Brewed Under Licence - Help Wanted

[jdpug]

Hey there Beer fans, was hoping to get a watchdog happening to keep a list of "Brewed Under Licence" beers for buyers to be aware of in Australia.

In some cases the locally brewed beer is superior, in some cases not, but different is different; and being forced to squint at 3 point type on the sideways writing of a seemingly foreign beer to ascertain it's actual origin is not very fair in my opinion.

 

As far as I've worked it out so far, my maiden list is as follows:

 

Asahi Soukai Premium Beer (Japan)

Brewed under licence in Australia by ?

 

Asahi Super Dry (Japan)

Brewed under licence in China by ?

 

Beck's (Germany)

Brewed in Australia by Lion Nathan.

 

Blue Moon Belgian White (USA)

Brewed under licence in Australia by ? (US bottles are 355mL and locals are 330mL, so this one's easy to spot).

 

Carlsberg Green (Denmark)

Was brewed in Australia by Fosters, now brewed by Coopers.

 

Coors Lager (USA)

Brewed under licence in Australia by ?

 

Grolsch Premium Lager (Holland)

Brewed in Australia by SAB Miller (at the Bluetongue Brewery). Capped only, all the Swing-Tops are imported?

 

Guinness Extra Stout (Ireland)

Bottles brewed in Australia by Diageo Australia

 

Heineken (Holland)

Brewed in Australia by Lion Nathan. The 500ml cans are imported. I think the imported bottles have a see through label and the local bottles have a solid label.

 

Kingfisher (India)

Brewed under licence in Australia and New Zealand by ? and ?

 

Kirin First Press Beer (Japan)

Brewed under licence in Australia by ?

 

Miller (USA)

Brewed under licence in Australia by ?

 

Peroni Nastro (Italy)

Brewed in Australia by SAB Miller (at the Bluetongue Brewery). Peroni Nastro Azzurro 620mL bottles are imported.

 

Stella Artois (Belgium)

Was Brewed in Australia by AB InBev, now by Lion Nathan (sometimes also sourced from the UK, Ukraine also brew this under licence)

 

Removed:

 

Kronenbourg 1664 (France)

Was brewed in Australia by Fosters, but now fully imported through Coopers.

 

As an aside, I noticed that Sol (Mexico) is brewed under licence in the Netherlands before hitting our fair shores (Australia), talk about a round the world trip on that one!

 

Anyway, if you can update or add any info or beers to the list please feel free, I'll endevour to update the list on this post for anyone else who's interested in their beers possibly alternate origins.

Also, if you have an easier way of telling the difference (other then standing in the bottlo and squinting down to better then 20/20 vision) please fill us in.

 

Cheers everyone, and have a great Easter!

 

Also please feel free to chime in with your own experiences between local and imported versions, it would be very interesting to read others opinions and findings on the matter

 

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

I think Guinness is or was brewed under licence by CUB, but it's been a while since I bought any of it packaged.

[jdpug]

I think Guinness is or was brewed under licence by CUB' date=' but it's been a while since I bought any of it packaged. [/quote']

 

Cheers Otto,

I remember drinking bottles of Guinness brewed in Melbourne many moons ago as well, I haven't had Guinness in anything other than the widget can for so long, I'm not sure what the situation is with them either. Good excuse to visit the shelves at Uncle Dan's - purely for research of course

 

EDIT - Had a look on the shelves today, and Guinness Extra Stout bottles are indeed brewed under licence as well.

[IsaacBeers]

A few years ago I met a brewer who worked at a commercial brewery, and somehow 'brewed under license' beers came up.

He explained that brewing a foreign beer locally has little more to do about cost of importing than it does the quality of the beer.

Long story short, provided it is brewed to the same recipe by a large scale commercial brewery that can control every aspect of the process (Down to replicating the water of a particular area on the other side of the planet!), the Australian brewed product likely tastes MORE authentic than the imported beer does once it has reached us.

The main reasons being the extended time in transit vs fresh, and the brewery unable to guarantee proper handling and storage conditions along the way.

 

The benefit of drinking an Australian brewed Becks, for example, is that it probably tastes more like Becks does in Germany than a German Becks does by the time it gets here.

So in a way, you are getting exactly what you paid for!