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Barrier Reef Brewing Co.
Who would have thought that saving a tree frog from a hot cup of tea would lead to a life as a brewer? Well it was a bit more round-about than that for Cameron McPherson, co-owner and brewer at the new Cairns brewery, Barrier Reef Brewing Co. Cameron left for the UK at the age of 26, with a freshly minted Veterinary Degree in his back pocket, planning on making a living working in marine mammal me...
Yenda
I love it when a sample turns up and it ends up being much better than I thought it was going to be. A few weeks ago I followed up the Coca Cola Amatil (CCA) rep to lay my hands on some samples of their Yenda beers. Yes, you did read that right. Coca-Cola Amatil and beer. It doesn’t seem to fit as well as “Holden and Bathurst”, “Queensland and Origin winners” or “Sail & Anchor and a word that ...
John Boston Beers
The really big boys of brewing, the multinationals for example, spend a lot on market research and marketing, in some cases more than the GDP of a small country, working out when to release a beer, how to market it, what to make it look like. The aim is to create a brand that has a very distinctive image in terms of packaging and is easily marketed, leveraging off other arms of company (if there ...
Cricketers Arms
Ahh the Test Cricket has returned to our TV screens. As enjoyable as watching the Matador Cup and the International One Day matches have been, it’s just not the same as watching an International Test. Especially when we are playing the Poms. Yes, I’m one of those tragics that can spend five days at a field watching grown men chase a little red ball around a field, throw it back to another bloke wh...
Little Creature on TAP!
I’m a big fan of Little Creatures Pale Ale, its one of my favourite summertime drinking beers. A lot of people have bagged the brewery, not the product, since it was bought out by Lion Nathan (the makers of all things Fourex and Tooheys, just to name two of their vast range). A lot of press has been from the hard core, hard nosed craft beer drinkers being disappointed that one of our leading indep...
Moa
Well the Bledisloe has been run and won again by the All Blacks. Too big, too strong, too fast. But it was while having to throw back a tin of the very interesting tasting Tui Lager as being on the losing end of a bet with a Kiwi mate, that I realised that us Aussies get to have the last laugh, we have the better beer. The term “interesting” is used more in a politically correct way here, the edit...
Crown Golden Ale
The Glow of a Golden Crown… sounds like a bad movie title really… I dislike writing about drinks that aren’t great. For a start no-one wants to read about what’s bad, they want to read about what’s good in the booze world. Which drinks should be at the top of your list when you’re wandering through the aisle of your local, which vintages to look for on a certain wine? But every now and...
Australia Day 2014, Music and beer
The beer industry is in a funny sort of spot lately. The average consumption of beer is decreasing, but yet the growth in craft beer has never been more active than it is now. There has been more craft breweries pop up over the course of the last few years than there are pimples on a teenage school boy. One of my mates recently said it was kind of like the music scene during the late 70’s and earl...