The Evolution Of Vb

[Toper]

Just in regards to the original question, were VB, Carlton, etc always "high temperature lagers"? Or would they have used ale yeasts back in the day?

Pride of Ringwood, Australian 2-row, would they have tasted like Cooper's? (or is their yeast special?)

I guess I'm wondering what would an authentic "Australian Pale Ale" recipe look like? I'm kind of interested in recreating some more "historic" Aussie styles.

The original brews would have been ales,not "high temp lagers". The names kept the same to keep favour with drinkers.POR wasn't bred till 1953 so none of that stuff Possibly imported English hops, :unsure: No recipes remain AFIK so it's a big guess as to grain and hop types.I'm sure someone will prove me wrong though

 

[Bribie G]

The "ale" was removed from the Name of XXXX about 10-15 years ago to make it less oldfarty. Cascade still keeps the Ale name in its Cascade Pale Ale that is of course a Lager. XXXX doesn't use POR, it used Golden Cluster, an old American variety, so I guess it was grown here for ages. According to my new Hops book, Cluster is a very old American "land race" hop and came before POR. Maybe originally imported from California?

 

[garyhead.design]

Oddly, wine is cheaper than beer.

Wine is taxed differently to other booze. It's tax is calculated on sale price rather than Alc Vol. So cheaper the wine, lower the tax. If it was taxed the same as beer, goon bags would triple in price.....

 

[garyhead.design]

The original brews would have been ales,not "high temp lagers". The names kept the same to keep favour with drinkers.POR wasn't bred till 1953 so none of that stuff Possibly imported English hops, :unsure: No recipes remain AFIK so it's a big guess as to grain and hop types.I'm sure someone will prove me wrong though

This makes sense, it was the Fosters Brothers who shipped over the first Lager tanks (Not sure where I picked up this piece of wisdom, I think it was mentioned during a talk given by Chuck Hahn or at a brewery, Maybe at Cascade), so any beer that pre-dates Fosters would be pretty safe to assume was an ale.

I can't even imagine any of the Aus swill with a decent ale character

I would have assumed most of the changes made to recipes over time would have been done to minimize the cost for the breweries (for example lowering the Alc equals less ingredients and lower taxes but when sold at the same price equals larger margins), So I would have thought switching to Lagering would increase costs, longer ferments, needing lagering time ect ect.

 

[petesbrew]

Threads like this are another reason I like Homebrewing.
Today I've enjoyed a glass each of my own hoppy APA, pilsner, and chocolate dubbel.
All are much nicer than VB.

 

[manticle]

I licked my cat's bum earlier which was also nicer than VB.

Just. I had previously cleaned it with a melbourne.

 

[Toper]

This makes sense, it was the Fosters Brothers who shipped over the first Lager tanks (Not sure where I picked up this piece of wisdom, I think it was mentioned during a talk given by Chuck Hahn or at a brewery, Maybe at Cascade), so any beer that pre-dates Fosters would be pretty safe to assume was an ale.

I can't even imagine any of the Aus swill with a decent ale character

I would have assumed most of the changes made to recipes over time would have been done to minimize the cost for the breweries (for example lowering the Alc equals less ingredients and lower taxes but when sold at the same price equals larger margins), So I would have thought switching to Lagering would increase costs, longer ferments, needing lagering time ect ect.

Actually it was Cohn Brothers from Bendigo that brewed the first lager in Australia,in 1882,under the name Excelsior.