Victoria Bitter Ale

Post by **Oliver** » Thursday May 05, 2005 5:55 pm

Apparently CUB has released a Victoria Bitter Ale to celebrate some milestone in the production of VB (now a disgusting lager). The bloke in the bottleshop tonight was telling me that he's tasted it and it's pretty good. In fact he said it was about as far removed from the dreaded VB as you could get.

He said it wouldn't be sold in bottleshops (only pubs, restaurants, etc). But he said he'll probably be getting some and said I could come in for a taste even though he won't be allowed to sell it to me. I can't wait!

Has anyone tried VB Ale?

Oliver

Evo · Post by **Evo** » Thursday May 05, 2005 7:39 pm

It's not the first of April today is it ?

gregb · Post by **gregb** » Thursday May 05, 2005 8:43 pm

Very sceptical, but will retain an open mind.

Greg.

anti-fsck · Post by **anti-fsck** » Saturday May 07, 2005 7:05 am

It's actually an Abbots Lager. CUB (now known as "Carlton and United Beverages" instead of "Carlton & United Breweries" in appreciation of the fact that they now make alcopop mixed drinks as well as beer) produced a one-off run of Abbots to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Each staff member was given a longneck of the stuff, and as far as I know it wasn't sold commercially. Tasted like a Stirling, if ever you've lowered yourself that far.
Considering that Abbots was traditionally a label of blended beers (think "Fred: Hell's bells, Bill, a rat fell in the Melbourne Bitter vat last week. Tip it out? Bill: Nah, just run it into the Abbots line along with that VB that tasted like soap water) it's surprising that they should resurrect a label that they killed off in the 1980s(?) to celebrate the brewery's achievements. I'm not sure how closely the original recipie was adhered to, but when you consider the modern breweries talk about adjusting IBUs using bittering agents added at the rate of a few millilitres to the tens of thousands of litre vats, it's hard to believe that it was anything like the original. It's a shame that they didn't print the brewing process on the bottle's label somewhere.

mafman · Post by **mafman** » Saturday May 07, 2005 12:33 pm

Anti -
It is a new (old) product called VB "Pale Ale" and it was released to commemorate 100 (or 150??) years of brewing by Victoria Brewery. Based on some long lost original recipe that they dug up. They had a story about it in the "Eye" section of the Herald Sun this week.

Post by **Oliver** » Saturday May 07, 2005 1:21 pm

Mafman,

That's the one - VB Pale Ale. What else did the article say?

And the Abbotts Lager was sold commercially. I know as I had the stupidity to buy some and taste it.

Oliver

anti-fsck · Post by **anti-fsck** » Saturday May 07, 2005 2:52 pm

Aah, you're right. My brother the VB Pale Ale brewer is here and said the beer has been launched in the last week for commercial sale. The history of it goes that as largers became more popular, VB was switched from an ale to a larger to keep up with the times. When he brings my motorbike back from blatting around the hills I'll ask him a bit more about it, and if there's any more to come.
He's a bit angry, as each staff member only received a 300mL bottle of this to piss up against the wall, compared with an Abbot longneck. Nothing to get angry about, I say ...

anti-fsck · Post by **anti-fsck** » Sunday May 08, 2005 12:19 pm

Yep, pubs and clubs only. Petitioning my brother to get some.

Evo · Post by **Evo** » Sunday May 08, 2005 1:04 pm

When was it that VB went from ale to lager, Anti-Fsck ?