Primed for Premium

An easy trot into the spring racing carnival season will turn to a full scale gallop for the ‘Premium Beer Cup’ in the next few weeks. The track report is good with a growth rate for the premium beers in value terms from 13.9% of the total beer market (MAT to June 2005) to 15.22% (MAT to June 2006), a growth of approximately 10%. The international contenders are also displaying good form of around 18% by value on an MAT basis to June 2006 when compared with a year ago, and the young colts of the craft beer sector have remained steady. Let’s have a look at The National Liquor News racing guide to see who’s in form and possible contenders for the 2006 season.

If Fosters Australia’s Crown Lager were a race horse the stewards would be screaming for a swab test after five decades in the winners circle. One in every four domestic premium sales is a ‘crownie’ but there not sitting back on their haunches. The National Liquor news is honoured to be given exclusive rights to announce Fosters Australia’s newest family member Crown Pilsener. According to Melanie Powell Premium Brand Communications Manager; “Over the last two years we have invested in the Crown Lager brand to remain competitive and grow in the Premium beer market. After exhaustive research with Crown Lager drinkers, new Crown Lager varieties received a favourable response. Described as a smmoth, crisp European lager with spicy bitterness and herbal aroma derived from Wenceslaus hops grown exclusively for this beer in the Derwent Valley of Tasmania. We will release only 10,000 cases in late October nationwide for the first three months until the new harvest in March 2007.”
According to Marketing Manager for J. Boag & Son Anthea Pritchard, preparation for the summer season is well under way.” We have also just completed our new Boag's St George advertising campaign. The campaign extends the "Gallantry is back" message by this time asking the question "What is Gallantry?" and offering some alternative answers. Some gallant acts may be small, whilst others are large and courageous and this updated campaign concentrates on the courageous gestures. A radio campaign will be launched on Nova nationally in October and fully wrapped trams and buses and interior panels will appear in the market by September. Boag's St George has captured 1.5% share of the premium beer market in its first year and is still showing strong signs of growth.
“We are also working on a new James Boag's Premium advertising campaign inspired by another of Helmut Newton's photographs and continues to be in the top three of premium and imported beers. Finally, we released 13,000 cases of Boag Honey Porter into the market in late August.” Back by popular demand, this limited edition seasonal beer features locally made leatherwood honey and has a big following amongst dark ale lovers.

Down in Hobart, three hop varieties have been used for the first time in Cascade Brewery’s First Harvest Ale 2006. A unique Cascade beer has been crafted each hop harvest since 2002, with each year’s beer showcasing different aromas and flavours due to the use of fresh, green hops. Hop varieties Ember, Nova and Galaxy are the product of years of development, and Cascade master brewer Max Burslem has been closely involved in their cultivation. “Each year Cascade First Harvest has an opportunity for the team at Cascade to experiment. In 2006, we have taken delivery of these new varieties and are pleased with the results of their first brew,” said Max.

The young colts out in Fremantle, West Australia are showing great form for the summer season. Little Creatures is the Champion Australasian Brewery for 2006 and their passion for hop driven beers continues, with their latest yearling, LC Bright. As the name suggests, Bright is a filtered beer with a striking golden clarity in the glass. Little Creatures uses 4 luscious malts including Pale, Carapils, Wheat and Vienna. The beer is full flavoured whilst soft and easy on the palate, bitterness is slightly lower than the highly charged pale ale and is accentuated enough to balance the smooth, malty character. The hope characteristics in Bright are derived from the use of highly aromatic New Zealand B Saaz Flowers as well as varieties from the North West of USA.

Matilda Bay has been the ‘Phar Lap’ of the wheat beer category in Australia since the launch of Redback Original in the late 80's. There are two big changes in the pipeline. The first is cosmetic, with the packaging changing on Redback Mild and Redback Original in late October, designed to better reflect the product’s light crisp and refreshing taste. There will also be a new beer on the market, Redback Cristal. Redback Cristal is slightly different from Redback Original in that although the recipe is the same 50/50 malted wheat and barley, it is brewed with lager yeast instead of the German ale yeast used in Redback Original. It is just as light and refreshing as Redback Original but will not have the spicy yeast characteristics so distinctive of Original. The aroma is fruity with a distinct citrus note and the palate is light and fresh with some refreshing tartness derived from the wheat malt.

Matilda Bay is also releasing a series of way "out-there" beers. Following the great response to Barking Duck, Matilda Bay will release its second "out-there" beer in the form of Crema, a beer with coffee. Matilda Bay Crema Coffee Beer is hand crafted with malted wheat and barley as well as Australian Arabica coffee beans to produce a soft, smooth, creamy beer. This special blend of grains and coffee beans gives Crema a real aromatic toasted, nutty, coffee character. Matilda Bay’s “Malt, Hops and Water Guy”, Brad Rogers has been roasting his own coffee and working on all kind of blends “just for fun. Coffee originally grew wild in the mountainous forests of the Kaffa region of Ethiopia and Archaeologists claim that people have been eating coffee cherries for the last 4,000 years or so. Alcoholic coffee and coffee beers have been made before but they’re usually very dark or black in colour. Our Crema is much paler - more like a latte rather than an espresso. Crema has a pale light straw colour, striking due to being unfiltered.

Things have been happening on the east coast as well in the Premium beer scene. The Malt Shovel Brewery is a unique craft experience by introducing the limited edition, ‘James Squire Rum Rebellion Porter’. By utilising the rum barrel aging process, the innovative team of Malt Shovel brewers have created a distinct flavour profile for their 2nd James Squire limited edition this year. The ‘James Squire Rum Rebellion Porter’ holds an earthy vanilla undertone of oak and is rich in flavour and dark in appearance, while the residual rum flavour from the barrels creates a smooth, satisfying finish. According to Master Brewer, Dr. Chuck Hahn, the ‘James Squire Rum Rebellion Porter’ gives Australians the opportunity to taste a beer which has adopted a historical brewing process and originated from a legendary story. Porter developed as a beer style in London in the late 1700's. Empty rum barrels were abundant and were often used for additional beer storage. “In 1808 Australia was overrun by a group of renegade soldiers in protest of the government rum taxation,” said Dr. Hahn. “Nearly two hundred years later a band of rebel brewers have created a small batch of the Rum Rebellion Porter to celebrate mischief and victory over tyranny.

Following the hugely successful launch of James Squire Limited Release Golden Ale in summer 2004, Malt Shovel Brewery has permanently added the beer to its unique range of craft brews; the ultimate thirst-quencher for the warmer months, James Squire Golden Ale is an English-style summer beer that has been created for enjoyment, taste and refreshment. James Squire Golden Ale uses fresh roasted grains of barley and wheat to give it a rich orange-amber colour, and new season Amarillo hops to provide a tropical stone fruit aroma and a restrained bitter finish.

Up in Newcastle, Bluetongue brewery has been hard at work creating a world class facility. Their new brewhouse will double their capacity but the big news is a recently signed a deal with the Outback Steakhouse chains in America, where Bluetongue have been earmarked for 454 stores across America by October 1. According to Ty Burford, Business Development Manager “We have sent our first container of Bluetongue Draught to America in our newly developed 30 litre ecokeg, a plastic non returnable keg recently developed for export markets. Bluetongue Draught, alongside with Tooheys New, have been selected as the two Australian beers to be served on tap. Bluetongue Traditional Pilsener in packaged form has also been included in the new range for Outback Steakhouses. It has been confirmed that they would like all 800+ stores to stock both Bluetongue products by January 01, 2007.We are also negotiating distribution with a number of major key accounts including a leading airline company. Bluetongues now have over 160 venues with our beer on tap within Sydney and the Hunter region.

The Pride of South Australia

The history of the Cooper’s Brewery is as rich and colourful as Adelaide itself. The key to their success can be attributed to the 3 P’s – perseverance, purity, and popularity. The brewing dynasty of Yorkshireman Thomas Cooper dates back to 1862, but Thomas never meant to start a brewing business. A tradesman with gained expertise as a stonemason, shoemaker, and dairyman, Thomas was asked by his wife Ann, the daughter of an Innkeeper, to brew up a batch of stout from an old family recipe to help cure an unknown illness. Word quickly got around and Thomas soon found himself brewing the same Sparkling Ale and Extra Stout we still enjoy today for neighbours and friends. As the brewery flourished, Thomas delivered his beer by horse and cart direct to homes of his customers, a Cooper tradition which survived until the 1920’s.

There were many small breweries operating in the 1840’3 on and by 1868 there were 43 breweries in South Australia. All encountered problems including bacterial infections from the higher Aussie temperature than England and inferior malt. The use of sugar in brewing as an adjunct was a way to overcome the malt problem. In a letter to his bother, Thomas Cooper states “There are half a dozen breweries in and about Adelaide but they use a good deal of sugar for brewing, but we use only malt and hops consequently, ours being pure, the Doctors recommend it to all their patients.”

Through the 1880’s South Australia experienced a decline in the economy following the onset of drought and falls in major exports of wheat and copper. The decline was felt in the brewing industry as well with Cooper’s production down to 62 brews a year and remained at that level for the next ten years. In 1881, Thomas Cooper had moved from Norwood to set up a new brewery at suburban Leabrook, then very much an outer suburb of Adelaide. Coopers operated on the Leabrook site for the next 120 years until 2001 when it moved to a new $40 million brewery it built at Regency Park to overcome problems associated with a lack of room at Leabrook, now one of Adelaide’s more prestigious suburbs.

By 1900 there were only 25 breweries left in the colony when Thomas retired leaving all his property to his four sons with instructions to ‘Carry on my business as brewers under the form “Thos Cooper & Sons” as partners and trustees

During the first two decades of the 20th century, the demand for Coopers showed an increase of 300% despite another major drought (1914) and the onset of World War 1. Shortages of brewing materials, manpower and an aged 29 year old brewery hampered Coopers production during the war years., yet in 1923/24 Coopers had 56% of the stout market due to the fact that it contained higher levels of alcohol and considered ‘value for money’

Coopers survived the great depression, continued shortages of materials, and lack of manpower during the war years, so by the mid 1940’s the brewing equipment required desperate upgrades. By 1945 one section of the brewery was in urgent need, wooden fermenting vats needed replacement to avoid infection problems experienced by other local breweries. The continued escalation of costs made it difficult to generate good profits requiring reduced dividends to shareholders including no dividend in 1951.Coopers relied heavily on the stout market and their leading competitor, SA Brewing, reintroduced their product which started a stout war. In Cooper’s centenary year of 1962 the two rival companies met and consulted with shareholders to mutually exchange shares giving SA Brewing 25% interest in Cooper’s. Along with the family share structure, this deal virtually eliminated a buy out of the company. This trust and loyalty is an integral part of Coopers and was seen recently again when in late 2005, Coopers was the subject of a hostile takeover bid by rival NZ-Japanese owned brewer Lion Nathan. That takeover bid was resoundingly defeated just before Christmas when the 118 Coopers shareholders, mostly descendants of Thomas Cooper, voted 93.42% to 6.58% in favour of a motion that effectively ended the bid.

Today, Coopers Brewery is the third largest brewer in Australia and the only one that remains entirely family-owned. The company is now being run by the fifth generation of the same family. As they like to say at Coopers, you can still meet a Cooper, but there is no Mr Lion, Mr Nathan or even a Mr Carlton. Coopers currently has about 3% of the national beer market but is growing rapidly, particularly in the Eastern States where growth in recent years has been in the order of 30% plus each year. In its home state of South Australia, Coopers has about a 25% share of the market. It exports bottled beers to a number of countries, including the UK, USA and countries throughout Europe and Asia. It also recently sent its first shipment of beer to Brazil. Coopers is also the largest producer of home brew concentrates in the world and exports them to most corners of the globe. In Australia, concentrates are sold through supermarkets and specialty home brew stores.