess I'm just being cynical and suspicious.

 

[bum]

Had the pale last night (the old man offered me one...) - it was inoffensive. Can't see it making your average swiller more interested in craft beer though - however, I strongly suspect that is the reason these beers exist.

 

[djar007]

I often drive past that independent distillers. Very close to my place. I wondered what they made. So thanks for that bit of info. As for the trend of the thread . I watched a doco recently on this subject titled "Beer Wars". Great food for thought on this exact subject. Marketing and shelf space were analysed and the assertions stuck with me. Enough to at least research my store bought beer a little more carefully. And I guess to some extent all the foods I purchase. I had always thought that the big guns were indeed trying to capture the boutique markets, whether they are organic , biodynamic, craft, fair trade or whatever may be trending at the time. I had not really thought they would set out to discredit a certain type or style of product. But it does make sense, in order to keep serving the customer what they always have , whilst controlling how they venture into the unknown. Whether the documentary was on the money, biased, or funded by the craft brewers is another question. But I , for one, appreciated the information. Most here have probably seen it, but if not its at least worth a watch. Dave



EDIT: No affiliation :huh:

 

[toncils]

Why don't we all, feigning ignorance, demand Coles stock Sail and Anchor? And vais-versa. Wouldn't benefit, but would sure be some fun.

I've tried the range. To chops-of-medium-education they weren't bad; I tend to like low-bitter, so it wasn't unpleasant.
I'd be most concerned if they did make great beers. All hope is lost the day they release an awesome Hop Hog, Rogue-style chocolate stout, or Texas Ranger.*

Also, people should be able to easily choose where their money is going. It may be two-faced to not buy a product because it's affiliated with a business you hate, but consciously deceiving customers is ******* low.


edit:
* Orwell-style "Victory-ale", comrades.

 

[bum]

It may be two-faced to not buy a product because it's affiliated with a business you hate

How so? That course of action seems most fulsomely mono-faced to me.

 

[toncils]

Possibly a bad choice of words; I meant most people will buy the product that's best quality or value for money, rather than the company connected to it.
I bitterly hate coles for their brutally acquiring competition and shit ad campaigns. If I weren't a beer snob, but still liked hops, I'd probably buy heaps of that shit. I've been trying to convince my housemates to stop shopping there, but we're all pretty poor and it's convenient. So I continue shopping there...I hate me.

 

[stm]

That's all right. You can like shopping there because it's cheap and convenient, but hate it for other things. Starts getting hypocritical, though, when people start agitating for the government to 'do something about it' etc. We all benefit from free markets. If you don't like what Coles/Woolies are doing, set up your own shop buying craft beer and craft milk from suppliers at twice the wholesale price that Coles/Woolies buys it for, and selling that craft beer and craft milk at twice the retail price.