Brissiegirl

did you get to the Lake District in the end??? But your trip would have been all the better for having the rum and killer pythons!!

Grayling

My wife found some Cooper's Sparkling in a supermarket last week. Either Safeway or Sainsburys.

Worth checking them both.

G

bundy

Yes. Just. Needed Mr B's aussie charm at the station to get them to change our tickets though

And yes, the rum went down a treat (especially since we went to stay with a load of aussies in Edinburgh first)

bundy

I see. Now you show up, G. Mention of beer and he comes running

Some of these aussie beers turn up in the most unlikely places. Mr B will now be legging it to Sainsbury's and Safeways

worzel

I think we had just had a spell of a few nights heavy drinking following a trip to a winery and it was advertised as good for your liver. Seemed like a good idea at the time . Mind, if someone told me I had to drink another one of them the morning after I next get drunk I would probably give up booze for life!

As for Aussie beers, the best of a bad lot were MB (rather than VB) and Coopers Red. When we occassionally stumbled across an English/Irish bar out there I gladly paid £4/pint for Kilkenny etc a few times. We had a meal in Hamilton (Vic/SA border) one night and I finished off with a brandy. Despite clearly saying I wanted it straight, nothing at all in it, zilch, neat, they still gave it me with ice in. They couldn't get there heads around serving a drink that wasn't chilled. In the end, with so much great wine at cheap prices out there, I mostly drank that.

Brissiegirl

did you actually get any of the rum then? or did you have to fight off all the Expat Aussies in Edingburgh??

bundy

Well, luckily for us, they were all hungover when we arrived so we had most of it to ourselves

Brissiegirl

now that was a stroke of luck

Sue from Manchester

Thanks to the guys on here I managed to buy VB at Oddbins. They have an offer at the moment, 4 for £4, so bought a slab

Jonahs_mummy

No they only sell Hahn Premium....... I emailed them to make sure & they said nope...

worzel

You can get 24 bottles of VB (375ml) from Majestic Wine for £21.60 and they deliver (free as well if I remember). Though why anyone would want to pay premium beer prices for a crap lager is beyond me! For that genuine Aussie experience stick it in the freezer and drink it just before it sets from an insulated holder.

DollyDaydream

Hey Worzel

Thanks for the tip. Just been on the Majestic website and found the VB. We have a Majestic about 3 miles away from us so I'll pop in and see if they have any, otherwise I'll order it off the net. I tried to locate VB ages ago but had no luck, apart from some obscure shop in London. Mr DD acquired a taste for it when he was over in Sydney. You're a star!

D D

NJJ

I'm a bit of a beer connoisseur actually so should be more than qualified to assist!

You can get Stella in a lot of bars in the major cities, although to me the taste is quite a let down from the equivalent in the UK. I have found that drinkers in each state are quite loyal to their local brews - however bad it tastes! There is one exception to this rule which is Victoria Bitter, which is generally sold all over the country. The beer in SA is quite possibly the worst of all, although there is also one exception to this (called Coopers Sparkling I think) which is quite palatable. the Victorian people's favourite premium lager is Carlton Crown Lager, although I think this is overrated. The Carlton Cold did not used to be too bad, but the recipe was changed and the alcohol percentage was reduced by about 0.5% a while ago and it lost a lot of it's kick. The same applies for Carlton Draught, which on my first visit to Australia four years ago or so was a nice drink - which has now been ruined. In perth, Swan Lager is the go and I think it tasted ok but I cannot remember entirely how is tastes as I only had about two pints when I was over there. You say you have tried the XXXX so I'll skip over this, with only a mention to see if you tried the XXXX Gold or XXXX Bitter. XXXXGold tastes awful but the XXXX Bitter is the best of a bad bunch up there in Qld. In Sydney/most of NSW (except Broken Hill which is more SA influenced) Tooheys is the go. Tooheys New is not a bad drop, but it MUST be served ice cold otherwise it is ruined. A lot of people rave on about the Tasmanian beers - Cascade or James Boag's, but I failed to see what all the fuss was about on my visit to Tassie. They are nothing special. The best beer of all though for the premium beer drinker is Melbourne Bitter. A sterling 4.9% brew for me stands head & shoulders above any other Australian beer I have tried (most of them I believe). Overlooked by many Australian Beer drinkers for beers such as VB, Carlton Draught or Crown Lager, Melbourne Bitter is definitely Australia's most underrated beer. Unfortunately though, this means that not many pubs have the Melbourne Bitter on tap. The only place I have found it was at a small pub/hotel/pizza restaraunt place near the centre of Hobart.

I have not mentioned Light beer as I personally wouldn't touch the stuff, but my missus who likes the odd light beer now + again reccommends Cascade Light as the top light beer.

Also, as a side note, Real Ale drinkers prepare to be disappointed. VERY disappointed at that. I like the odd real ale over in blighty and have a hard time finding any decent ones in oz. The only one that vaguely satisfied my desire for an ale was the local IPA at the James Squire brewhouse in melbourne, which I think is on Russell Street.


Anyone else wanting to know more about Australian beer, please don't hesitate to ask. The same goes for anybodyelse moving to oz that likes a bet on the Gee-Gees, I may be able to help as some of the betting/form guides etc. are quite different from the UK.

regards
NJJ

PS - all this talk about beers got me thirsty so I'm off for a pint!

Beegee

Ah Little Creatures a lovely place to waste an afternoon

Well put NJJ, I was thinking about trying to write that down but you've got it spot on there

steve the man

theres also another one that no buggers mentioned yet coopers stout superb very dark malty licourishy nice smooth long lasting aftertaste and at 6.5abv a bit of a headache inducer if overindulged