E-Malt.com News article: Australia: Foster’s revives two Queensland brands and removes one New South Wales beer from regular production

Foster's brewing division CUB has revived the classic Queensland beers Brisbane Bitter and Bulimba Gold Top just days before the brewer is set to be sold to British-based SABMiller. However, the NSW-based KB is to be culled, The Australian reported on November, 29.

The Queensland beers, last seen in the 1980s, have been re-created in a limited run of just 5000 cases each, to be sold in Brisbane bottle shops.

Carlton United Brewers brewing operations manager Geoff Day said the company could bring the beers back to full-time production if they proved popular.

"Beer drinkers are drawn to brands that remind them of home," he said, noting the success of the Great Northern brand it launched last year in Queensland.

CUB master brewer John Cozens said: "There's a strong nostalgia element in beer. People have fond memories of these brands and their parents drinking them." He said the brand revivals were not deliberately timed to coincide with the A$12.9 billion takeover, which shareholders are expected to approve at a meeting to be held in Melbourne on December, 1 despite opposition from small investors dismayed to be losing the iconic company to foreign ownership.

"Takeover or not, I think Australians will always be able to drink plenty of beer brewed in Australia," Mr Cozens said.

SABMiller has vowed to continue to brew beer in Australia for the domestic market, and will manage the CUB business from within Australia while continuing to invest in its brands.

A spokesman confirmed that KB was being removed from regular production but said it would occasionally be re-released in limited quantities.


30 November, 2011