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manticle

Standing up for the Aussie Bottler
Joined
27/9/08
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Location
Glenorchy, TAS
Just had a conversation with the owner of an independent brewery who suggested to me that the larger multinationals are trying to squeeze out their place on retail shelves. Supposedly this has been the case since Kirin took over Little World.

I would presume that this would affect all national, independent breweries.

In the interests of maintaining diversity, please consider buying at least one stubby of an independently owned AU brewery each time you go to the bottle shop and/or asking about whether the outlet might consider stocking whichever independent comes to your mind.

I'm not asking you to buy beer you hate or stop buying beer you love - just consider adding one or two in along with the rest.

Breweries that make infected or bland rubbish that should be burned with fire are to be excepted - I'm talking breweries who have an ethos or potential that is worth maintaining.

Cheers
 
Home brewing has taught my taste a lot about freshness when it comes to beer.
So much so that i am finding it increasingly hard to consume stale or poorly handled beer and even worse stale mass produced beer. Eg: Coopers on tap can be quite nice when it is fresh.

I try to encourage others to buy and drink beers from local / semi local but most of the time it just falls on deaf ears.
People just want to drink lots of cold beer and don't care what it tastes like or where its comes from and where the profits end up.

I am trying to get my new local, an RSL to at least stock 4 pines PA. Its brewed half an hour down the road...FFS! Closest i can get to a bottle of decent beer is 50 whippings PA bottle that's been sitting around for who knows how long and owned by the Japanese.

Otherwise i will just stay at home and drink my "psycho" beer alone in a dark corner.
 
As a sales rep for a small family owned Australian brewery, I can say that this is absolutely the case.

I find it so hard to find any space in fridges that hasn't been 'bought' by one of the big guys.

I have to rely on my the retail managers knowing and loving good beer, or else I have no chance.

It makes it very hard to get independent retailers to stock my beer.

BUT, if you make enough noise at your local, whether it be a pub/ bottleshop/ bar or bowls club in my case, if you whinge enough they will get good beer in for you, as long as you drink it.

They are putting little creatures pale on for me in the coming months, as their Lion agreement allows it.


Everyone make some noise for the little guys!!!
 
As a sales rep for a small family owned Australian brewery, I can say that this is absolutely the case.

I find it so hard to find any space in fridges that hasn't been 'bought' by one of the big guys.

I have to rely on my the retail managers knowing and loving good beer, or else I have no chance.

It makes it very hard to get independent retailers to stock my beer.

BUT, if you make enough noise at your local, whether it be a pub/ bottleshop/ bar or bowls club in my case, if you whinge enough they will get good beer in for you, as long as you drink it.

They are putting little creatures pale on for me in the coming months, as their Lion agreement allows it.


Everyone make some noise for the little guys!!!

If your bowls club is doing that, then come over and annoy my one ;)
 
I'm not buying anything owned by LNN-kirin or SABmillerfosters, including little creatures.

I'm also boycotting sail and anchor's new range, partially because it is owned by woolies and i shouldn't be paying the same as vale beers, for home brand beer, and because i tried their diacetyl laden, sulfury GA, and thought it confirmed they were doing what the two majors are, which is passing off rubbish beer as craft beer(yes, James Squire I'm looking at you)
 
where does this place COOPERS

They are where they are. Australia's leading independent brewery, the buck stops here.

I will always try the Pale on tap, but bugger me i have had some stale or poorly handles shit, or dirty lines ect and get a fecking great hangover.

Can usually find a bottle of sparkling which i enjoy poured properly, but overall there is only so much coopers yeast character i can take.
I really wish they would step outside the box and do something a little different...different style, different yeast. They have the ability make and distribute some really nice beers.
 
I'd buy more of it if it weren't so damn expensive.

Yeah, sure - it's expensive because blah blah blah ... but why would I pay the same for a locally brewed, say, Hefeweizen - when it's the same price as Schofferhoffer? That came from Germany, where the style was invented, that's perfect?

That's my beef. The Gage Roads "atomic" PA I had a few weeks ago was COMPLETE SHITE. I got a free sixpack from 4 Pines because I spent money on infected bottles (TBH, their stout was good, but the rest were average).

I just always find myself thinking, "Hmmmm, Pilsner brewed locally for $3.75, or Pilsner brewed in Plzen for $3.25? Hmmmmm." Duh.

Manticle - give me a list of Aussie Micro beers that are better than the styles they are trying to copy and I'll start at the top. My point is: I don't think many Micro beers are worth buying.
 
There you go, Nick.

I don't hate these beers; I dislike paying the same, or more for them than the originals they are copying badly.

That's one thing Coopers does have: their beer is not a pale (sorry) immitation of a foreign style that is on the shelf right below ... for cheaper.

I challenge anyone to tell me of an Aussie Micro that is the best (for that style - CPA not included) in the bottlo.
 
Yeah, it is a slightly less pale (same) version of local macro shit and costs more. I don't see your point at all.

He's flat out said he's not trying to get anyone to buy beer they don;t want to buy. You don't want to buy it. Don't.
 
Yeah, it is a slightly less pale (same) version of local macro shit and costs more. I don't see your point at all.

He's flat out said he's not trying to get anyone to buy beer they don;t want to buy. You don't want to buy it. Don't.

That's not my point - I'd buy it if it was better, or cheaper.

I'm struggling to find one that satisfies either criteria.

Unless you've been under a rock, that's how capitalism works. Breweries aren't charities.
 
If you're drawing that long of a bow then I'm sure you can be provided with a list of micro breweries that make "better" beer than what the market drinks quite rapidly. Basically everyone but Buckleys.

There's tonnes of good breweries making beer that is worth buying. Murrays, Brew Boys, Kooinda, Feral, Holgate, Temple. You don't like fresh beer? Don't buy it. You like stale examples of boring beer? Get some Euro imports from Uncle Dan's. You give a shit about being able to buy grain? Maybe you'd like to keep the local industry running.
 
Manticle - give me a list of Aussie Micro beers that are better than the styles they are trying to copy and I'll start at the top. My point is: I don't think many Micro beers are worth buying.


I understand and agree with the intention behind your point. Unfortunately I think you missed mine.

Certainly wasn't suggesting 'X is better than Y' nor that you should choose hawthorn pilsner over Trumer.

Just buy a stubby every once in a while to help stop Kirin deciding the only easily available craft beer you can buy is owned by them and the fridges they bought at woolworths/Dan's/BWS/Liquorland.

A shop that stocks truly independent AU beer will hopefully also stock truly independent Belgian, French, German and/or Polish beer.

And while there are some rubbish Micro brews available here, there are some great beers and breweries too. Beyond whether or not they are better or cheaper, I am suggesting look for the potential, buy one beer next time you buy a six pack of something else.

Or don't.

Not hard.
 
Yeah, sure - it's expensive because blah blah blah ... but why would I pay the same for a locally brewed, say, Hefeweizen - when it's the same price as Schofferhoffer? That came from Germany, where the style was invented, that's perfect?

Totally agree, mate. I thought I'd try a locally brewed (Yarra Valley if memory serves) hefe last night. Can't recall what it was called, which is a shame 'cos I'd like to save you all the waste of time and money drinking it. At first I thought, "Oh good, they just gave me a bottle and a glass so I can pour it properly." then I tasted it and wished I hadn't spent $9 on a stubbie. Got a Croucher ale of some sort after that and quite enjoyed that. Having said all that, I really support GOOD locally brewed stuff when I find it. I think I paid roughly $90 for a slab of some local ale recently.
 
Thread was never started to rate AU hefe against schofferhoffer or Erdinger or whinge about prices or infections or anything like that.

Do people still have the ability to read and comprehend or has that gone the way of the Dodo too?
 
Or don't.

Not hard.

Why can't we discuss the merits or problems with your Brewery Charity Scheme? Is there a rule on forums that a request made is polar? That we may only either do, or not do?

Products must win buyers on their promise to be better or cheaper than the competition - I see little evidence of the Megaswilleries ousting a beer that deserves to remain on the shelves. The product slips when the buyer is "buying local" not "buying best" - this is socialism, not capitalism. If they "have their market" they give their market swill. This attitude is why we have VB.

LC(PA) got bought because they made a great beer. There are a few others - but we all know them.

Let's have a quick look at the Aussie wine on the shelves of Dans and ask ourselves, "Why is the same not happening (happened) with Aussie beer?" The answer to that question is where you need to focus your beervangelic energies.

Just to make sure you know - I am fully behind your push for maximising variety in our available beer selection - I just think you might be going about it in the worng way.
 
Thread was never started to rate AU hefe against schofferhoffer or Erdinger or whinge about prices or infections or anything like that.

Do people still have the ability to read and comprehend or has that gone the way of the Dodo too?

Yeah, sorry mate, you're totally right. Just sort of followed the trend of comments. I wasn't meaning to whinge about prices etc or that we don't do it as good as the Germans. I was trying to say that sometimes you get disappointed. In actual fact, I will just buy whatever is good regardless of price. My local ocasionally gives free tastings and I commit to buy before I ask the price (silly move). Just to make things clear, I really try to support the local micros.
 
I will always try the Pale on tap, but bugger me i have had some stale or poorly handles shit, or dirty lines ect and get a fecking great hangover.

Got a funny story that is slightly off topic, but anyway -

Around 10 or more years ago I became the duty manager of a particular university's tavern. We were all new management - the union that owned the tavern sacked the lot.

Myself and the other managers soon realised that the beer lines hadn't been cleaned for a very, very VERY long but unknown amount of time. The system was an extremely old temprite system with exclusively Coopers on tap, all of them.

So the first thing we did was clean the lines. For close to six months after, we got nothing but complaint after complaint that we had changed the taste of their beloved Coopers beers, for the worse. Some people swore to never drink there again, such was the revolt. They just weren't used to clean fresh beer!

Also Coopers quality control wasn't the same back then, 1 Pale keg out of 10 was sent back infected or off. or very very muddy.
 
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