Cheers Dachs! 
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I’m not a connoisseur but Victoria Bitter(VB) is OK.
It’s a lager really not a bitter as a Brit would know it.
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I normally drink Tooheys New but the one beer that is available all over Australia is Carlton Draught which is a very acceptable brew. VB is a step above XXXX but I will drink either if there is nothing else.
When I went back to the UK after a long absence in the late 1980s I was really looking forward to drinking my old favourites from when I lived there. Alas though I did try they were bloody awful (basically warm and flat) I ended up drinking Heineken for the remainder of my stay, tastes obviously change. When my brother visited he spent half the time warming the beer and slopping it between two glasses to get rid of the fizz.
My son in law and youngest son like these boutique beers like 50 Lashes etc (that’s the most commonplace one) and when I go to places they like to eat they suggest beers for me, usually they are OK but even the best is still too sweet for me.
As an aside, when I lived in the UK I recall that the worst beer was Watneys Red Barrel, I thought it was awful but it seemed to be available everywhere so someone must have liked it.
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Vic Bitter was always my go to second choice beer.
Fosters was my never drink beer, XXXX was bad, Coopers was crap.
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This stuff is gorgeous!
Really does taste peanutty
Hammerton is a small independent craft brewery in Islington North London. They really do seem to be passionate about what they do and are seriously innovative about creating new and unique brews!
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This beer is very relatable
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Yes, if you call Heineken an independent brewer. Newcastle Brown was part of the Scottish & Newcastle brewing company and in 2008 S&N was bought by Heineken. I know, it makes one weep. But worse - the brewing of newky brown had already moved to the John Smith brewery in Tadcaster. So not Newcastle and not independent. Sign of the times.
However, I noted the predominance of ex-S&N employees in senior management roles in Heineken when I did some work with them in 2014. Not quite a reverse takeover but for a takeover to result in the bought business’ employees running much of the head office in Amsterdam was interesting to see.
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There should be a law against it.
And San Miguel in Spain is a tasty drop at 5.4% ABV. The Carlsberg version sold in the UK is not as strong and not half as tasty. Yet it bears the same name.
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The huge marketing machines that are these big brewers do not always get it right. Heineken gained the Finnish beer Lapin Kulta when it bought S&N. I happened to have worked in Finland for a while and I know the locals refer to this brew as reindeer piss. Now beer has a problem - before tax it is low cost and heavy / bulky so costly to transport long distances. So Heineken had a challenge for all their dozens of beer brands. Either duplicate production in another country, make it sort of the same, and sell under the same brand name. Or keep production in its original country and try to sell a now much more expensive beer in other countries. Lapin Kulta was designated as the latter and the massive marketing machine set about positioning it as an expensive (thus premium) beer across Europe. Two problems. It was still reindeer piss and the name, in French, means rabbits bum. Project Lapin Kulta was a fail.
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and they have the nerve to call it “Genuine”, “Original”.
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I’ve often wondered about that. Mostly these large corporations have in-house lawyers (or as their marketing guys will call them - the anti-sales team) to rein in the wilder advertising claims. so surely both words are very much contradicting the truth - it ain’t the original and it cannot be genuine.
But then making things up seems to be common place in advertising drinks. Stella Artois ads in the UK imply frenchness (the tag line of their cider was “c’est cidre, not cider”) even though the stuff originates from the Flemish / Dutch speaking part of Belgium. Go figure.
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I think you will find San Miguel is actually a beer from the Philippines but certainly up there with Tiger and Singha (Malaysia and Thailand respectively) My throat is dry just thinking about them
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Yes, originally made by a Spanish colonial. I’ve not tried that version, the original.
But the made in Spain stuff is good, the made in the UK stuff, not so good.
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Ah, I hadn’t thought of that, those brands sold here are imported beers made in those countries.
They cost about the same for a two dozen slab as the local “normal” beer BUT are 330ml bottles instead of the local 375ml. The other irritation thing about them is that they don’t have twist tops - I will be bringing an opener to the UK, I learned from my last visit - twist top technology has passed Europe by.
The posh local beer also has a tendency to use 330ml bottles which I think is taking the piss but that’s the way it goes. The stuff on the right is 330ml the two on the left are a standard long neck (750ml) and a stubbie (375ml) ie not to scale
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Beer is sold in cans so bring a cup
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No, I am sure I bought it is bottles at food places but discovered the opener was at the checkout after I realised it wasn’t a twist top. I just put a 20c piece on the table (forget what it is in p) and knocked the top off that way.
The only time I have bought beer in cans was VB on a cruise but they gave me a cold schooner glass.
I have been trying to find some nice stubbie holders to bring with me, I was expecting State of Origin ones to be in the supermarket but no sign yet
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I noticed that the Carlton bottle has “brewery fresh” on the label. I think the BrewDog beers also say fresh brew or similar. I had to look this up. Turns out that beer is optimal for only a week or two after brewing, then it starts to lose flavour. I think this is an indirect way of highlighting beers that are bottled or canned on the site where they are brewed - rather than shipped to a bottling plant in tankers.
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I think all our breweries bottle on site. I say “our”, they are mostly owned by the Kiwis in fact.
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Or Japanese - see below
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