Wine Takes Hold As Beer Gets Coldie Shoulder

[Mutton Chops]

http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/top-...0118-19vd1.html

Thought this may be of interest. What I fail to understand is how wine is exempt from the alcohol tax?
Also are these statistics based solely on the commercial breweries and which category do the craft brewers fall under, commercial or home brew?
Would be a shame if beer consumption is down, never has there been a better time to be drinking the stuff in this country, so many great craft beers out there.

Cheers :beerbang:

 

[Bribie G]

Quite apart from the taxation aspect, the story reveals that wine is becoming richer in flavour and strength whilst beer is becoming weaker - and of course less rich as the brewers foist Blondes and Lo Carbs etc onto the market.
When I arrived in Australia over 30 years ago beers were full flavoured 5% lagers that held their own against the best in the world. In the UK I used to drink imported Fosters in the blue can and loved it, and when I got here my tastebuds were well tuned to Pilsner Urquell and German beers and I had no argument with Aussie Beers. Each brewery would put out one full strength 5% beer - exception being NSW where Tooths and Tooheys had an Old as well, and they did a Reschs on tap.

Since then the breweries seem to have totally lost the plot with a plethora of lites and mids and drys and blondes. They haven't seen fit to do so in REAL beer brewing companies such as Germany or Czech Republic so what's the idea? Someone in the know, like Thirsty Boy, may be able to confirm, but I get the feeling that over the last 30 years malt bills and hops have decreased, adjunct use has increased, alcohol percentage has dropped from 5% to the point where they now make outrageous claims that a 4.2% beer is somehow "full strength" ...
And don't even get me started on BUL.

Yesterday it was 33 degrees and I felt like a lager so popped into LL - they wanted $17.99 for a six pack of fake Stella brewed an hour down the road at Yatala but LL are now importing direct and I picked up a very very nice six of Henninger (GER) for $11.99.
Personally if all the mainstream brewers go broke I'll be cheering. We (and the Craft Breweries) will still be able to get TF and Bairds and Wey malt and NZ and UK and US hops and Wyeast etc, the duopoly can go and bite their bums.

 

[Pollux]

Cider is also on the rise at the moment........If summer had been any warmer I think it would have taken off even more.

Although, this has pissed the missus off as her beloved Bulmers is now BUL and just doesn't taste the same according to her.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-...l-1225985216163

 

[komodo]

^it doesnt.
Bulmers used to be a favorite of mine. Now not so much I'd rather drink Mercury.

What does my head in is that I look around and even my non-brewing, non beer snob mates tend to like to drink more malty beers - yet there is nothing from the "big two" in that catagory and they seem to be stepping further and further away.

 

[HoppingMad]

Let them have their stinky grape juice. More beer for me! B)

But a shame that beer is losing such a foothold in the marketplace. Much of the data I've seen in articles suggests that people are still drinking beer - just less of it and going for better more boutiquey stuff.

Hopper.

P.S: Is that a diamonte earring in the wine drinker's ear? h34r:

 

[eamonnfoley]

Its this silly image that wine is more sophisticated. I've seen many bogan wine drinkers making a nuisance of themselves.

In saying that, beer is great and will rise again! Civilisations of beer swillers can't be wrong.

 

[jbirbeck]

http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/top-...0118-19vd1.html

Thought this may be of interest. What I fail to understand is how wine is exempt from the alcohol tax?
Also are these statistics based solely on the commercial breweries and which category do the craft brewers fall under, commercial or home brew?
Would be a shame if beer consumption is down, never has there been a better time to be drinking the stuff in this country, so many great craft beers out there.

Cheers :beerbang:

wine isn't exempt from alc tax but exempt from excise. this is because it is subject to WET. WET is set at a much higher rate than beer excise but is based on the value of the wine and not the quantity of alc in the product so a cheap high alc wine is subject to less tax (goon bags) than the same wine sold at higher prices (bottled products). the result is a clear disparity in the way the beer and wine are taxed. WET is contrary to just about every alc related policy imaginable and is simply idiotic including the rebate that all wine producers get.

the wine and sophistication link as well as WET is as a result of the huge amount of effort the wine industry put into changing the way Wine is taxed as well as its image. Beer is only at the start of its 40 year journey to do the same. the 'fair go for craft beer' is a good start but I think they are asking for the wrong thing is seeking a WET type set up for beer...

 

[MarkBastard]

People are idiots, and idiots drink wine.

 

[petesbrew]

People are idiots, and idiots drink wine.

Guess I'm an idiot then. Before my brewing days one I acquired the taste for wine, I enjoyed it more and bought more than megaswill. (beer always won at the pub though)
Nowadays with my fridge full of great homebrew I have bottles of red that are untouched for months.

 

[MarkBastard]

Guess I'm an idiot then. Before my brewing days one I acquired the taste for wine, I enjoyed it more and bought more than megaswill. (beer always won at the pub though)
Nowadays with my fridge full of great homebrew I have bottles of red that are untouched for months.

Sounds like you were an idiot but saw the light

 

[petesbrew]

Sounds like you were an idiot but saw the light

an idiot with moments of clarity

 

[Bribie G]

I'm no wine connoisseur. My favourite drop is Golden Gate Spumante so sue me. Before I started my present job six years ago I was a broke mature age student and drank goon. When I graduated I went to a presentation evening in the city where there was bottomless wine served in big goblets (schmiddy sized). Apart from eating at least 3 Camemberts and a half kilo of olives, pate, prawns etc I must have had the equivalent of three bottles of wine - completely forgetting that the bottled stuff is about 13% ABV whereas the quaffing goon is only about 9.5.

I got off the train to throw up at:

Sunshine
Carseldine
Petrie
Burpengary.

Took me a whole night and day to get home as I crashed at my mate's in Caboolture B)

 

[Dave70]

Well, I hate wine.

It gives me a rash, makes me projectile vomit and gives me a hangover like a brain aneurysm.

Conversely, my old man can knock a couple of bottles or Shiraz in a sitting no prob's.


I can however remember my sophisticated days as a wine drinker in my teens before I morphed into a crass beer fancier.

Yep, nothing more sophisticated than sucking the dregs out of a bladder of goon under a tree in a park with your high falutin chums.

 

[WarmBeer]

Used to drink, and enjoy, a lot of wine, especially the big Aussie red wine styles. Still have probably 10 or 12 dozen "good" ($20 - $40 each) bottles sitting in the garage, most acquired while far too drunk at cellar doors. At the time we both had good incomes, no kids, and thought nothing of spending all our money on wine & dinner.

I don't know if my palate has de-volved since I started brewing, but I get a whole lot more enjoyment out of a well-made beer than a reasonably expensive, aged red wine. Plus, having kids has turned me into a tightarse, so beer is much easier to justify

 

[Pollux]

Lets not forget the great game of goon of misfortune..........Tie a goon cask to each corner of a hills hoist, form a circle below, it stops above you, skull........

I don't mind a nice glass (or bottle) of Merlot during winter, or a sparkling (can't call it Champagne if it's from Aus now can we??) during summer, but I just can't drink white wine beyond a mouthful, no idea why.

 

[Bribie G]

I live 200m from a LL and I am going to walk up there now and get a bottle of cheap sparkly and drink it because you bastards made me do it

:huh:

 

[cdbrown]

I drink wine occasionally with a meal, but drink beer any time. Enjoyed a nice bottle of argentian malbec last night along with a few pints of LFPA and then some peronis (best on offer at restaurant). Suprisingly woke up fine this morning, but generally feel a bit rough following a night of drinking wine.

 

[Pollux]

Damn your rubber arm huh???

 

[Bribie G]

Man that was the shit now for some mowing





:beerbang:

 

[MarkBastard]

hahahahahaahha

i look up to you bribie