Generic beer

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by MickyB

Couldn't agree with you more, each CUB beer is a horrible cesspool of chemicals, which I will only drink at weddings and 21st birthday party's. Grand Ridge, Mountain Goat, Holgate and Little Creatures are a but a few of the excellent boutique breweries we have in Australia.

Aldi already have a generic beer brand, I tried their Shipstone Amber Ale, which tries to imitate the James Squire Amber Ale and fails badly IMO. Working in a bottle shop part time for the best part of 7 years I have seen that some people are driven on price, and price alone, and will always buy the cheapest slab available (eg Tooheys Red, Hahn Ice etc..). However there are far more customers who will have a brand preference and only drink the one type of beer (Carlton Draught, VB usually). For the chains to defeat this attitude with a generic beer I believe they face an uphill battle - one that they would eventually fail in.

Holgate's Pale Ale didn't turn me on, but their blonde/wheat beer was excellent. Excellent head and good taste. A good beer for me needs good body.

[J_Tank]

Well said... for the most part Franklins' No Frills products are still that. It's just a matter of knowing which No Frills gear is Aussie made in the same factory. It's **** funny when ppl tell me they can tell the difference when I know for a fact it is IDENTICAL to their favourite brand

Originally Posted by new2ford

The book "Beer" by Ben Canaider and Greg Duncan Powell is a good guide that puts Australian beer in perspective. Glad to see some people saying the truth that much Australian beer is absolutely lousy. Once you would have been shot for that!

I can't agree with the comment about Chinese beer. Tsingtao has always been an excellent drop.

The whole concept of generic brands has been bastardised here by Coles and Woolworths. When Franklins introduced No Frills it was like the UK/European approach (eg Aldi, Sainsburys) where it was good quality stuff from the good brand producers but hidden under a generic label. Franklins and Aldi still generally follow that line but Coles Woolworths and IGA market foul rubbish under their generic labels and give the whole thing a bad name.

Anyway because of our laws, liquor can't be sold in supermarkets here and bottle shops are unlikely to go into generics in a big way so i don't think it'll catch on for alcohol in Australia.