ALCOHOL POLICY

Binge drinking A national movement, launched this month and supported by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the News Ltd Real Heroes Walk Away campaign, urges that ‘high-profile tragedies caused by binge drinking should be highlighted to children to combat booze-related violence’. The medicos are pleading for ‘Australia’s incredibly dumb drinking culture’ to be stamped out through measures such as ‘increasing tax on alcohol, raising the minimum drinking age, introducing earlier closing hours, watering down alcopops and shaming drunk dads.’ They maintain that drunken violence is now a national issue that urgently required a shift in community attitudes. At present, according to the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, only 5% of Australians can identify safe drinking levels. The AMA has urged the Federal Government to initiate a national inquiry into alcohol advertising and suggests that the legal drinking age should be raised to 21, with consideration of an even higher limit e.g. 25 years. [From Adelaide Sunday Mail, Sep 16; Advertiser, Sep 2, 2012 & other sources]

Energy drinks Recent negative media coverage of energy drinks mixed with alcohol prompted industry bodies to reject calls for further restrictions on their sale in both licensed and non-licensed venues. Geoff Parker, CEO of the Australian Beverages Council, which represents the energy drinks industry said that licensed venue data show that sales of energy drinks account for about 0.6% per cent of the takings of an average bar. ‘A standard 250mL can of energy drink contains no more caffeine than a cup of coffee. Energy drinks are highly regulated in Australia and these standards not only regulate the ingredients of these products, but also ensure that all product packaging contain warning statements about the caffeine content and that they are not suitable for children and people sensitive to caffeine,’ Parker said. ‘The industry contends this provides consumers with sufficient information so as they are able to make informed decisions … Unfortunately you can’t regulate against a lack of common sense’. The Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia said that it has imposed strict standards on its members regarding pre-mixed and RTD alcoholic energy drinks. [From The Shout, Sep 19, 2012]

More calls for earlier closing in SA Following more late night violence in Adelaide, Gawler and other locations, SA police are again calling for tighter restrictions on all licensed premises, including reductions in early morning trading hours. Premier Wetherill said that ‘there is a need for a shift in community attitude towards drunken violence’ and agreed to discuss the situation and ways to raise awareness, possibly through a media campaign. [From Adelaide Advertiser, Sep 5, 2012]

Some owners/operators of hotels and other late-night spots maintain that ‘many venues pay only lip service to the responsible service of alcohol – people only get kicked out when they run out of money or the venue closes’. They say it’s time for the State Government to seek input from the operators who successfully counter violence and get tough on those who don’t. [From Adelaide Sunday Mail, Sep 9, 2012]

BEER & BREWING: Australia – general

New beer restaurant A new restaurant and bar in Adelaide, named the Curious Squire, in reference to the James Squire brand, will have a beer list rather than a wine list, featuring local and imported beers and matching food with beer (rather than with wine). [From SA Business Journal, Sep 4, 2012]

Parallel importing At the recent Australian Liquor Stores Association (ALSA) conference, Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) sales director Peter Filipovic confirmed parallel imports had been a significant issue for CUB when it was the licensed importer of the Corona brand, which he said is now Lion’s problem. ‘Having a co-operative principal such as Modelo at the time meant that a few distributors were actually closed down because they were working outside the parameters from other countries,’ he told delegates. James Brindley, MD of Lion Beer, Wine & Spirits, acknowledged CUB’s efforts to reduce parallel imports. For Premium Beverages – brewing and distributing Sapporo and Carlsberg brewed under licence in Australia by Coopers – pricing strategy has been a key tactic in reducing the practice, says national sales manager Paul Esposito. ’We made the decision to reduce the wholesale price and hopefully discourage these parallel guys from taking on our brands,’ he said. [From The Shout, Sep 14, 2012]

BEER & BREWING: Australia – mainstream breweries

Casella/C-C Amatil In a recent interview, Terry Davis (Group MD of C-CA) stressed that his organization was experienced in building high quality alcohol markets and, during its partnership with SABMiller, had raised its beer brands to 10% of Australian premium sales. He said the planned joint venture with Casella – the Australian Beer Co – will be ideally placed to look at opportunities at every level in the premium and craft beer sectors, as well as imports, when it launches in December 2013. To quote commentator James Atkinson: ‘While you are sitting down to Christmas lunch, Terry Davis and John Casella will be manning a mash tun’.

Davis maintains that the joint operation will offer ‘a total category focus for both on and off-premise customers – serving more beverage categories than anyone else’. [From National Liquor News, Sep 2012]

CUB Full-page ads in daily papers in early September, featuring a letter from CEO Ari Mervis and addressed to Victoria Bitter drinkers, reinforced the company’s new campaign to restore the beer to its former glory. Telling drinkers that ‘We’ve heard you…and we’re fixing it’, CUB urges them ‘in the course of next month, to look out for the Original Big Cold Beer’ [From Adelaide Advertiser, Sep 5, 2012]

BEER & BREWING: Australia – craft & smaller breweries

National It’s the festival season – here are some listed in the next two months:

• October 6: 2nd Annual Brew Mountains Beer and Cider Festival, Leura NSW
• October 13: Sprung in the Alley, Swan Valley WA
• October 27-28: 8th Annual Australian Beer Festival, The Australian Hotel, Sydney NSW
• November 3-4: Bitter & Twisted International Boutique Beer Festival, Maitland NSW
• November 17: Beers By The Bay, Mornington VIC
• November 24-25: Tasmanian International Beerfest, Hobart TAS
• November25: 6th Annual Boutique Beer Festival, Warners Bay NSW

[from Australian Brews News]

Little Creatures takeover In a bittersweet moment the WA team, who created boutique brewer Little World Beverages (LWB) more than a decade ago, watched shareholders vote through Kirin‘s $362 million takeover bid for LWB. The vote on September 17 returned an overwhelming 99.97% in favour; about half of the company’s 1,200 shareholders participated in the move, which will see LWB delisted from the ASX and become a wholly owned subsidiary of Lion, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Kirin. The four founding directors: Nic Trimboli, Howard Cearns, David Martin and Adrian Finni, who created the company with the dream of finding the perfect pale ale, were all present to watch the final vote. [From E-Malt.comFlash 38a, Sep 20, 2012]

Some view the move with doubt: For example, The Wheatsheaf at Thebarton SA (an inner Adelaide suburb) – a specialist craft beer pub – has served Little Creatures Pale Ale and Rogers’ Beer continuously for seven years, publican Jade Flavell reports, saying she will take a ‘wait and see’ approach to the takeover. ‘We were one of the first pubs outside WA to pour the whole range’ she said … ‘We’re not going to throw a tantrum and stop pouring Creatures because of the takeover, but we’re far less inclined to work as hard as we have in the past. It’s always about the beer for us – if we perceive there to be some quality changes, then they’ll go,’ she said. [From The Shout, Sep 21, 2012].

NSW: Brewpack, the new owner of former Australian Independent Brewers (AIB) at Smeaton Grange, has identified a current shortage of contract-brewing capacity on the east coast, particularly for bottling. Head brewer Sunny Browning said that consideration would be given to expanding the plant’s present capacity of about 45,000hL per year. [From Australian Liquor News, Sep 2012]

QLD. Brewing began in mid-August at the Granite Belt Brewery, part of the Happy Valley Retreat, near Stanthorpe, where Geoff and Dee Davenport have installed a 9 hL two-vessel Chinese-built brewhouse. The brewery opened in September with four beers on tap: porter, Irish red ale, pilsner, kolsch. A wheat beer and IPA will be added soon.

At Cleveland, Red Bay Brewery, a brew-on-premises shop, has recently begun selling several of its draught products through a small number of licensed retail outlets in Brisbane, after obtaining a producer/wholesaler licence late last year. [From Australian Small Brewery Update, Sep 2012]

SA: Adding to the growing range of highly-hopped craft beers, Brewboys have released Hoppapotamus IPA at 7.0%abv and 80+IBU. Brewed with Galaxy and Topaz hops, it retails at $100 for 12 x 650mL bottles. [From Adelaide Advertiser Sep 12, 2012]

WA: In a recent Hong Kong judging, Feral Brewing took top honours with its Hop Hog. The judges gave it the highest number of points of the more than 250 entries in the competition, so that Hop Hog was Champion Beer of the 2012 Awards as well as topping the IPA category. {From Zythophile, Sep 11, 2012, Australian Brews News].

BEER & BREWING: International

Global Growth of beer consumption in the first half of 2012 has been influenced by a wide range of factors, including the ongoing impact of austerity programs and some poor weather but above all by a slowdown in China, Plato Logic reported in August. The situation of China, with over 25% of the global market, is such that analysts are forecasting lower global growth of just +2.1% for the year, despite some signs of recovery in some countries. [From Belgian Shop Week Newsletter 1473, Sep 7, 2012]

New Zealand The country’s largest local government body, Auckland Council, is putting heavy pressure on central city liquor retailers to ‘voluntarily’ stop the sales of single cans or bottles of beer and individual RTD pre-mixed spirits and, so far, 59 out of 80 retailers have agreed. The council aims to stop ‘preloading’, either in the streets or car parks in close proximity to on-licenses and, while the ban is clearly targeted cheaper mainstream beers and RTDs, craft beers, frequently sold in single bottles, are also caught up by the ban. These generally more expensive craft beers play little or no part in the problems occasioned by heavy drinking, particularly among younger people, and thus the blanket ban affects drinkers who want to purchase them responsibly in central Auckland. [From Beer & Brewer, Sep 7, 2012]

BEVERAGES: General

Coca-Cola Amatil The non-alcoholic beverage business of the Fosters Group has been acquired by C-CA. More than 20 brands are included such as Cascade, Apple Isle and Nature’s Orchard. [From National Liquor News, Sep 2012]

CIDER, JUICES, RTDs & SOFT DRINKS

Ciders still booming Recent data show that cider grew faster than any other segment of the liquor market for the year to June 2012, with its popularity continuing the trend of the last five years. The market has grown both in the range of brands and the number of variants, as traditional apple and pear beverages have been joined by a growing array of citrus, berry and other fruit alternatives, produced both locally and overseas. The number of taps dispensing mainstream ciders has increased dramatically and boutique ciders are also showing strong growth patterns. [From National Liquor News, Sep 2012]

Super-size drinks banned New York City’s Board of Health has banned sales of big sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, concession stands and other eateries. The regulation puts a 16-oz size limit on cups and bottles of non-diet sodas, sweetened teas, and other calorie-packed beverages with the ban applying in fast-food joints, movie houses and Broadway theatres, workplace cafeterias, and most other places selling prepared food. However, it doesn’t cover beverages sold in supermarkets or most convenience stores nor to lower-calorie drinks, alcoholic beverages, or drinks that are more than half milk or 70% unsweetened juice. [From IFT Weekly Newsletter, Sep 19, 2012]

WINE & SPIRITS

Honey bourbon craze Retailers should be moving fast to maximize value from the rapidly growing honey bourbon segment, according to Nielsen director Michael Walton, speaking at the recent ALSA conference. He said the first mover in honey bourbon, Wild Turkey American Honey, is already responsible for about a quarter of total Wild Turkey sales and that, while it’s early days for Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey and Jim Beam Honey, the category is clearly worthy of retailers’ attention. In North America, flavoured bourbon has nearly tripled sales in a single year, albeit off a low base. ‘The rise of the sweeter palate is also happening in Australia, as consumers start drinking more honey flavoured bourbons, which used to account for less than 1% of sales just three years ago’, he said. [From National Liquor News, Sep 2012]

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FROM PAST DIGESTS … 5 YEARS AGO

New craft breweries Burleigh Brewing Co released its first beers in late July. Situated inland from Burleigh Heads QLD, the brewery will supply both draught and bottled versions of three beers under the Duke brand: a European-style lager, a super-hoppy pale ale and a mid-strength lager. Distribution as far north to Hervey Bay and south to Coffs Harbour is planned.

In suburban Sydney the small (60L) Happy Goblin Brewery at Mount Kuring-Gai released its unfiltered and unpasteurized ales in bottles and kegs in June and in August a new microbrewery at Rydges Hotel and Resort at Campbelltown opened. Appin Ale and Macarthur Wheat are available in the bars and restaurant and customers can view the new 5hL plant. [From Australian Small Brewery Update – September 2007]