With many 'foreign' beers now brewed in Australia, is it time for clearer labels?

[manticle]

Regardless of any of the above - stating where it is brewed, clearly on the label won’t affect the flavour so label clearly.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

It's happening with food as of July 2018, why not beer:

http://www.foodlabels.industry.gov.au/

What also irks me is companies using historic dates for beers for which they have no actual link. 'Emersons 1812 Pale Ale" for example. To my knowledge Emerson's was founded in the 1990's, how can they have an "1812" pale ale?

I actually made a complaint about it, to fair competition, but received no response.

 

[mondestrunken]

I don't know, you could take it too far... technically pale ale historically was not particularly pale, just anything that wasn't black.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

The only time I ever bought Fosters was from uncle Dan's, which was brewed in the mother land and cheaper than local VB.

On a side point, I've seen Oettinger as a laget, Schwartz and Weiss in China. I'm trying to figure out how this stuff can sell for 80-90¢ a tin with the equivalent amount of shipping (turn left at Malacca, not right) to Australia vs 1.40 a tin. IIRC I didn't think the excise was that high.

There's big $$ in tweaking the prices of BUL and imported beers, otherwise why could the cheap versions go for 30 bucks a carton for a fundamentally similar beer.

 

[Bribie G]

I'd guess BUL prices have to be kept artificially high so as not to cannibalise VB etc. This doesn't apply to the chains (LL, Liquorstax, Aldi etc) who import directly. Example, at the moment at Aldi:

Carlton dry (CUB via Aldi) 12 pack $24.99
Storm Brewing Super dry (direct import via Aldi) 24 ctn $34.99

Carlsberg (Coopers via Dan Murphy) 24 ctn $45.95
St Etienne (direct import via Aldi) 24 ctn $29.99

And the St Etienne is a lovely full flavoured euro lager with the noble hop "snatch" on opening - not the watered down weak tea that is Coopers Carlsberg Concoction.
I've never had a skunked or off example of St Etienne, It's handled properly - Aldi have a world class logistics chain in Australia. No pallets left out in the sun as you often see at liquor barns.

 

[Bribie G]

WRT Fosters there's a story there.

I remember the Fosters up to the 1980s - excellent hop and malt, more "premium" than a lot of the beers on tap and a wee bit upmarket. Then when Elders IXL not only bought CUB but also the UK Courage beer and pub empire, there was an opportunity to cash in on the big lager market in the UK so they started brewing Fosters over there and heavily promoted it until nowadays it's the second biggest selling lager, after Carling. However IIRC the only stipulation was that they used Fosters B strain lager yeast. Apart from that it's open slather and I guess it's just made with UK lager malts, probably corn instead of cane sugar and some sort of hop extract. And it's only 4% ABV.

In Australia, Fosters was put on tap to try and break into Lion territory and failed miserably. After that it became an orphan brand and lost all its hop and malt character which was a tragedy.

As a refreshing pub pint the 4% UK version is unremarkable - had a few pints in Yorkshire last time I was there. G4WAY: if you want to try a really gruesome experience, suffer your way through a six pack of 4% "Fosters Classic" that I believe is brewed to appeal to pommie ex pats. As for "classic" that's another one that should be referred to the rorts commission, Fosters has never been 4% here.

 

[takai]

Absolutely. Recently i had a US Goose IPA (DFW lounge) followed by an Aussie one... huge difference in malt bill and hops. No way it should be called the same beer.

 

[mkj]

A problem in other countries too it seems

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/4943-romania-bioteching-poor-beer-for-poor-countries

Do extra enzymes get used much in Australia breweries?