What Makes A Beer premium?

[sponge]

The phrase 'super premium' brings images of a stubbie with a superman cape on

Don't say that too loud... the megaswill breweries might hear u and that will be their new "premium, extra, blonde, dry....etc"

 

[Adamt]

dont knock them till you beat them.

We knock them (megabreweries) all the time, for making mildly different, bland, dry lagers (some drier than others and labelled low carb) and spouting them off under different brand names. If beer was able to be a dry lager and nothing else, I would admit defeat to the megabreweries and likely this forum would be dead as very few would have the passion to brew tasteless crap.

However, megabreweries' premium beers are often uncannily close to their budget brothers and sisters, with little reason (apart from inflated promotion, marketing and fancy bottles) to be so expensive comparatively.

 

[Tony]

but here we are, making brew at home, while the commercial brewries are raking in the cash, for what you blokes say is crap, while we, or well me work a 40 more hour week, and can afford to down A COLD earned anything blonde, hahn super dry, heineken , and or carlsberg, I do love the ocasional coopers pale ale, my point is that we are still brewing in fermenters cause we have not broke the retail brew world, to rake in the trillions. BUt when we do I am sure your brew will be copping a crap rating on this site, dont knock them till you beat them.

I can...... I have ...... and i will again!

My Dad worked for a megaswill mob starting with "T" for most of my life. HE is a beer and wine conosur (spelling) and loves a good drop. there is always a fine bottle of wine or well aged spirit to drink when there. He is my most honest critic and admits i make better beer than any premium beer on the market.
I have been told a few times...... this is better than james squire.

We knock them (megabreweries) all the time, for making mildly different, bland, dry lagers (some drier than others and labelled low carb) and spouting them off under different brand names. If beer was able to be a dry lager and nothing else, I would admit defeat to the megabreweries and likely this forum would be dead as very few would have the passion to brew tasteless crap.

However, megabreweries' premium beers are often uncannily close to their budget brothers and sisters, with little reason (apart from inflated promotion, marketing and fancy bottles) to be so expensive comparatively.

I couldnt have said it better myself.

I dont mind the comercial beers....... but i cant drink may of them. A mate of mine left a 6 pack of crownies here a while back and i ended up taking them fishing with him and feeding them back to him. Even my wife said they were shit and she had never tasted one and had no pre misconceptions!

My brother came over once and had a couple of beers from my tap and went home. He popped up on MSM messenger and called me a *******. All he had in his fridge was Hahn Premium (Hersbrucker????????????) and said it tasted like shit after drinking AG ales at my place. And it cost 5 times more to buy.

thats my bit.

cheers

 

[lobo]

thankyou tony,

there is nothing that annoys me more than going to a pub and getting hot blond bimbos (well not that part of it, dont get the wrong idea!) that say, 'try this low carb beer, it has 1 third of the carbs than any other beer in this pub'. i look at them and say, it wont change any blokes waistlines by changing beers, as the alcahol makes up for the difference in carbs. then they just smile at me and move onto the next half pissed sucker, and guess what, they see boobs and switch beers!

you cant change the world.

Lobo

 

[boingk]

Don't say that too loud... the megaswill breweries might hear u and that will be their new "premium, extra, blonde, dry....etc"

[rant]

Too late isn't it? That Hahn Super whatever...with all those idiotic adds about protecting your beer? WTF?!?! Its such a wimp of a beer that it needs protecting? JESUS! What is the world coming to? Protecting a beer...I'll protect my hard-earned non-shit-tasting homebrew in my goddamn stomach thankyou very much...

[/rant]

By the way Tony, I know how your brother feels...mine is the same way! Was over at his place, stuffing around watching tv and calling mates for a party later on. Anyway, I'd got him into brewing a few months before then left for uni. I asked what he drank now, and if he'd like me to pick up a case for the night ahead. He replied that since he started brewing he thinks that "VB and everything is poison, I can't drink it anymore...I just drink homebrew now." SCORE ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS!

EDIT: Lobo - we are changing the world: one homebrewer at a time!

 

[Tony]

BOOBS........... did someone say boobs?????????

I just cant imagine an australian beer company using boobs to sell crap beer. It just WOULD NOT HAPPEN!!!

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Well.... not that I'm any particular fan of the "premium" tag myself, nor of the beers that usually get the label, but actually there is a reason for it. I have no experience of the other 40 or so percent of the mega beer market in Australia, but for the 55% I work for its this -

Commercial beers have quality specs - eg Tint = 12.3 +/- 1.0 or OG = 13.7 +/- 0.2 etc etc for IBUs' Carbontation, O2 levels and everything else you can think of.

For a premium beer... that +/- range is tighter, it must be closer to the intended brew in order to make the grade.

Also - standard beers are often blended with what is charmingly known as "reclaim" this is the beer that is saved from the bottom of tanks, chased out of the pipework, left over after packaging runs are completed etc etc. Rather than throw it away (nothing wrong with it) its collected into a tank and blended back into the "pure" beers at differing rates depending on the brand.

Premium Beers are usually "pure" beers and are not blended with reclaim beer at all.

Most Aussie mega lager is bittered with strictly ISO hop extract - Premium beers often include real hops in pellet form. Its not a "rule" because while atm all our premium beers do have hops, they dont always & not all the beers that get real hops are called premium beers.

One or two of the premium beers are "all malt" while almost all the other beers (as you are well aware) contain a quite high proportion of sugar adjunct, even if it is nowhere near as high a proportion as people usually say.

In short - considering what you are comparing them against - they are called premium beers because they ARE premium beers. They are of a higher standard, purer to their recipes and use slightly better ingredients. More care is taken with them and they cost more to make.

NOT - mind you that I think that makes them particularly good beers, its just that they don't necessarily get their premium tag for the "no reason at all apart from the fancy label and the price tag" .... that seems to be the general consensus in this thread so far.

Oh - and while it was a crime against beer, Empire lager was NOT rebranded into Pure Blond. Right idea, different beer. And Low carb beers..... more expensive to make, different techniques, actually do contain less calories than a beer with the equivalent ABV and the object of the game is at any rate NOT to contain less calories ... it's to contain less carbohydrates. Hence calling them low carbohydrate beer rather than low calorie beer. And thats exactly what they do. I still don't like them and think that they have little point, but they are in fact what they claim to be (apart from the tasting good bits)

Now, after we have a better understanding of what we are talking about - back to bashing the damn things because they for the most part don't taste very good and we can do a lot better at home .......

Thirsty

 

[brettprevans]

Thanks Tony and Thirsty. Always love reading something that is written by people that actualy know what they are talking about (not to say that no one else knew what they were talking about). I agree that the idea of 'premium' is usually marketing and branding but I would drinking most 'premium' beers over a non premium beer any day (if cost wasnt a factor). You cant tell me that most of the premium beers dont taste better than the non premium? (ok TED Platnum tastes like feremted arse juice - there are always exceptions to the rule).

yes our stuff is better, but the megabreweries are to a point making what the megaswill general public wants.

oh hang on back on topic... what makes a premium beer premium - better ingredients IMO. it should be worth the extra money you pay. it should taste better and have costed the makers more to make. it like wagyu beef being premium beef. it costs more and is better than say blade steak.

EDIT: actually wagyu is probably more like Duvel or the like, lets say eye fillet.

 

[petesbrew]

[rant]

Too late isn't it? That Hahn Super whatever...with all those idiotic adds about protecting your beer? WTF?!?! Its such a wimp of a beer that it needs protecting? JESUS! What is the world coming to? Protecting a beer...I'll protect my hard-earned non-shit-tasting homebrew in my goddamn stomach thankyou very much...

[/rant]

I saw that ad on telly last night (actually paid attention halfway thru as I saw it was advertising beer), and thought WTF?
I still laughed.

I'll always take the piss out of their beers, but applaud their funny ads. But those "Who is James Boags?" ones are crap.

 

[lobo]

i know i might not know exactly what im talking about, but my rant was about the fact they try to put accross that the beer is so much better for you, when its marginally better. 70%less carbs. and (probably) 10%less calories. ur still gunna be a fat ******* if you smash down these beers. you will just be killing your taste buds off.

anyone know the calorie count for certain beers?

lobo