Shock: Foster's beer not actually Australian!
Discussion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/21/fos...
article said:
Let's be clear: Foster's lager, as we know it in Britain's pubs and supermarkets, is an Australian brand; it is not an Australian beer. "Australian for lager" it may claim to be, but 1.2bn pints of the amber nectar a year are brewed in Manchester, not Melbourne. And almost all of them are drunk in Britain, making Foster's this country's second best-selling standard lager, behind Carling.
I (and I thought most others) had known this for a long time. The article does come across like advertising, but I wonder how much of the general public know (or care) that a lot of mainstream beers aren't imported? For me, it borders on false advertising and as a result I'll stay clear of locally brewed 'imports' (as well as the fact most taste like piss). In a country with such a wide range of ale I can't understand why people continue to buy beer brewed under license rather than supporting small UK breweries. Do people care this little about what they drink? Or is this more the British nature of 'lets just get pissed'?bicycleshorts said:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/21/fos...
Main reason not to buy.........article said:
Let's be clear: Foster's lager, as we know it in Britain's pubs and supermarkets, is an Australian brand; it is not an Australian beer. "Australian for lager" it may claim to be, but 1.2bn pints of the amber nectar a year are brewed in Manchester, not Melbourne. And almost all of them are drunk in Britain, making Foster's this country's second best-selling standard lager, behind Carling.
I (and I thought most others) had known this for a long time. The article does come across like advertising, but I wonder how much of the general public know (or care) that a lot of mainstream beers aren't imported? For me, it borders on false advertising and as a result I'll stay clear of locally brewed 'imports' (as well as the fact most taste like piss). In a country with such a wide range of ale I can't understand why people continue to buy beer brewed under license rather than supporting small UK breweries. Do people care this little about what they drink? Or is this more the British nature of 'lets just get pissed'?bicycleshorts said:
In a country with such a wide range of ale I can't understand why people continue to buy beer brewed under license rather than supporting small UK breweries. Do people care this little about what they drink? Or is this more the British nature of 'lets just get pissed'?
I can't say for certain but I'd imagine that anyone who is drinking Fosters has the sole priority of getting pissed on a budget. I've never really understood the Australian angle they taken when advertising either - it's Australian, and appears a bit 'laddish'. So what? All beer adverts do the latter, so this one is drunk by Australians as well? Considering it's in a class of it's own when it comes to tasting like piss, even compared to other competing lagers, it's popularity is a complete mystery.
bicycleshorts said:
I (and I thought most others) had known this for a long time. The article does come across like advertising, but I wonder how much of the general public know (or care) that a lot of mainstream beers aren't imported? For me, it borders on false advertising and as a result I'll stay clear of locally brewed 'imports' (as well as the fact most taste like piss). In a country with such a wide range of ale I can't understand why people continue to buy beer brewed under license rather than supporting small UK breweries. Do people care this little about what they drink? Or is this more the British nature of 'lets just get pissed'?
On Fosters?Not a chance, I'd need to ingest about 10 pints in a couple of hours.
Horrible fizzy stuff.
bicycleshorts said:
Do people care this little about what they drink? Or is this more the British nature of 'lets just get pissed'?
I assume you haven't been in a large British town/city on a Friday or Saturday night then? 
Let them drink their fizzy piss - the cask ale/'premium' beer market seems to have enough followers to survive and produce some interesting drinks (recent start-up Brew Dog being an example). Good to see so much support for ales. At Le Mans this year we were drinking 40c cans of Kronenbourg which tasted better than most lagers available in the UK!
Taffer said:
...Brew Dog being an example
It was their twitter feed where I saw the article first (twitter.com/brewdog). Worth following, especially with the new bars they are setting up (the one in Edinburgh is great!).Dracoro said:
The same can be said for many beers. Is Guinness not Irish as many of it's breweries are outside of Ireland?
Not really. The stuff you drink in the UK comes from Ireland.Wikipedia:
"Guinness Stout is brewed under licence internationally in several countries, including Nigeria,[78][79] the Bahamas, Canada,[80] and Indonesia.[81] The unfermented but hopped Guinness wort extract is shipped from Dublin and blended with beer brewed locally.
The UK is the only sovereign state to consume more Guinness than Ireland, and the third largest Guinness drinking nation is Nigeria, followed by the USA.[82] The United States consumed more than 950,000 hectolitres of Guinness in 2010.[83]"
Presumably they brew in Nigeria because otherwise the Nigerians would make it out of mud and stick a fake label on.
Possibly the most amusing thing about Fosters is that you would struggle to find an Australian who drinks it. In fact I don't remember the last time I saw it for sale.
It's a bit of a shame really, because we make some very good beers in Oz (some frightfully dreadful ones as well!) that would make a far better "export".
Many of the European beers available here such as Becks, Heineken, Kronenberg etc etc are brewed locally under licence and taste nothing like the real thing.
Grolsch is one of the very few mainstream beers that are imported.
It's a bit of a shame really, because we make some very good beers in Oz (some frightfully dreadful ones as well!) that would make a far better "export".
Many of the European beers available here such as Becks, Heineken, Kronenberg etc etc are brewed locally under licence and taste nothing like the real thing.
Grolsch is one of the very few mainstream beers that are imported.
HundredthIdiot said:
Dracoro said:
The same can be said for many beers. Is Guinness not Irish as many of it's breweries are outside of Ireland?
Not really. The stuff you drink in the UK comes from Ireland.Wikipedia:
"Guinness Stout is brewed under licence internationally in several countries, including Nigeria,[78][79] the Bahamas, Canada,[80] and Indonesia.[81] The unfermented but hopped Guinness wort extract is shipped from Dublin and blended with beer brewed locally.
The UK is the only sovereign state to consume more Guinness than Ireland, and the third largest Guinness drinking nation is Nigeria, followed by the USA.[82] The United States consumed more than 950,000 hectolitres of Guinness in 2010.[83]"
Presumably they brew in Nigeria because otherwise the Nigerians would make it out of mud and stick a fake label on.
Also, Guinness, IIRC, was brewed in the UK right up to about 2004/2005. Did it suddenly become "Irish" only in the last 6/7 years?
Dracoro said:
Also, Guinness, IIRC, was brewed in the UK right up to about 2004/2005. Did it suddenly become "Irish" only in the last 6/7 years?
I don't know if it became Irish, but it definitely changed when they closed the London brewery. The Irish brewed stuff is much smoother than the locally brewed used to be.Caulkhead said:
GKP said:
Aren't the dark ales only for people with beards and an incomplete collection of Whitworth spanners?
I might be one of those who quite likes lagers.
Only in the same sense that lager is only for people with tattoos and an incomplete collection of Matalan jogging bottoms. I might be one of those who quite likes lagers.
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff