The brewers of Oz
For years we've been told that Australians wouldn't give a XXX
They say Australian men love a cold beer on a warm day – and if the day’s not warm enough they’ll put on a heavy coat.
In fact, Aussies down about 110 litres of beer each a year, according to figures released by Japan’s Kirin beer company, which means they just miss a podium finish in the world beer-drinking stakes, coming in fourth behind the Czechs, Irish and Germans but ahead of the United Kingdom at sixth and the United States down in 13th place.
No surprise then to learn that a refrigerator empty of beer in Australia is thought to be faulty, as in: “Yeah, gotta stop off at the bottlo (liquor store) on the way home; the fridge is broken.” Beer has been such a large part of the way of life Down Under that a form of reverse prejudice exists. In most societies, men who like a drink are frowned upon, to varying degrees. Not so in the Wide Brown Land, where fathers will caution their sons to “never trust a bloke who doesn’t drink.” Some take this advice and refine it to open hostility towards a drinker who chooses something other than beer, as was evidenced when this writer recently went to pick up some Tasmanian cider for his wife and was abused by the stranger in line behind him, who let rip with exactly what he thought of a cider-drinking man.
The irony is, although Australians pride themselves as great beer lovers, generally speaking they are not great beer connoisseurs. The market is overwhelmingly dominated by two giants – Foster’s Group and Lion Nathan – and while th.....
To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue
or subscribe to Beers of the World to have every issue delivered direct to your door.
By Nick Moore
Section : International Focus
Page number : 25
