Australia Day last year saw me sitting throwing myself whole heartedly into festivities at the Kurramine Beach pub. Trying to eat my body weight in snags, throwing of thongs and even getting myself wrangled into a tractor pulling competition.
The whole time I kept myself in peak tractor pulling conditioning by keeping up my fluids, namely with Australia’s best selling beer Fourex (or simply XXXX) Gold. This year we had just come back a long camping trip and couldn’t face another weekend away, but I sat back and thought about that Kurramine weekend, and in particular, those Fourex Gold’s.
Now I’m not going to start the whole Commercial Macro Beers vs. Craft Brewery Beers debate. I’m sure I’ve preached enough about my perceptions of the lack of taste in some of the commercial Australian beers, but this is being equally balanced by the release of a lot of the very, very average and tasteless “craft beers” that are being released by breweries, especially those that are owned in part or whole by supermarkets. I get about 500 words in this column so going into the ins and outs of a beer is not possible, and sometimes it comes across as though I’m saying that every beer needs to be a flavour bomb that goes off in your mouth. And this isn’t true; there is definitely a place there for those beers that aren’t as heavy in flavour.
Over the years, I’ve found Fourex Gold to be a beer that makes its way into our camping gear, simply because of that fact its in tins, and because of its ability to be enjoyed over long periods of time and more importantly as I get older, not get messy over those long periods. During our eight weeks of camping I spent a lot of time putting in research on Fourex Gold.
I adhered closely to the “lunch time” rule, i.e. no beer before lunch. As the weeks went on and the days got hotter earlier, so too did beer o’clock get earlier. When the time came that beer o’clock was rapidly colliding with sunrise, it became quite obvious to me why Gold has taken that top selling spot of VB.
It’s so hot and humid up here (Far North Queensland, Australia) over December and January, especially so in a camper trailers canvas tent, you need to constantly consume cold drinks, and water didn’t quench that dry thirst, soft drink would put you into hospital with diabetes and so you’re left with beer. After a few heavy beers in the oppressive heat you start to feel sleepy so if you want to be able to quench that thirst and still be standing later in the day, then you need to drink mid-strength beer. The only question is which mid-strength? And those yellow 30 pack slabs were the answer.
XXXX was released in 1924, and has been brewed in the Milton (Brisbane) brewery since its introduction. The “X” system was a hangover from imperial days when, because of high illiteracy rates, brewers would simply mark the quality of their goods with an X. the more X’s the better the quality, with XXXX being a traditional mark for the best quality in brewing. Fourex Gold was introduced to the market in 1992, and quickly became the beer of choice when someone didn’t want to “turn the crystals green”.
Like most macro lagers it’s got a clear golden colour to it, with a white head that fades away quickly. There are faint husky grainy notes with some vegetal and hop notes, with a touch of apple stems to it. On the tongue Gold pretty much follows the aroma notes, the flavours disappear pretty quickly, with a light mouthfeel and good carbonation. Unlike a lot of lower alcohol beers it still manages to hold together a solid body and texture.
It all makes it easy to put back a few in hot climates, which is kind of the idea really.
