ahhhh.. fosters lager

[Stickers]

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/dec/01/fosters-australian-for-beer-around-the-world-will-soon-be-introduced-to-australians

Believe it or not, finding Foster’s beer in Australia – what international drinkers think of as the country’s beer of choice – isn’t easy. In its proverbial homeland, the Southern Cross-spangled cans elude shop shelves and, in 2015, just 10 venues across the entire country poured it on tap. But the brand that promoted Australia’s laidback drinking culture to the world has decided to relaunch locally, upping production in Melbourne by 300% in the coming months.

The brewer Carlton and United Breweries, now owned by Japanese behemoth Asahi, will target hip-pocket nerves, going after low-cost competitors. Thirty cans of Foster’s will retail at $53, compared to Lion’s XXXX Gold at $42.95 and CUB’s own Victoria Bitter at $59.99.

i know i grabbed a 6 pack nearly 20 years ago and it was average, can't imagine much is going to change

[Shamus O'Sean]

It was the first beer I got smashed on.  So I have a soft spot for it.

[Lab Cat]

Fosters was cleverly and expensively marketed. It's a crap beer by any measure. They made a fortune selling to the UK in the 80s, on the back of a long series of clever and funny ads with Paul Hogan. He should have got himself a % of sales. They certainly never paid him enough.

Nothing has changed, they set the template for selling shit products with big ad budgets.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Lab Cat

[Pickles Jones]

12 minutes ago, Lab Cat said:

Fosters was cleverly and expensively marketed. It's a crap beer by any measure. They made a fortune selling to the UK in the 80s, on the back of a long series of clever and funny ads with Paul Hogan. He should have got himself a % of sales. They certainly never paid him enough.

Nothing has changed, they set the template for selling shit products with big ad budgets.

I was in a UK Pub last year and the person behind the bar said I suppose you'll want a Fosters. I said that only place have seen Fosters is in the UK. She was quite surprised thinking Fosters was Australia's beer of choice. Yes a very good advertising campaign!

[Malter White]

12 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

It was the first beer I got smashed on.  So I have a soft spot for it.

Probably not the same Fosters Lager they produce today, Shamus. The current version is only 4% ABV. I'm pretty sure it was 4.9% back in the 70s when I was a boy living in Victoria. I was too young to be drinking back then but my dad and uncles used to crack the big cans of it. No pop tops or ring pulls. The tin had to be perforated with a triangular shaped tin opener. A knowledgeable chap like yourself would be familiar with what I mean.
I have tried the current version. It's not a bad beer, it's just not a great beer.

[Lab Cat]

12 hours ago, Pickles Jones said:

I was in a UK Pub last year and the person behind the bar said I suppose you'll want a Fosters. I said that only place have seen Fosters is in the UK. She was quite surprised thinking Fosters was Australia's beer of choice. Yes a very good advertising campaign!

Hogan was perfect for it, a stereotypical Aussie bloke, who was relatable to their market. XXXX went one better with their series, which pulled out every outback cliché and stereotype imaginable and made some funny, memorable ads. I think XXXX was a decent beer back then, in export cans at least. The tapped version was as bad as anything else on any other tap.

Edited December 2, 2020 by Lab Cat

[Shamus O'Sean]

10 hours ago, MUZZY said:

Probably not the same Fosters Lager they produce today, Shamus. The current version is only 4% ABV. I'm pretty sure it was 4.9% back in the 70s when I was a boy living in Victoria. I was too young to be drinking back then but my dad and uncles used to crack the big cans of it. No pop tops or ring pulls. The tin had to be perforated with a triangular shaped tin opener. A knowledgeable chap like yourself would be familiar with what I mean.
I have tried the current version. It's not a bad beer, it's just not a great beer.

You are right there Muzzy.  It was a 4.9% beer then.  We're probably similar vintage.  When I drank it, it was the tear drop shaped ring pull.  None of this current day wide mouth stuff, designed to make you drink it quicker, so you buy more.

I never drank from the big cans.  But I do remember dad piercing one side fully with the opener and then just piercing a small opening on the opposite side, to let air into the can so it would come out the big hole without sloshing.

[jamiek86]

On 12/1/2020 at 10:51 PM, Shamus O'Sean said:

It was the first beer I got smashed on.  So I have a soft spot for it.

 

11 hours ago, MUZZY said:

Probably not the same Fosters Lager they produce today, Shamus. The current version is only 4% ABV. I'm pretty sure it was 4.9% back in the 70s when I was a boy living in Victoria. I was too young to be drinking back then but my dad and uncles used to crack the big cans of it. No pop tops or ring pulls. The tin had to be perforated with a triangular shaped tin opener. A knowledgeable chap like yourself would be familiar with what I mean.
I have tried the current version. It's not a bad beer, it's just not a great beer.

I was also under age when first tried the original one and I have to say it was my favourite of all the mega swill. when I found out they re introduced it at 4% it makes me angry too many of great beers I grew up with in tassie had this happen. cascade pale ale then the premium lager.  they are the only ones at top of my head recepie changes ruin them. 

Edited December 2, 2020 by jamiek86

[Malter White]

@jamiek86 oh yeah, Cascade premium lager was lovely around 20 years ago. Except for when you got a little bit of foil from the bottle neck on a filling in your teeth. I haven't had one in decades. I just don't see it around anymore. But if they've changed the recipe I guess it doesn't matter so much.

[jamiek86]

8 hours ago, MUZZY said:

@jamiek86 oh yeah, Cascade premium lager was lovely around 20 years ago. Except for when you got a little bit of foil from the bottle neck on a filling in your teeth. I haven't had one in decades. I just don't see it around anymore. But if they've changed the recipe I guess it doesn't matter so much.

they watered it down to 4.5% took some of the late hops out put in a smaller 330ml stubbie and made it a pack of 16. probably only sell a small amount to fancy people who live in high rises and think they clever.

[Malter White]

8 minutes ago, jamiek86 said:

they watered it down to 4.5% took some of the late hops out put in a smaller 330ml stubbie and made it a pack of 16. probably only sell a small amount to fancy people who live in high rises and think they clever.

330ml bottle!!! That rings a bell. Would most likely be why I stopped drinking it and/or looking for it.

[jamiek86]

4 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

330ml bottle!!! That rings a bell. Would most likely be why I stopped drinking it and/or looking for it.

if ever go to tassie buy the non premium lager in blue can or stubbie only around Hobart area heaps better than the premium. nice drop they wont stock it in the north as its boags territory but can buy a boags in the south. wonder why the north and south hate each other with that going on.

Edited December 2, 2020 by jamiek86

[Malter White]

2 minutes ago, jamiek86 said:

if ever go to tassie buy the non premium lager in blue can or stubbie only around Hobart area heaps better than the premium. nice drop they wont stock it in the north as its boags territory but can buy a boags in the south. wonder why the north and south hate each other with that going on.

I've only been to Tassie once in 1992 and I do remember the territorialism was alive and well then. Before arriving someone told me to drink Boags...it's beautiful.
Not knowing much about beer back then I bought the Boags and thought it was pretty average. I discovered later I'd bought the wrong Boags. I think it was Boags Bitter and my friend meant for me to drink Premium Lager.  I reckon this was just before CUB got hold of the brand and took it national. Being a South Aussie I was blissfully unaware of the different Boags varieties. Regardless of the beer, the state of Tas is beautiful and I should get back there.

[jamiek86]

41 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I've only been to Tassie once in 1992 and I do remember the territorialism was alive and well then. Before arriving someone told me to drink Boags...it's beautiful.
Not knowing much about beer back then I bought the Boags and thought it was pretty average. I discovered later I'd bought the wrong Boags. I think it was Boags Bitter and my friend meant for me to drink Premium Lager.  I reckon this was just before CUB got hold of the brand and took it national. Being a South Aussie I was blissfully unaware of the different Boags varieties. Regardless of the beer, the state of Tas is beautiful and I should get back there.

yes I miss the place left at 17 now 34 so by next year I've been on mainland longer. by my generation the whole rival thing started to die off and wasn't as bad just something remembered your dad sayingbut didn't understand it. just like a bad joke you rolled eyes at or had a chuckle at an insult. from what I hear though prison is where you need to choose a side and they segregate themselves like the different races in America. have a younger brother who lived on rough side of life juvenile prison in the north and adult prison in south both the same. now I live in nsw on border of vic and have to cross to Mexico sometimes 

Edited December 2, 2020 by jamiek86

[Cee]

The Odd Angry Shot

20 cents

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

I have a Fosters Tray, used to have a set of glasses but all gone now. If you want to see Fosters Cans everywhere watch "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie" 

it's a laid back Aussie movie made back in 1972 for those not old enough to no what I am talking about. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

I just looked around for it, but it's in the Brew room.

[Journeyman]

I was working in a pub in Lakes Entrance when they changed the Fosters recipe. In the space of 2 months we went from either 2 or 3 pallets of Fosters and usually 1 of mixed CUB beers (sometimes more if the terrorists were coming to town) to 3 of mixed beers and 1 of Fosters. Over the next few months the Fosters became 1 of the mixed brews and Carlton & VB got their own pallets. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

Once when I crossed the border into Mexico (oops I mean, you know what I mean) the first pub I called on the publican was finishing sweeping up out front, he saw my number plates & ran inside to announce my arrival. There were the usual VB can drinkers, others swilling from their schooners etc & when I walked in they all started going on with the obvious - Croweater, Southwark etc, so I asked for a XXXX , nobody said anything !  I don't remember how long its been that I saw a Fosters.

[Bribie G]

Fosters was a 4.9%  ABV lager and not too bad back in the 1970s. I used to drink the imported version when I lived in the UK and it held up well against tasty European lagers.

Then in the 1980s it all went to the dogs. With the beer wars happening (Alan Bond, Powers Brewery opening, etc) CUB needed to come up with a way of bolstering sales in the NSW and QLD markets that were heavily Bond states (Tooheys, XXXX). So they introduced Fosters on tap and it was a shocker as I remember, nothing like the tasty canned or stubby version. There are stories that they simply tweaked Carlton Draught.

This move failed miserably and they had a second shot with VB which as we all know was a winner for them. Then they revived Carlton Draught with the "Brewery Fresh" slogan, plugged that dreadful ice beer Carlton Cold that's still around as a light beer, and Fosters was basically forgotten about. Last bottle I had was in 2000 and by that time CUB had done their usual "boiling a frog" exercise and had gradually removed any malt or hop presence, as they did with Powers.

This is a favourite tactic, when they want to kill off a beer they gradually make it undrinkable until nobody wants it anymore and then retire it due to "lack of demand".  XXXX heavy are doing the same thing, probably as a prelude to shutting  down the Milton Brewery in Brisbane.

I think they are flogging a dead horse. The thing that really annoys me is that the new 4% version is labelled "Fosters Classic".  Never was.

The only connection between the UK version and ours is that they use the Fosters B strain yeast, but it's also 4% and brewed with UK malt and hops.

[Bribie G]

On 12/2/2020 at 11:53 PM, MUZZY said:

@jamiek86 oh yeah, Cascade premium lager was lovely around 20 years ago. Except for when you got a little bit of foil from the bottle neck on a filling in your teeth. I haven't had one in decades. I just don't see it around anymore. But if they've changed the recipe I guess it doesn't matter so much.

It was an excellent beer, with Hersbrucker as an aroma hop. Then for some reason they switched the hop to Australian Summer and shortly afterwards the brand disappeared. Same as happened to Hahn Premium (full strength not the light).  I guess they just make more money from selling swill.

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, Bribie G said:

It was an excellent beer, with Hersbrucker as an aroma hop. Then for some reason they switched the hop to Australian Summer and shortly afterwards the brand disappeared. Same as happened to Hahn Premium (full strength not the light).  I guess they just make more money from selling swill.

The Hahn Premium full strength was a cracking beer. But like the other beers, it got neglected.

[Red devil 44]

I walked into a bottle shop ( they call it a Liquor Store ) in Montreal, Canada about 3 yrs ago, the guy said we’ve got Fosters here sir, I said mate we don’t even drink that dogsh#t at home.

It was a 1 litre can too.