What Makes Megaswill Just So Crap?

[sponge]

Hey

Last nite i was in sydney and on a very tight budget (went up with a few mates and stayed at 1-bunk bed room to sleep four of us.... it was a room about 2x3, and just had enough room to walk past the bunkbed. all in all, it was a good nite sleep haha) but I had tooheys new for the first time in a hellova long time, and was just wondering... why are these megaswill beers just so crap? I struggled to finish my beer which im not really used to saying, but its true

Is it that theyre just made with under-quality ingredients? no late hopping for aroma and flavour? bad yeast? what is it?

Im just curious to see what is the real reason....


Sponge

 

[razz]

Evening sponge. I can't comment on their ingredients but I have a bit of a theory about the beers storage properties. The big brewery beers don't appear to travel very well, kegs fair a bit better than smaller glass and aluminium. The beer is probably not to bad when "brewery fresh" as they say in the ads but given the rigors of our weather conditions and transport I think they go down hill very quickly. Have you ever driven past a pub bottlo and noticed pallets of booze sitting in the sun for hours at a time ? I have, and you generally don't have to look to far.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Evening sponge. I can't comment on their ingredients but I have a bit of a theory about the beers storage properties. The big brewery beers don't appear to travel very well, kegs fair a bit better than smaller glass and aluminium. The beer is probably not to bad when "brewery fresh" as they say in the ads but given the rigors of our weather conditions and transport I think they go down hill very quickly. Have you ever driven past a pub bottlo and noticed pallets of booze sitting in the sun for hours at a time ? I have, and you generally don't have to look to far.

The late great Beer Hunter Mike Jackson summed it up perfectly well when he said (paraphrasing) australian beer was primarily tasteless lagers made for no other purpose but to get the locals drunk. Sponge, we have now spoiled you. You are drinking beers with flavour. Razz, you are too kind, but probably true. We don't cherish our beer. Look at the average beer truck - its not refrigerated, its made for mass transport.

Cherish the micros, cherish us homies. May your beer be fresh and have flavour.

 

[Screwtop]

The difference is 3 things.

Colour

Flavour

And

Aroma

Thats all! :lol:

 

[Muggus]

I have a secret theory that they purposely brew it to be quite horrible to prevent binge drinking....obviously my theory is flawed...

 

[wabster]

I have a secret theory that they purposely brew it to be quite horrible to prevent binge drinking....obviously my theory is flawed...

The theory is sound, it's horrible to drink - If you let it get warm! So people drink it fast to avoid tasting it. Ever tried a schooner that's been left sitting for a while, even on a moderately warm day? Aussie beer is served cold enough to preclude tasting it. So people drink fast and furious, therefor binge drinking!

Conversely a nice homemade ale will develop aromas/flavours and actually taste better when consumed just above the temp it was served at. And the smell is a teaser to a great taste experience to come.

That's my corollory to your theory Muggus Hahaha Cheerz Wab.

 

[kabooby]

My theory is that we now have an educated palate. Im sure we all used to drink it at some stage, and we used to love it

We all didnt start drinking chimay's now did we

Kabooby :icon_cheers:

 

[Barramundi]

My theory is that we now have an educated palate. Im sure we all used to drink it at some stage, and we used to love it

We all didnt start drinking chimay's now did we

Kabooby :icon_cheers:

what he said , to the letter almost ..

 

[AlwayzLoozeCount]

Im gonna have to admit that I drink VB on almost a daily basis, not because I like the taste but because at the local I drink at dosn't serve much of anything. Anything in a 330ml bottle seems to be considered premium and attracts a price tag that isn't worthy of the product and is out of date any way because I am the only person that would buy somthing like it. As somone mentioned before cold tastless but it gets you drunk, gonna have to say if it didn't get me drunk no way in the world would I drink it. If the pub is a clean one then the beer lines should be washed quite regulary and this makes a huge difference, sour beer probably means your drinking from a slack pub with no pride for thier job at all.
I just feel sorry for the people when they are leaving, they always go up to the bar and say "can I get a few roadies please"
I cant remember the last time I asked for roadies. Anyway If I did want roadies I'd just go 50m up the road and get somthing nice from Dan Murphy's for half the price. I'd rather drink my own brew than anything lion nathan or cub makes.
This is QLD im lucky we arn't all force fed xxxx (barbed wire) anymore.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

They are very dry, very light bodied, brewed with very lightly flavored malts, use a fair proportion of sugar adjunct in the brewing process, are brewed at quite high temperatures for beers that are "technically" lagers and are bittered either with purley ISO hop extract or a combination of that and a high cohumulone/high Alpha hop.

So they have very little malt flavour, very little residual sweetness, very low body, no hop character to speak of and a relatively harsh bitterness.

All of that adds up to fairly easy to drink in large quantities beer - if its ice cold. Which is a suitable beverage for mass consumption in a hot climate. Let it warm up and there are no pleasant flavours for the harshness to hide behind, so it just tastes harsh.

I personally think that the "nasty" aspect of Aussie mega brew is a direct result of it being the product of an almost exclusively hot country. The mega brew from every tropical or mostly hot country (at least the ones I have had) is actively unpleasant if allowed to warm up.. because you are meant to get it into you ice cold ; and therefore some of the niceties of flavour don't really matter and are ignored by the brewer. Drink it the way its supposed to be drunk and you wont taste it anyway.

Now look at the megaswill in countries where it gets properly cold .... Germany springs to mind, but the US is probably a better example. Their mega brew isn't like ours, it might be bland, boring, watery etc etc.... but it isn't nasty. Because in a colder climate people might not be so fast to chug down a glass of ice cold beer, and the beer has to be able to stand up to being a little warmer on consumption. So while they aren't flavour explosions, at least they don't taste actively bad.

That my theory anyway.

Thirsty

 

[matti]

I intend to agree with TB with Australian is a hot country and a cold drink for a "drinker" is more appealing.

That includes yours truly on a hot day.

Pumpys words of wisdom is probably closer to the mark.
You have developed a palate now and plain old "megaswill doesn't tickle your fancy.

matti

 

[blackbock]

One thing that noone has mentioned: Lots of pubs in Australia don't know what it means to keep their beerlines clean! I actually think that megaswill usually tastes better from bottles, at least you know that it hasn't travelled through tens of metres of crud to reach your mouth.

 

[bonj]

My opinion, is that it's not the quality of the ingredients that is questionable. It's the product. It has very little depth because it doesn't need to. It's slammed down fast at freezing temperatures, and the breweries know it. So they don't make a product with depth, just a simple pale malt, around 20-30% sugar... as a result, it gets nasty when it warms up. Add to this, the non-existant flavour and aroma profiles (no depth), and the low bitterness ( <=20 IBUs), means it's a very simple beer, but has no room to move.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

It has got something to do with the preservatives and iso-hop extract...I think...

Try this or an experiment


Go to the pub that serves Coopers


Buy a schooner of Megaswil, and a schooner of Coopers..

Leave them in the sun for 1/2Hr

Now sample both...one is drinkable...the other will make you gag...

The sunlight has some sort of affect on MegaBeers...

 

[geoffi]

It has got something to do with the preservatives and iso-hop extract...I think...

Try this or an experiment


Go to the pub that serves Coopers


Buy a schooner of Megaswil, and a schooner of Coopers..

Leave them in the sun for 1/2Hr

Now sample both...one is drinkable...the other will make you gag...

The sunlight has some sort of affect on MegaBeers...

I'd say it's more to do with the temperature. Is there anything on Earth as revolting as warmed-up megaswill?

 

[Fents]

What makes it crap is the fact they charge $40 for 9Litres of bullshit beer when i can produce 23Litres for around the $20 which shits on any of their crap.

Edit - if they only charged $10 a slab it would hurt alot less imo.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I'd say it's more to do with the temperature. Is there anything on Earth as revolting as warmed-up megaswill?

UV light definatly has an affect...I remember reading somewhere that UV affects Isohops in particular, causing the sulpher type flavour & smell

 

[ibast]

Two things make Australian main stream beer crap:
1. Can sugar. It makes the beer thin. Breweries use it because it's a cheap way of getting alcohol levels up. It's illegal to put can sugar in wine, why should it not be illegal to do so with beer?

2. Pride of Ringwood hops. Breweries use it because they can get the maximum bitterness for the minimum amount of ingredient, due to it's high bitterness. It also helps cover up the thinness of the can sugar mentioned above. The problem is it's bitterness comes at the expence of flavour.

Tooheys have a third problem in that their yeast is just plain terrible. It's what gives their beers that soapy taste.

Add to this commercial practices are underhanded. I believe when a brewery introduces a new beer that make it to a relatively high standard. After a certain cycle where they now have regular drinkers, they then start cutting costs over a long period of time. The result is, over a long period, their very ordinary product becomes just plain rubbish.

 

[petesbrew]

What makes it crap is the fact they charge $40 for 9Litres of bullshit beer when i can produce 23Litres for around the $20 which shits on any of their crap.

Edit - if they only charged $10 a slab it would hurt alot less imo.

Plus the fact you see New/Draught every now and again at the $40 mark!!!, and slightly better Euro-megaswill available for only a few $ difference, Is there any choice to be made?
So happy that I homebrew. I'd have one of my half-arsed not-to-style k&k attempts over a new anyday.

I had that Boags Classic Blonde on the weekend. It was... well, you know. At least it was cold.

 

[shonky]

Tooheys have a third problem in that their yeast is just plain terrible. It's what gives their beers that soapy taste.

Not sure I agree with that (can't believe I am defending Toohey's New ) It is my understanding that James Squire Pilsner is brewed using Toohey's New yeast (and their Ale's using Toohey's Old). Can't be all bad as their Pils has just taken out the Gold medal in the World Beer Cup in the Bohemian Pils category.

If you want to taste the light struck flavour take a bottle of vb, pour into a clear glass and leave out in the sun for 8 minutes. Rebottle and put in the fridge overnight - Uggh :angry: . It tastes more like cat's p*ss (the yanks say it smells exactly like skunk). I tried the same experiment with green glass and the result, to me, tasted like Stella - go figure! Turn your VB into Stella (the imported, long shipping, poor handled version) by putting it in the sun for 8 mins!

Leave the megaswill on the shelf and support your local micro!