Real ale

[Guest TheNewAustralian]

Hello,

 

Newbie, treat me gently.

 

I like British Ale. I dislike cold fizzy stuff. I now live in Sydders.

 

This is a problem.

 

I've solved it, however. I'm a hobby brewer and can knock together a very reasonable version of London Pride from a recipe which uses ingredients I've managed to source in Australia. It's a pure brew too; water, malt, hops, a bit of sugar and yeast is all that goes into it.

 

It's got me wondering whether there's a market for this. I've visited a couple of microbreweries and they reckon there isn't a market for an English-type ale (served at English-type temperatures) in the pubs, but I wonder if that's the whole story.....

 

So here's a question for you;

 

If there was a decent English ale available that you could purchase online for delivery in polypins (about 4.5 litres) in Australia, would you buy it? (Assume the price is roughly equivalent to buying the same quantity from a bottle shop).

 

I suppose the question is; have you been converted to Australian beer or is it because of a lack of supply of the other stuff?

 

Thanks

TNA

 

 

[Quinkla]

I don’t see a market for beer dispensed at cellar temperature. Australians are brought up to believe that beer – as with most cold drinks – should be served as cold as humanly possible. They would return cellar temperature beer. In fact, I was in a hotel in Coober Pedy and the fridge was broken. I thought that sounded great as I would be able to have room temperature beer but I had a hard job persuading the barkeeper to sell me any; he was worried that I would complain and demand my money back.

You can get “English” beer in a couple of bars in Melbourne. From memory, Old Speckled Hen is available. No idea whether it is cask conditioned (I doubt it) and it would doubtless be ice cold. Coopers Sparkling Ale probably counts as bottle conditioned – hence “real” ale.

Best bet is to buy beer from an off licence and drink at home – that way it can be whatever temperature you want. There is a good variety of different beers from micro-breweries – far more so than I had expected.

[Guest TheNewAustralian]

I don’t see a market for beer dispensed at cellar temperature. Australians are brought up to believe that beer – as with most cold drinks – should be served as cold as humanly possible. They would return cellar temperature beer. In fact, I was in a hotel in Coober Pedy and the fridge was broken. I thought that sounded great as I would be able to have room temperature beer but I had a hard job persuading the barkeeper to sell me any; he was worried that I would complain and demand my money back.

 

You can get “English” beer in a couple of bars in Melbourne. From memory, Old Speckled Hen is available. No idea whether it is cask conditioned (I doubt it) and it would doubtless be ice cold. Coopers Sparkling Ale probably counts as bottle conditioned – hence “real” ale.

 

Best bet is to buy beer from an off licence and drink at home – that way it can be whatever temperature you want. There is a good variety of different beers from micro-breweries – far more so than I had expected.

 

Hi there, thanks for the reply.

 

Yes, I'm not disputing the lack of demand in pubs, hotels, etc.

 

What I'm wondering is, is there enough of a market within the ex-pat community to justify me upgrading my brewing equipment to brew ale for home distribution?

[Guest The Pom Queen]

What I'm wondering is, is there enough of a market within the ex-pat community to justify me upgrading my brewing equipment to brew ale for home distribution?

 

Will all the rules and regulations in place probably not lol.:wink:

[Quinkla]

What I'm wondering is, is there enough of a market within the ex-pat community to justify me upgrading my brewing equipment to brew ale for home distribution?

I suspect not. I wouldn't buy beer in polypins; I did that in the UK a couple of times and it never seemed to taste the same as it had before going into the polypin. The range of bottled beer is good enough even if it's not the same as a nice pint in a beergarden on a sunny day or a pint of winter warmer by the fire in December.

[Wildrover]

Hi and welcome

 

Would I buy a decent ale, yes I would but it would have to be good though :biggrin:

When I was in WA last year found a good select of varied ales not all lagered beers

 

Got a bit of experience in the trade bought up in a pub and am an ex brewer. (13 years Brewing industry exp)

 

IMHO (beer tastes are subjective and very individual)

If you really want to impress look at what the Belgium beers/ brewing techniques are like, double hopping etc leaves our British and even the German Reinheitsgebot purity law standing (only water hops yeast malt) no added sugars etc

 

Good luck with the brews

and remember Brewing is an Art not a Science

 

 

 

Hello,

 

Newbie, treat me gently.

 

I like British Ale. I dislike cold fizzy stuff. I now live in Sydders.

 

This is a problem.

 

I've solved it, however. I'm a hobby brewer and can knock together a very reasonable version of London Pride from a recipe which uses ingredients I've managed to source in Australia. It's a pure brew too; water, malt, hops, a bit of sugar and yeast is all that goes into it.

 

It's got me wondering whether there's a market for this. I've visited a couple of microbreweries and they reckon there isn't a market for an English-type ale (served at English-type temperatures) in the pubs, but I wonder if that's the whole story.....

 

So here's a question for you;

 

If there was a decent English ale available that you could purchase online for delivery in polypins (about 4.5 litres) in Australia, would you buy it? (Assume the price is roughly equivalent to buying the same quantity from a bottle shop).

 

I suppose the question is; have you been converted to Australian beer or is it because of a lack of supply of the other stuff?

 

Thanks

TNA

 

 

[Guest TheNewAustralian]

Hi and welcome

 

Would I buy a decent ale, yes I would but it would have to be good though :biggrin:

When I was in WA last year found a good select of varied ales not all lagered beers

 

Got a bit of experience in the trade bought up in a pub and am an ex brewer. (13 years Brewing industry exp)

 

IMHO (beer tastes are subjective and very individual)

If you really want to impress look at what the Belgium beers/ brewing techniques are like, double hopping etc leaves our British and even the German Reinheitsgebot purity law standing (only water hops yeast malt) no added sugars etc

 

Good luck with the brews

and remember Brewing is an Art not a Science

 

 

Cheers.

 

Yes, the purity laws are indeed a wonderful thing and have saved me from a bigger hangover than I deserved on a couple of occasions when in Germany :smile:.

 

I'm concentrating on the London Pride clone at the moment (new name needed; Has "Sydney Pride" been used before for anything? Maybe "Ponting's Finger"?), but I've got a well-proven stout recipe that I'll probably have a play around with later in the year.

 

I've never brewed a wheat beer, maybe that should be a summertime challenge.....

 

The Little Creatures brewery in Freemantle produces some fine beers as do a few other places I've been to but they're "boutique" so you pay the price (literally) accordingly.

 

Interestingly, I visited a micro-brewery in Sydders last week and sampled their English-style ale in the brewroom. Very tasty it was too, really good complex malt and hops flavours bursting through. I went upstairs to the bar and ordered the same beer and couldn't recognise it; the serving temperature killed the flavours down to nothing.

 

Oh well, it would be a dull world if we all liked the same things I suppose.

[pablo]

I'd just buy tooheys old,similar and easier to go the bottlo

[Parley]

Heineken sell a small keg you can put in your fridge.

I know this isn't what you meant, but its the only beer Ive seen in that sort of container.

 

I quite like Heineken but don't know if the beer goes off at all after a while. Probably would get drunk before that happened.

 

You can buy the british ales in the bottle shops.

[fish.01]

Cheers.

 

Yes, the purity laws are indeed a wonderful thing and have saved me from a bigger hangover than I deserved on a couple of occasions when in Germany :smile:.

 

I'm concentrating on the London Pride clone at the moment (new name needed; Has "Sydney Pride" been used before for anything? Maybe "Ponting's Finger"?), but I've got a well-proven stout recipe that I'll probably have a play around with later in the year.

 

...

 

Put "Sydney Pride" into google and you'll find you might have a ready made market if you use that name :wink:

[Guest TheNewAustralian]

Put "Sydney Pride" into google and you'll find you might have a ready made market if you use that name :wink:

 

I couldn't find the "tongue in cheek" smiley icon, unfortunately......

[fish.01]

I couldn't find the "tongue in cheek" smiley icon, unfortunately......

 

Yes, thought you must have been drinking too much of that beer to miss it :wink:

[Guest TheNewAustralian]

Yes, thought you must have been drinking too much of that beer to miss it :wink:

 

Maybe I could shift a few gallons of the Sydney Pride like beer in New York on St. Patrick's Day; pink food colouring rather than green though, of course.

[spottydog]

After getting used to Sydney beer i didn't really like the warm stuff when I went back to the UK and on days like today in Sydney I expect Cellar temperature wouldn't be good.

 

With regard to brewing yourself to sell I expect there would be far to many hurdles to make it viable. Lots of people I know here homebrew although it is a bit hot at the moment for those that don't have a chiller. There is also a home brew shop in Kirrawee that sells excellent 15l brew kits to make many UK and european style brews which although they cost more than the tins are excellent.

 

If you want british beer the Welcome in Rozelle sells Old Speckled Hen on tap but if you like it warm buy 2 so one warms up while drinking the other one. Imported bottles of real ale can be easily found in many bottlo's including Dan Murphys.

 

For Aussie style English beer check out the Lord Nelson in the rocks.