Saturday, December 17, 2005

Small World

In these enlightened times, to discuss beers from overseas shouldn’t be some sort of holiday reverie when stockists are being shirt fronted by customers about the changing taste of their favourite lager from Europe. In fact, I was recently corrected by a brewery head when referring to them as imported beers when the ‘correct tagging’ is international beers. Apart from the bloke who wants to re-live a vacation experience, customers in the bottle shops are a savvy bunch who knows what they like and how they like it. So when the major breweries of Europe start brewing their products here in Australasia, the question of taste is expectantly put under the microscope.

We thought the best way to tackle the issue was asking the brewers themselves about why the likes of Heineken, Becks, Kirin Ichiban, Stella Artois, Tuborg, Carlsberg and Kingfisher are either brewed here or in New Zealand.

All the brewery reps we interviewed showed a straight bat in declaring the freshness of the product angle as the prime reason for brewing in Australia, and followed up with the inevitable ‘globalisation process’ typecast comment. But from the numerous emails I’ve received from loyal punters, the simple fact is that their favourite beer tastes different and they want to know why.

Brewmaster for Lion Nathan Australia Bill Taylor was somewhat bemused stating “I thought we addressed these issues in May of last year when we announced joint ventures with both Heineken and Becks with Lion Australia to bring the companies together in sales and distribution deals, involving the option to brew company brands in existing Lion Nathan Australia breweries by 1 July 2004.

The Heineken brewed in Australia is identical to the Heineken brewed in 90 countries across the world, and is unchanged to what has been brewed since Gerard Heineken perfected it in 1873.

The consistency of brew is possible because Heineken uses a proprietary brewing process, using special Heineken brewing equipment imported and installed here in Australia, a unique recipe which requires that all ingredients are imported, and are the same as those used in Holland, and of course the patented (and secret) Heineken A-type yeast.

The yeast used in Australia has been grown from exactly the same culture that has been used since 1873. Interestingly, the yeast was discovered by a pupil of the famous Louis Paster. It is the yeast that gives Heineken its flavour, but the yeast itself does not end up in the final product. The only ingredients in Heineken are a blend of four summer variety European grown hops, malted barley and purified water.

To ensure the process is strictly adhered to, a Dutch Mater Brewer works beside the Australian team who themselves have been fully trained in the exacting art of producing perfect Heineken. And to make absolutely certain, every local brew is sent to Holland for testing by Dutch Master Brewers before being released to the market. To date, every brew has exceeded the Dutch Master Brewer’s expectation of the taste of Heineken.

Locally produced Beck’s is brewed according to the German Purity Law of 1516 and using the same Beck’s approved malt, hops from the world famous Bavarian Hallertau region and, most importantly, the original, over 100-year-old cultivated Beck's yeast strain. Local water carbon filtered to the same purity standards that Beck’s use in Germany is also used and Lion Nathan have installed equipment to enable their brewers to faithfully reproduce the Beck’s process requirements.

Every brew of Beck’s made in Australia is dually verified and approved for sale by the Master Brewers in Germany and the Master Brewers here in Australia (who have worked beside their German counterparts to ensure consistency of product).To date, Lion Nathan’s systematic taste profiling systems have ensured all Beck’s brewed locally is absolutely consistent with the ideal Beck’s formulation and taste profile.

So why the beer would taste different? According to Bill Taylor, “Maybe the drinkers aren’t used to drinking fresh European beer. A beer that is a bit older can sometimes have a deeper flavour, less crisp, slightly oxidized taste profile the customer may have become accustomed to. In the end it’s an emotional response based on customer’s desire for authenticity. Beer drinkers have the right to choice and are entitled to buy what they want, but price doesn’t reflect how much it costs to produce.”

The Malt Shovel Brewery has been making Kirin Ichiban for a few years now after their James Squires Amber Ale began to be brewed at the Tooheys Plant in XXXXX, and a ‘gap appeared in the production/bottling run schedule allowing the Japanese dry lager to take up the slack. As Chuck Hahn explains it hasn’t been totally smooth sailing and adjustments have to be made, not a pleasant thought with the summer season upon us. “It takes up all my tanks for a month. The secondary fermentation needs to be held at 8 degrees for 10 days and cuts back our capacity leading to brew house inefficiency. Plus, it costs me a $1000 a month to send back samples!”

We asked Jamie Cook, General Manager Premium & Specialty Beer of Foster Australia about brewing InBev favourite Stella Artois here in the Abbotsford, Victoria brewhouse. "Foster's Australia has been brewing Stella Artois draught for over 10 years, and we recently moved to local production of Stella Artois in pack.” Foster’s Australia moved to local production for two main reasons: First, brewing locally means we can deliver to consumers the best tasting, freshest Stella Artois available. Second, local production enables us to keep up with continued growth in consumer demand." Producing Stella Artois locally delivers to consumers the best tasting, freshest Stella Artois available. Foster's Australia has been producing Stella Artois draught for over 10 years. The same brew that is used in draught beer is used in Stella Artois in pack, so there is guaranteed taste consistency. The same brewing recipe is used locally as the imported product. Any noticeable difference in taste between previously imported and locally produced beer is because you are now being delivered fresher beer. Local production means we can keep up with consumer demand.

To finish up, I think the days are numbered for big breweries around the world to import their beer, and the ones that do will remain expensive and hard to find. A major plus for beer vs. wine debates is the fact you can relocate a brewery with relative ease. Water can be chemically altered to replicate the taste of any city in the world, while malts, hops and yeast can either be shipped cost effectively or reproduced locally.

Michael Comerton, The Words, Pictures and Directions Guy for Matilda Bay Brewing Co., was also a former employee of Guinness in Ireland. He related an interesting situation that arose for imported Guinness to the USA town of Denver which became known as ‘The Denver Effect’. The basic problem was that the atmospheric pressure in Denver is low due to the high altitude causes the stout to come out of the tap differently frothing (foaming) up all over the place. Now the gas in the Guinness kegs is a mix of nitrogen and carbon dioxide to give it that creamy dense head on the beer but because of the frothing, the gas mixed had to be altered. An interesting titbit to help us understand that local conditions can dramatically change your beer