The Increasingly Mis-named Range Of Aussie Beers

[SpillsMostOfIt]

So... I'm guessing that you will be disappointed to learn that there are in fact no chickens in Old Speckled Hen?

 

[Ecosse]

So... I'm guessing that you will be disappointed to learn that there are in fact no chickens in Old Speckled Hen?

Unless you add them yourself. Think of a lemon wedge on a Corona.

 

[caleb]

So... I'm guessing that you will be disappointed to learn that there are in fact no chickens in Old Speckled Hen?

Ha... hmmm...wha....ack...uh....ih....ehh....ahh....bu....but....... WHAT!!! :blink:

But... there ARE Hobgoblins in Wychwood... ... right...?? :unsure:

 

[Pollux]

So... I'm guessing that you will be disappointed to learn that there are in fact no chickens in Old Speckled Hen?

On that note, I will never again drink Bishops Finger........

 

[Muggus]

I'd say at best some of these names are deceiving to people from other countries or who are not use to/knowledgable about Aussie beer.

If a regular punter from the UK came over and was to order a "pint of bitter" over here, it certainly would be nothing like what you'd get in the old country. Rather than being a nice, hoppy, malty, room temp beer with a creamy head, beautiful bouquet, hand-pumped imperial-sized pint glass of ale from a cask, you'd wind up with an ice cold, pale, fizzy, bland, slightly skunky lager in a "pint" glass, that could be of varying sizes from state to state.

I know no ones breaking any rules and groups like the BJCP shouldn't govern what a beer-style is, but it's a good point when compare something like Chiswick Bitter to Victoria Bitter.
And i'd hate to break it to my fellow countrymen, but the Poms came up with the Bitter first!

 

[buttersd70]

Yes, but what's in a name? It's just words, and words mean different things in different countries.....

If I go rooting.....

In the UK I'm looking for something....
In the US I'm obviously cheering on my favourite team....
In Australia.....well, I'll let you fill in the rest. :lol:

 

[Pollux]

In Australia.....well, I'll let you fill in the rest. :lol:

Read literally, that is quite a scary concept....

 

[Kai]

I'd say at best some of these names are deceiving to people from other countries or who are not use to/knowledgable about Aussie beer.

If a regular punter from the UK came over and was to order a "pint of bitter" over here, it certainly would be nothing like what you'd get in the old country. Rather than being a nice, hoppy, malty, room temp beer with a creamy head, beautiful bouquet, hand-pumped imperial-sized pint glass of ale from a cask, you'd wind up with an ice cold, pale, fizzy, bland, slightly skunky lager in a "pint" glass, that could be of varying sizes from state to state.

I know no ones breaking any rules and groups like the BJCP shouldn't govern what a beer-style is, but it's a good point when compare something like Chiswick Bitter to Victoria Bitter.
And i'd hate to break it to my fellow countrymen, but the Poms came up with the Bitter first!

Though to be fair I'm sure the local bitters were once actually bitter, at least.

 

[KingPython]

Read literally, that is quite a scary concept....

 

[buttersd70]

Read literally, that is quite a scary concept....

Sick mind, pollux, sick mind.....

I would love to see someone march into a brewery waving a style-guidlines book shouting "25 IBUs? This beer has 5 IBUs too many!!! Shut this abomination down!!"

^_^
I know you like to give me stick about my feelings on BJCP - but what you said here, is, in a nutshell, my basic objection....not the guidelines themselves, but the over-literal interpretation and application of them, which unfortunately is becoming very prevalant. I might just paraphrase this to add to my sig... :lol:

 

[vicelore]

Gotta agree with the OP 100% wanker beers for wankers.

Cheers Vice

 

[rclemmett]

I dont think its silly. If they want to reserve/trademark the names so that they mean something, I think that is fantastic - adds a mystique to the beer.

Okay I'll give you that. What do I call a kolsch or a dortmunder brewed elsewhere?

 

[Pollux]

Sick mind, pollux, sick mind.....

You come spend a day with the people I work with........

Everything can be twisted into a sexual comment on our shift, and often is.

 

[muckey]

yeah but its all down to who has the best team of lawyers and the biggest marketing division anyway

megaswill brand names will always have an edge because they push their product so hard.

I'm glad I got edumacated and found out you can have beer and flavour in the same glass

now its off to the beertap for another amber.........

 

[matti]

I'm sure they would argue that they are brand names- just as 'Pizza Hut' is rarely situated inside a hut.

...though I do agree with the sentiment of your post.

+1

This is a beer nerd thread for sure :icon_cheers:

 

[Whistlingjack]

What do I call a kolsch or a dortmunder brewed elsewhere?

Beer

WJ

 

[quantocks]

without veering too OT, the Reinheitsgebot was ruled as anti-competitive by the EU in about 1987. Although having one set of guidelines and having to stick to it should be a good thing. If only it happened here.

 

[Bribie G]

On the OP's original list you can remove XXXX Draught, it was killed off by Lion Nathan last year. Bastards. Rumour has it that Cabine stout is also about to be killed off. Double bastards.

 

[dr K]

A wonderfull example of green house gases, is that what I said, sorry I meant glass houses and the throwing of stones.
Many persons on this and other forums have brewed "English Bitter" "English Pale Ale" "American Pale Ale" "North German Lager" and so on and have had them judged by a panel, a panel which these days has a much higher chance that the judges or at least one, has actually sat for and passed an examination by their peers that allow to report as BJCP, and that the beer that they have made is assessed as Gold Medal Standard example of the style. I am equally sure that there many person's on this and other forums who have brewed an "English Bitter" "APA" etc and judge it themselves as an excellent example when it is at best not to style and on average just a home brew. Just because it says so on the can or the recipe from the net does not mean that it is.

K

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Its about context - in Australia a "bitter" means a beer like VB. Beer tossers like us might have a different opinion, but the vast majority of the public out there thinks of a "bitter" as a VB style beer, a draught as a Carlton or Tooheys new. Common usage wins. To whit... when Fosters sells VB into the British market where they have a different common understanding of what a "Bitter" is, they call it Victoria Beer.

Also, before we start judging the big breweries for what they call ale... maybe check out what the rest of the non beer geek world actually thinks.... a selection of examples from several on-line dictionaries including websters , cambridge etc (Oxford got it right though)


Ale

1 : an alcoholic beverage brewed especially by rapid fermentation from an infusion of malt with the addition of hops
2 : an English country festival at which ale is the principal beverage

Ale

1. A fermented alcoholic beverage containing malt and hops, similar to but heavier than beer.
2. A serving of this beverage.

Ale

alcoholic drink: an alcoholic drink made from rapidly fermented malt to which hops have been added

Ale

any of various types of beer, typically one that is dark and bitter:

The Collins pocket dictionary on my desk simply defines and ale as n: Beer

Encyclopedia Britannica opens with the following line (although it goes on to a proper definition later)

"ALE, an old word for a fermented liquor obtained chiefly from malt. In England "ale" is nowadays practically synonymous with "beer." "

So by the measure of most members of the public, both in their common usage and in the way that most people use to check what a word "officially" means - its us who are wrong rather than the big breweries.

Mind you... it shits me as well

TB