Beer Ahoy!

Well I guess it's time again I do one of these blogs, so strap yourself in and prepare for the ride of your life! Or don't, I'm not fussed.

Today's topic: Generic Brews, brought to you our good friends at Woolworths and Coles. Now would be a great time to declare my interest in Coles, I am a paid employee of the spirit hotels group, hoteliers which are owned by Coles.

But it's their rivals the Australian Leisure and Hospitality group (ALH), which is 75% owned by Woolies, that I want to talk about. Trading as the Sail and Anchor Co, ALH have been slowly introducing their own generic brand of premium beers into the market. Premium generic products are nothing new in Australian shops, even generic brews are becoming commonplace - Coles have the premium lager Maxx dry and Maxx ciders and Woolies, erm sorry, ALH have their own Dry Dock lager and Castaway cider. And you know what? They're actually not bad, not bad at all, so I didn't hesitate to try one of the Sail and Anchor Co's newest offerings - a craft beer.

I love craft beers; my favourite at the moment is James Squire's Golden Ale, or maybe White Rabbit dark ale, actually I quite like 28 Pale Ale from the Burleigh Brewing Co too and let's not forget Hahn Harvest... After switching to ales I've all but given up lagers! I could go into great depth about why they're different, but I think I'll save that for a future blog :-)

The first thing I noticed was the price, they weren't cheap. Nor were they outrageously expensive, at $14 for a four pack they wind up smack bang in the middle - and just above the price of the James Squire's range (about $18 for a 6 pack). What's more is that the quality definitely merited it. I tried the Boa's Bind Amber Ale, and was pleasantly surprised. Great colour, good aroma and not as bitter as other ales can be. There are 4 'flavours' to choose from in the range, the aforementioned amber ale, a pale ale, a golden ale and a kolsch. The only thing is that they're all named after obscure knots. I'm going to have to have another to try to make sense of that. And maybe one of the golden ales too. And the kolsch looks interesting too....

And don't forget to join me next time for the Coles craft beer selection (what, you didn't think they'd have a rebuttal?)