homebrewandbeer.com

I work in a restaurant in Melbourne and we stock many good international beers including Stella Artois.

The management are a good bunch, so I often get a beer of my choice after a long night. Last week i had a Stella which was said to be made in Southbank, Victoria. It seems that the Belgium stock of Stella is being replaced by the no doubt cheaper Victorian version.

I've tasted both kinds now, and although similar, are definitely not the same brews. The Melbourne water is probably the culprit for this shit excuse for a "premium lager beer"
Brewing Belgium beer should be left to the highly experienced people of Belgium.

I do like my Australian beer, but I know when some international beers are better than others. I'm not saying that Australian beers are crap, or that Australian brewers are crap, just that a beer can never be copied exactly and therefore we shouldn't bother.

The most important question is : does it make you agro like normal Stella does???

timmy wrote:The most important question is : does it make you agro like normal Stella does???

Good old "Beater".

Stella is brewed by CUB under license. The Fosters Groups Head Office is in Southbank.

They've been brewing local Stella on tap at CUB for almost 2 years now, but switching the bottles to local as well is only about 6 months old.

I had stella on tap at the pub the other day as they'd run out of both Carlton Draught and Cascade Blonde (becuase of the grand final). It's shit.

The Cascade blonde is definitely tasty though.

rwh wrote:I had stella on tap at the pub the other day as they'd run out of both Carlton Draught and Cascade Blonde (becuase of the grand final). It's shit.

The Cascade blonde is definitely tasty though.

It's my fave Cascade one - whereabouts in Melb has it on tap?

This was at the Corkman Irish Pub.

i;ve noticed that many of your smaller independant bottle shops (i.e not Dan murphys, liquorland and bws) still have the imported stella. i'm not sure if its just old stock, but its definalty better than the australian brewed version.

i have also noticed becks and hieneken are being brewed in australia (in bottles) under licnese, however, again most idependant bottle shops i tend to frequent seem to have the imported versions - many are even using it as a selling point.

As I understand it this is the case with Heineken as well, however the mini kegs are still imported I believe.

Pale_Ale wrote:As I understand it this is the case with Heineken as well, however the mini kegs are still imported I believe.

Yep, at work, the bar gets these tall 'n' thin kegs imported from Holland.

Despite the fact that Beck's and Heineken, and Stella are now made in Australia (by Lion Nathan and Foster's respectively), presumably to save money, I note that the price of these beers hasn't dropped.

So we're being ripped off, a price rise was avoided or those brewers are using excess capacity at their existing facilities, hence helping keep the price of their existing crap offerings (Tooheys, VB, etc) down.

It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!

Oliver

Tried my first Stella the other night. It claims to have been bottled in Belgium (as opposed to some other stateside location, not in Oz). It's OK, but merely OK; I don't think it lives up to its hype.

Having had two more bottles of Stella, I'd say it is more than OK, but I'm still disappointed given the hype I had read. Decent beer, though. Again this refers to the imported Belgian Stella and not the Aussie-bottled version.

The Aussie one is pretty ordinary. I prefer some of the other faux-euro beers like Heineken and Becks that are also brewed here.

never been much of a fan of stella in the states, KIP did you find it sweet? thats what i remenber,

also never been a carlsberg fan,( in thailand they were sugared i tell ya and they made me chuck-) until a coworker brought some in, my new fave+ they come in the nicest bottle for homebrew,

...its always been those green bottle types that i never could afford and now im bottling into them...

their label is that nice plastic that doesnt rub off or drop into fermenters or get caught in weird places

yeah, stella and me dont dance...b

buscador wrote:never been much of a fan of stella in the states, KIP did you find it sweet?

I doubt I'll buy another 6-pack when there are better beers available for the same price (I think I paid $8.35 US, which is only ten cents less than a 6-er of SNPA), but it's hardly a candidate for cleaning out my drain.

The word "sweet" never came to mind while drinking it, but then again it isn't the driest beer I've had, either, and I suppose that means it is a little bit sweet in a manner of speaking. It does have a pretty clean finish (which one might reasonably expect from a decent European lager).

Cheers,
John

KIP wrote:

buscador wrote:never been much of a fan of stella in the states, KIP did you find it sweet?

(I think I paid $8.35 US, which is only ten cents less than a 6-er of SNPA)

Cheers,
John

Damn thats expensive, thats about $400 Australian for a six pack

Dohh, used to buy 6ers of Pabst Blue Ribbon for $3.99 when I lived in San Fran, we would drink SNPA and Steam all nite and then hit the Safeway on the walk to my old boat for a nightcap,

PBR Street Gang where are you?
PBR Street Gang come in...

KIP- beer is expensive as shit over here, and if you partake in a cigarette in Melbourne, yer paying $12 a pack,, $80 a carton

b

buscador wrote:KIP- beer is expensive as shit over here, and if you partake in a cigarette in Melbourne, yer paying $12 a pack,, $80 a carton

No wonder you blokes like to homebrew...some blokes like to both pay the rent AND drink beer, rather than having to choose one or the other!

Yeah, alcohol taxes are pretty high here, just wish our government report provided tables that actually gave a decent comparison.

Appendix 8.4: Taxation of alcoholic beverages

A$34.22 where volume of alcohol exceeds 3 per cent but does not exceed 3.5 per cent or exceeds 3.5 per cent.

Right.

As an example, Australians pay A$34.22 in tax whereas New Zealanders pay NZ$21.647 per litre of alcohol in full strength beer. Converted into the same currency, New Zealanders pay only 56% of the tax that we Australians do.