Steel River Brewery

[Weizguy]

the baldy guy has little appeal to me, as well.

Maybe they could have got Ron Jeremy to do the ad. I could prob relate better to a short, fat horny guy, than a C&W singer.

Not even sure if these guys had a demographic in mind. Maybe they were targetting general rough-nuts of all ages (plenty in Newcastle), who might be amused by the "pig" analogy.

Do women actually drink beer? (I know the answer...it was rhetorical, OK?) I'd say that women drinkers, with apologies to all on this forum, are a niche market that the Steel River Brewery are not concerned about.

Merc, Newcastle is not a town for a niche beer, not initially anyway. Novocastrians seem to appreciate a base-level approach, and a beer aimed at the common bloke is probably the only "in" for our market. No fanfare, no pretentiousness, just a plain (hopefully good/ tasty) beer. A boutique beer would be slaughtered outright. With regard to marketing, remember, BlueTongue got their beer into pubs here first and then moved ahead (although rapidly) with bottles, IIRC.

It'll be interesting to see the result, as Newcastle is a town used quite a lot as a "test market". We got plastic money beore the rest of the country, as well as quite a few things that didn't get a run elsewhere. Not sure if Coke with lime fits this description, or hot chilli Twisties, but U get the picture...

Novocastrians have a strong attachment to "Our Town:, as it's called in the local TV ads, and we hold a strong attachment to it. If this beer can attach to the city's image, it'll become part of our culture and accepted readily, and defended as "ours".

Amateur psych hour is over.
Can't wait to taste the beer, and I won't hold back any punches. You have all prob raed how I feel about BlueTongue. tasted it a while back, when it wasn't too consistent, and not likely to go back and taste again. Especially at "rich beer w@nker" prices.

Seth out

edit: No affiliation at all, except with Newcastle city, of course!

 

[Borret]

All together now

HEY, this is our town,
Hey, this is our town,
Hey, this is our town,
Our town .. Our town. :beerbang:



and proud of it.
(well though out jingle that )

If only the bald guy had a goatie he might look local. :lol:

Borret

 

[Lukes]

"Pull a Pig @ the Pub"

Just make sure you wear protection.
:excl:
You don't want an infection.
:blink:
Luke

 

[warrenlw63]

If only the bald guy had a goatie he might look local. :lol:

Borret

[post="95847"][/post]​

Is this more up to snuff? :lol:

Warren -

 

[n00ch]

I really wish you wouldn't post my photo Warren....... :blink:

 

[Weizguy]

Apart from being a little off-topic, Warren, the bald guy still needs earrings and a tattoo on his neck...and the goatee is not long enough.

Well done, though, as a non-local.

 

[warrenlw63]

I sure hope James Blundell doesn't lurk on this forum. h34r:

Nah! He'd be off having a pig. :lol:

Warren -

 

[Mercs Own]

Just out of interest:

The stats at around late 90's were 5.5 million beer drinkers in Australia - 1.3 million were women. I imagine that the beer market in terms of women drinkers has grown consistently since then.

ps nice self portrait Warren!

 

[Trent]

Hmmm
Another brew to come out of Newy. I think that you and I may have similar opinions on Bluetongue, Weiz, but I havent ever tried their seasonals. I will definitely try this new beer, though I must admit, I will try it with some serious reservations, as I dont think much of Bluetongue lager, and if they are chasing after that market, and their quality isnt up to scratch, then it can only be a bad thing. I think that there are more than enough bad beers on the market, and, to add another is just silly. So that means it has to be very good to succeed. They may get good sales initially, through consumer interest, but if it isnt blow yer socks off good.... I do hope, though, that it is a good quality beer, and I will save my opinions until I try it, though I think their marketing may be leaning my opinion one way more than the other already! Maybe if they named it after the larger than life phallic symbol from Queens Wharf, they might apeal to some of the newy chicks! (no offence intended, if you are female, and from Newy) And yeah, that goatee needs to be abit longer, Warren, if you were to ever fit in in "our town"
All the best
Trent

 

[Weizguy]

Thread revival...maybe.

I see that, on the Hunter Brewing website, they now have 10 pubs with their beer on tap, and more each day.

Looks like I'll have to travel for a taste, but one of the pubs is about a block or two from my lhbs.

One day soon. Cheers.

Seth

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Boy you guys have it ALL WRONG

Pig Iron refers to the slag left over from steel production...something Newcastle is famous for

Pig Iron Brewery is built near the old Newcastle BHP steel works...


My missus and her family are "Newy" folk..and keep me informed...and yes, Blue Tungue Lager is a **** Newy beer, according to those that live there...and they live about 5km from the Brewery and they cant even sell it locally...

The outlaw is still waiting to sample the beer from Pig Iron...

 

[Gough]

Tried the Pig Iron Lager this arvo at the Hamilton Station Hotel. Not what I was expecting (or what they have been promoting in my opinion) at all. It was quite a dark beer with a dominant crystal malt flavour and aroma. It is quite light in body, but given they have been marketing it as a beer to take on the VB/New draught beer market it was comparatively very full in flavour. Vastly different style to the front bar megalagers. It has way more flavour than the megalagers - not a flavour I particularly liked and not something I would want a session on, but much more flavour/mouthfeel than a VB or a New. Like I said, VERY different to what I was expecting. I wish them luck and hope they can take a slice of the market I'll be interested to see what others think. Not a great beer, but a lot better than I was expecting, and a lot better than their marketing would lead you to believe... I'm not sure how many New drinkers they'll convert though...

Shawn.

 

[Weizguy]

<abbrev>
Boy you guys have it ALL WRONG

Pig Iron refers to the slag left over from steel production...something Newcastle is famous for</abbrev>

[post="101117"][/post]​

Nah, we know about real pig iron. Don't get us wrong there. Us locals just have a strong feeling about the "pig" pun.

The only beast that's worse than a pig is a "dog". Lucky they didn't give us a dog beer, or did they?

Thanks to Gough for the review. I'll add mine ASAP.

Seth

 

[Weizguy]

OK, so I haven't been ou of the house for a while.
Today I went back to work after 2weeks off, and dropped by the lhbs for some supplies. Irish Red (grains/hops for an ag). At closing, Mark suggsted we have a beer, so we went to the pub where Gough sampled the pig.

In his inimitable style, Mark ordered himself a Coopers pale and got me a "Squealer".

OK, so it looks the colour of a Kent (Tooths) Old. It doesn't taste clean like a lager either. There is a sweet, caramelly/toffee taste from maybe some dark crystal, with a slight astrigent aftertaste. Can't really taste the malt underneath (just like a lot of commercials), and there is an initial hop hit. We thought it may have been Willamette/Cascade blend, or maybe Northern Brewer. The hops reminded me a bit of the porter (maybe) at Paddy's, except for the lingering bitter (not much, but it's there) aftertaste in the "Pig". BTW, the sweetness does not last too long. So it's there and gone, and let's have another sip to taste it again. That's the way... :chug:

All this adds up to a American Brown? Ale taste, rather than a clean malty lager.

Having said that, the beer was balanced enough to be commercial, and I could have a few in preference to VB, TuiNui, or TED.

Don't know if it will take many customers from the mega-lager market, but it could get some devotees.

Last but not least. By some reports, this appears to be different to the first batch, and has been adjusted to minimise the burnt, astringent flavour from the first batch, and the OTT bitterness?

Seth (cub reporter/ beer writer)

 

[Gough]

Just to drag up an old thread...

I hadn't had a 'Pig Iron' Lager for a few months and thought I'd try another one after work this arvo to see how it was tasting...

It was a completely different beer :blink: I'm talking completely different. It is no longer a darkish amber colour similar to Kent Old 'Brown' as both Seth and myself noted earlier in the year on its release in our reviews above. It is now pale - a shade darker than VB - the bloke sitting next to me had a VB and we compared it side by side. It tastes different as well. No more 'crystal' flavour, and much crisper and more 'mainstream lager' like. It has more bitterness than either New or VB and a maltier aroma. Slightly fuller mouthfeel than New/VB, but only slightly. It is advertised as being all malt and it tasted like it. It had a slightly nasty POR hop flavour to it - tasted to me like they had used it as a latish addition. That said it wasn't too bad given its target market. It now MUCH more fits its marketing - it tastes like a front bar Aussie mainstream lager but with a slightly maltier profile and with more assertive bitterness and hop flavour.

I have no contact with the (local) brewers and am only speculating, but I'm wondering if the first batch(es) were some kind of error?? They marketed it strongly throughout the Xmas/New Year period on its release as a front bar lager to take on New/VB. The beer they delivered was a 'brown' and not something that fitted its description at all, let alone its target market. The beer has had an unannounced complete revamp in both appearance and flavour - indeed it is now a completely different style. I reckon if this had hit the pubs first up they'd have had greater success. I hope the new incarnation of the beer works for them. Not something I'd personally choose to drink a lot of, but then I'm not their target market judging by their marketing.

Anyway, an interesting development. 2 completely different beers under the same label in the space of 3 or 4 months!! Is this a record?

Shawn.

 

[beerguide]

To dig up an old thread again I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Ian from Steel River Brewery. He has cleared up a few misconceptions and things like where did the name come from etc.. and what the future holds for them.

If you are interested the link is: http://www.beerguide.com.au/ale-tales-news